SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Exam 310-065 [Hardcover]

Katherine Sierra (Author), Bert Bates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 24, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0071591060 | ISBN-13: 978-0071591065 | Edition: 1

The Best Fully Integrated Study System Available--Written by the Lead Developers of Exam 310-065

With hundreds of practice questions and hands-on exercises, SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Study Guide covers what you need to know--and shows you how to prepare--for this challenging exam.

• 100% complete coverage of all official objectives for exam 310-065
• Exam Objective Highlights in every chapter point out certification objectives to ensure you're focused on passing the exam
• Exam Watch sections in every chapter highlight key exam topics covered
• Simulated exam questions match the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exam

Covers all SCJP exam topics, including:

Declarations and Access Control · Object Orientation · Assignments · Operators · Flow Control, Exceptions, and Assertions · Strings, I/O, Formatting, and Parsing · Generics and Collections · Inner Classes · Threads · Development

CD-ROM includes:

• Complete MasterExam practice testing engine, featuring: Two full practice exams; Detailed answers with explanations; Score Report performance assessment tool
• Electronic book for studying on the go
• Bonus coverage of the SCJD exam included!

Bonus downloadable MasterExam practice test with free online registration.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Kathy Sierra is a co-developer of the SCJP exam and Sun's practice exam. She is also a Sun Certified Java Instructor and the founder of the world's largest Java certification website, Javaranch.com.

Bert Bates is a Sun Certified Programmer for Java and has participated in the development of the SCJP exam and Sun's practice exam. He is the coauthor, with Kathy Sierra, of the previous editions of this book.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 851 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Osborne Media; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071591060
• ISBN-13: 978-0071591065
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 2 x 9.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (117 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,852 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > Computers & Technology > Certification
  • #38 in Books > Computers & Technology > Programming > Languages & Tools > Java

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 51 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book, lousy e-book August 15, 2008

By I Feel Fine

Format:Hardcover

Readable, approachable, perhaps even to a fault, this study guide does a good job of describing and preparing a ready for the SCJP exam. The book occasionally obsesses on what I'd call trick questions which delve a little too deeply into syntactic molasses. Concepts like multi-dimensional arrays, run-time versus compile-time, and variable arguments are often tested in a single question.

I took one star away for the CDROM content, specifically the e-Book. The content looks like it came directly from a Distiller-like product with zero treatment at all. A html "Table of Contents" is unreasonably course. It only list chapters. An index is unavailable. The e-book is split by chapter. Security prevents cutting or pasting, printing, or re-distilling into a one-stop searchable monolithic source. So really, the e-book has been castrated into something completely unusable. In short, why bother?

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Oracle now owns Sun--exam changes afoot? February 18, 2010

By Nils Kelly

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I bought this book several months ago and finally spent enough time plowing through it to be ready to take the exam. Which I took today and passed. Glad that's out of the way, as it's a really obnoxious exam. (I took the 1.4 version in 2006.)

Many of the test questions rely on misdirection/trickiness, as opposed to getting plainly at your understanding of Java itself. Several questions only test brute memorization of APIs. There are not enough questions, so the categorical results given to you afterwards have little meaning (50% in concurrency! Meaning probably 2 out of 4 questions--on a topic covered in 80 pp in the book!). You can get for example 3 possibilities correct out of 7, but miss a 4th, so get the whole question wrong. At least they have drag-and-drop now, which they didn't have in the 1.4 exam.

It is, in short, a poor design. Given that, this book does do a good job of preparing you for the mess. The book mentions "toughening you up" for the exam and I think that's accurate. One problem is that there is no published errata, and the errata, particularly in the mock exams will drive you crazy. The website Java Ranch is a good place to check when something seems like a typo.

There's really no short cut to 1.) reading the thing front to back 2.) going through the questions and answers at each chapter's end 3.) going through the provided mocks and 4.) writing dozens of little programs that mimic the points in the mocks.

But be aware: Oracle now owns Sun, and has announced a new "Sun Java Programmer Plus Certification", which they call Sun's first "performance-based" Java certification exam. It's apparently in beta. It may make this version of the SCJP 6 obsolete. Good riddance I say!

So, if you haven't signed up with Sun to take the SCJP 6 yet, and haven't bought this book yet, it may be worth holding off until the dust settles. Currently they're saying they'll have a beta version of the new exam ready in March 1, 2010. That seems a bit too quick. The cost of this exam (SCJP) has doubled since 2006, to $300, so it may be worth waiting to take this "Plus" version instead. It's hard to find info about the beta on the Oracle site, though you can follow news at Java Ranch in the SCJP forum, under the topic Regarding SCJP Plus. Those guys are on it like rats on cheese.

Of course where would any certification exam be without its associated lucrative cottage industry of prep books! They may delay release of a new test, until they have big fat exam books like this one ready to publish.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars overall a good book November 7, 2010

By P. Abernathy

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I studied this book for the Sun (now Oracle) Certified Java Programmer SE 6 exam (Exam 310-065). I thought I knew how to program in Java before but I found that I learned quite a lot from the book. It goes through the subjects covered on the exam and explains them and gives sample code.

There were a few times when I thought it could have been better organized, but overall the organization was OK. The main drawback I found was that there seemed to be a few details it left out. There were a number of times as I was doing the practice questions that I came upon some rule that had not been covered in the text. I even rescheduled my test because I was missing so many of the questions. That is the main reason why I'm giving it four stars and not five. In their defense, it is difficult to write a text that exhaustively covers everything in a language as large as Java. I did pass the test, but I'm just wondering if I could have passed the test earlier and with less time spent studying had they explained a few things a little better.

Despite a few small flaws, I ended up passing the test with an 85%, 27% more than the required 58%. The only training I did was studying this book, doing the practice questions, writing lots of sample programs, and occasionally looking at the online API. Oh, and I did consult another book about threads but I ended up not needing to because the questions on threads on the exam were not very hard. So this book did it's job. The questions on the test were easier than the book's practice questions.

I would recommend that someone wanting to pass the exam get this book, read it, take notes, and do lots of little programs as the authors recommend in the forward. Start by copying the sample code in the book, then tinker with it to see what happens when you change this thing or that thing. Then write a few of your own programs, changing various parts to see how it changes the output. And then take all the sample questions at the end of the book, and then do the sample quizzes and tests on the CD. Start the quizzes several weeks before the test, not a week before like I did, so you can have plenty of time to go back and study the areas where you are weak. When you miss a question, find out why you missed it, and go back later after you have forgotten the specific answers and try it again. And don't stress too much because like I said I found the actual test to be easier than their practice questions. If you combine careful study of this book with writing code and doing the quizzes, you will almost certainly pass the test.