Java 2 Certification Training Guide (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With full coverage of the three latest Sun Java certification exams, Java 2 Certification Training Guide provides an excellent resource for any Java programmer prepping for these tests.

The best thing about this book is its insider-track perspective on three Sun exams. This book concentrates on the Programmer exam (which comprises well over half the book) but also addresses the Architect and Developer tests. Since the author has worked with Sun to help develop the actual exams, he is a worthy guide to the material here. And as the author himself points out, even if you are a great Java programmer, passing these exams isn't easy because they include details--and sometime obscure features--that you don't use every day.

Even if you are an experienced Java developer, you will appreciate the author's thorough tour of Java language fundamentals, core classes, and packages. Even the book's numerous tables present Java information efficiently.

Rather than a general guide to Java programming, the presentation is geared closely to what you'll need for these certification tests. Another standout feature here are the review questions, which follow Sun's format and style as well as the inclusion of a sample computer-based exam on CD-ROM.

For readers seeking a higher level of Java certification, the book provides everything you will need for the Architect and Developer exams too. Besides a review of Java APIs like JDBC and Remote Method Invocation (RMI), you will find material on the basics of distributed systems, including short sections on CORBA and DCOM. For Developer certification, the book lists dos and don'ts for writing successful code on the exam.

With its mix of expert guidance and challenging sample test questions, Java 2 Certification Training Guide makes for an effective guide to getting certified on today's Java 2 platform. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: test preparation for the Sun Certified Programmer, Architect, and Developer Exams; Java language fundamentals; core packages; threads; AWT; event handling; graphics; I/O; Java object-oriented and distributed architectures; security; JDBC; and RMI.

Product Description

One of the best ways for a Java programmer to stand out from the crowd is to become a Sun Certified Java Programmer, Developer, or Architect. This book helps Java developers prepare for all three certification exams. One of the strengths of this book is that it is extremely focused--it doesn't contain extraneous information, a history of Java, or background on related technologies. This book gives readers exactly what they need to pass the exams. This book also contains a uniques test engine (written in Java by the author) to help readers assess their skills and become confident with the structure of the exams.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 612 pages
• Publisher: New Riders Publishing (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1562059505
• ISBN-13: 978-1562059507
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 8.2 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (62 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,914,625 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book for people with Java/C++ experience., November 22, 1999

By	Jan-Rudolph Buhrmann (Pretoria, South Africa) - See all my reviews

I used this book as my primary guide (two thorough readings of the programmer section) for the SCJP2 exam and made it after three months of studying (88%). Before buying this book my only exposure to java were a quick scan of an very old teach-yourselve Java in 21 days (covered the beta version of the JDK) to get an understanding of what Java is about. I believe my knowledge of C++ and tcl/tk (which I find similar to Java in a lot of ways) helped me a lot. The books material covers all that is essential to know for the exam, while keeping it short. This is a good book if you are an experienced Java/C++ programmer or student who wants to minimize reading time or costs and maximize internet/programming playing time. One word of caution - the book is a little short on some topics , but there are excellent web sites and mock exams on the net that helped me recognise these areas.

Unfortunately there are many typos and I find this unacceptable. I'd like to mention one additional typo not mentioned in the other reviews. On page 71 + is mistyped as =. On page 118 there is one sentence concerning the throws clause that I find difficult to understand. It might be a mistake, but I can be mistaken since English is not my first language.

Due to this I give the book only four instead of the five it deserves based on its content. I would have given it five since I believed the author made his objectives for the book clean from the beginning. I quote the following from the back cover "We know your study time is valuable ....". It is not a book for someone new to Java/C++/OOP and I believe the test engine gave one of the clearest projections of what the actual exam is like of all the mock exams I did (I didn't do any exams from other certification books or commercially available test engines - only freebies available on the internet).

Mr. Jaworski was defnitely around when the question bank for the SCJP2 exam was prepared.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Can be useful if supplemented with other resources..., January 16, 2000

By	Robert Jordan "roberto" (Houston, TX) - See all my reviews

It is naive to think one educational resource is a sufficient precondition for passing the Sun Java2 programmer exam. The exam is not easy and the questions do require a thorough understanding of CoreJava2 and OOP. That being said, the book is a decent supplement to other online resoures such as Sun's Java tutorial and the core Java APIs. I would also investigate the web sites for the intro programming classes at top-tier universities in the US; I have discovered good information this way for Java and other issues of interest to software engineers. As other reviewers have pointed out the book has mistakes in the Q&A sections and Jaworski's web site fails to deliver on the book's promises of errata and additional test taking material [read: the questions on the cdrom and web site are the basically same as those in the book!]. I haven't taken the Developer and Architect exams yet, so my review must end here. Good luck with the exam(s) everyone!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good book, but not ideal for exam preparation, September 15, 2001

By	"[e-mail]" (Palos Heights, IL United States) - See all my reviews

'I read every single page of the first 15 chapters--everything covered in this book pertaining to the the Java 2 Programmer Exam--and I must say this really was a decent book, and actually may be good for some people. I also used another book as well, so I know what it looks like in comparison to relative to another.

The information presented in the book is written with clarity and is organized based on the exam objectives. Notes and exam tips are written conveniently on the margins. The actual reading material isn't too overwhelming but is sufficient for knowledge one needs to pass the exam. If you're the type of person that cares only about knowledge required for the exam, this book has it. This book is a very good and perhaps great book for drilling concepts into your head if your not already very experienced with java. The questions, though they are not a good representation of the exam questions, are good for strengthening your understanding of the concepts.

If you're the type of person who cannot pass an exam unless you take practice exams that have questions looking almost like the real exam, then this book is not for you. If you're not intimidated by questions that look new (in style only) and you have experience programming in any language, this may be enough. The only reason I do not give this book 4 or 5 stars is because it has some mistakes and I'm too lazy to go to the website for the corrections and it can have some better test questions.

However, the guy that said he was programming in Java for 4 years and failed the exam probably doesn't know much Java or didn't read the book carefully or didn't understand what the book was saying. I didn't understand Inner Classes before reading this book and even though it has 5 pages on the subject, they tell you all you need to know. And the book has an exam tip stating "make sure that you understand how inner and anonymous classes are used. You'll see several exam questions that cover inner and annonymous classes." Apparently, the other guy from Chicago didn't pay much attention to the advice.

In any case, I think it's worth reading two books for this exam. It's not an easy exam and you really need to know your material to pass. I used this book as welll as "The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide," which I thought was better since it was written by one of the authors of the actual Sun exam. However, I only used material I learned from both of these books and the questions in the books. I didn't take the exams and questions on CD-ROM (which I would also recommend to not-extremely-ready people who don't want to be surprised on exam day). I passed on my first shot with an 81 percent by just reading this book first and then reading the other. I think reading the material in it's entirety twice (each book once) is well worth it.