Rating: 
Summary: Just right for the Programmer's Exam...
Review:
I used this book as my primary study guide for the Programmer Exam and it definitely helped me passing with high score.
This book is just right for this exam and covers all the objectives very well. I would certainly recommend anybody who is planning to prepare for the exam to read this book. Even experienced Java Developers can gain much of the knowledge of Java Language Fundamentals by reading this book.
However, based on my experience with the exam questions, I believe, this book is somewhat light on topics like Garbage Collection and Collections. If you aim to pass with high scores, you need to put more stress on these two topics and hence need to supplement this book with additional resources/tutorials freely available on the Internet. Otherwise, this is just right for the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Review, Easy to Understand, Missing 1.4 Objectives
Review: Having recently passed the new Programmer 1.4 Exam, I found this book does a very good job of explaining all the basics need for certification. Each chapter is devoted to a different topic and has 10 review questions at the end to reinforce chapter topics. Unlike some of the other prep books on the market, I did not feel overwhelmed at the amount of information. The author does a good job of going through the material at a slow pace and clearly explaining the topics. Since I have only read the Programmer section, I can not comment on the Developer section. The only negative aspect of this book is that it is geared for the Java Programmer 1.2 exam, not the new 1.4 exam (released October 2002). While the 1.2 exam is still available, I imagine most people will be looking to take the new 1.4 test. The 2 versions of the exam are very similar, but 1.4 exam omits IO, AWT, and Swing. These 3 sections take up a large chunk of the programmer portion of the book (200 pages approx.). This said, you may want to wait for a new 1.4 version of the book to come out that covers the new topics (assertions, hashCode()/equals(), etc). Overall, a great exam preparation book and worth the money.
Rating: 
Summary: Many errors in the text but OK
Review: I don't like to read a 4th edition that have so many obvious errors in it. They should be gone by now. Most of the errors are only the text that have some kind of encoding errors which in this case means that a lot of the code samples that should contain " instead shows î. It is annoying to read strings like this: System.out.println(îSome stringî). Also the disk that comes with the book contains these errors along with contradictions in the answers.
I would try another book if I were You.
Rating:
Summary: Poor editing and bad practice questions--Avoid this one
Review: I had just passed the Sun Certified Programmer for the Java 1.4 Platform exam (with a score of 80%), and I want to help prospective test takers in finding the "right" Java study guide. I was bewildered by the number of books available, and I had to try many of them before I settled on the right one. Here are my short reviews for each of the major Java study guides: "Sun Certified Programmer & Developer for Java 2 Study Guide" by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates (five stars): I felt this book was the best among all the Java study guides. Both the authors were responsible for the Java certification exam's development, and the practice questions are *very* similar to the actual exam. The authors also cover exactly what will be on the 1.4 exam, pointing out potential topics, questions, and pitfalls. I can't recommend this book highly enough. "A Programmer's Guide to Java Certification" by Khalid Mughal and Rolf Rasmussen (four stars): This is a good choice if you plan on taking the 1.2 exam. The book also has a dual purpose of teaching Java and sometimes goes beyond the actual scope of the exam, but it is nonetheless excellent. However, as the title suggests, this isn't the book for you if you don't have any programming experience. Also, the book's practice questions are much, much harder than the actual exam. "Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide (3rd Edition)" by Philip Heller and Simon Roberts (two stars): This was the most disappointing book of all. I don't know why so many people swear by it, but the book appeared to have been rushed into production. Many of the errors and typos have been updated in the book's second printing, but the book's coverage of topics is quite weak. Lastly, the practice questions were not only too easy, but they don't look very similar to how questions look on the real test. It's not a terrible book (many people appear to have passed the exam with just this book), but there are better options. "Java 2 Exam Prep" by Bill Brodgen (three stars): This compact study guide isn't a bad choice for prospective test takers with a good Java foundation. It covers all the exam's topics succinctly, but as another reviewer noted, it should not be your primary study guide. I personally did not find the book particularly useful. Lastly, sign up for Sun's ePractice practice exams. You'll get three sample tests, and they will help you prepare for the exam by showing you how the questions will look and what type of questions they will ask. I didn't like the idea of spending the extra money, but the practice exams definitely helped me prepare for the real thing.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is good, but for the 310-035 exam - Java 1.4 .....
Review: I have the 2nd edition of this book too, and for the 310-025 exam - java 1.2 - this book was "six" stars!!! I pass the exam and really learn java in 2nd edition!!!
The 3rd edition is very good, but for the 310-035 exam some areas are not so "complete".
I took the exam today and i pass it!! Very good!! But i feel this book could be better!!!
The main areas that this book is not so good are:
1. Threads with anonymous classes,
2. garbage collection,
3. bidimensional arrays,
4. collections.
Rating:
Summary: Review questions are far too easy
Review: I haven't sit for the test yet and I'm not confident enough after reading just this one book. I got all the review question at the end of each chapter right and it was a major dissapointmet when I found myself unable to answer many of the questions on the mock exams. I've done many othe mock exams on the net getting just around 70%, so I decided I need another book. This book might be good just for getting an initiall preparation for the exam but it defently lacks deph on details must likely to come up in the real thing.
Rating:
Summary: Not a bad choice for success
Review: I passed these exams a few months ago and as I now look back and see my continually growing library of IT books and certification guides, the Sybex books simply stand out from the others. The book is pretty much on the mark for what the exams test. Having now completed my MCSE, Java, OCA and Linux++ certifications, I can honestly say that a combination of the Sybex guides and Self Test Software test exams will get you a pass mark in any of these certifications.
Rating:
Summary: Good overall Java review; not for cramming
Review: I studied for the Java Programmers Certification Exam using the first edition of the book. I'd already had a few years of experience using Java on and off, and this book was a very helpful reminder of some of the finer points of the Java language that I'd forgotten or managed to miss. I've heard that some people use only this book to prepare for the exam, but beware that Sun has recently changed the exam to require background knowledge of programming, not just memorization of Java trivia. I'd recommend learning Java from one of the several excellent tutorial books available (The Java Programming Language is my suggestion), doing some actual Java programming, then reading this book just before taking the exam. I'm disappointed to hear that this new edition has lots of typos, just like the previous edition did. The good news is that Sybex now has a copy of the errata on their website. When I reported errata in the first edition, the Sybex editors put the errors on their website and corrected later printings of the book. If you do find errors in the book, don't just whine about it; do everyone else a favor and e-mail the errors to Sybex!
Rating:
Summary: This was all I needed!
Review: I studied this book carefully twice through and passed the exam easily. It may not be perfect, but it was all I needed.
Rating:
Summary: Too many errors for a 4th Edition
Review: Obviously no one made a CURSORY proof-reading of this edition, or they would have seen dozens of double-quotes in the examples appear as some odd character I have never seen before. Once I figured it out I could decode what was meant, but it was a distracting nuisance. Obviously no one made a DETAILED proof-reading of this edition, or they would have seen us taught the size in bits of a double as 16 instead of 64. Obviously no one made a PROGRAMMING proof-reading of this edition, or they would have seen 65 listed as the byte-code of a lower-case 'a' in one of the exam samples, which made me choose "none of the above". Because of the errors which I DID see, I had little confidence in anything else that seemed questionable.
The chapter on Collections (which was probably added in this edition as it is new in 1.4 I believe) was not detailed enough, and didn't satisfactorily answer the chapter's own review questions.
The sample exams were not anything like the real one, which I failed. I kissed that $150 goodbye.
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