Rating: 
Summary: Needs a second edition - fast
Review: I read and used the excellent "The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide: Programmer's and Developers Exams (With CD-ROM)" ISBN 0782128254, and it got a fully deserved 5 stars from me.The Java web developer certification is the next logical step for anyone interested in moving into the world of Enterprise Java. Philip Heller was involved in both books, however I must say that he has really let me down with this one after such great expectations. Not only is this book riddled with simple typos it also contains some very misleading errors. For someone like me who is new to the world of Servlets these mistakes can be DANGEROUSLY misleading. Some of the review questions give the wrong answers - a problem only just addressed in the newly updated errata page. Be prepared to spend a LONG time updating your book with all the corrections - there are many and somehow I think the list will grow. To compound these errors, the error I sent to sybex regarding the second paragraph on page 81 has recently been added to the errata page at sybex.com . However they still haven't got it right!
The authors seem to be unsure whether GenericServlet is a class or an Interface. Last I heard it was a class! To summarise, while this book may be useful to give the reader a framework within which to study (at least it tells you the exam objectives) it needs to be complemented by the api doc (for corrections) and probably another book (for a better comprehension). I would recommend "More Servlets and JavaServer Pages" by Marty Hall which I am reading in conjunction with this book. There are just far too many errors in this book.
Please bring out a second addition soon Philip! You owe it to your public who expected so much more!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible structure, wrong concepts, completely useless
Review: DO NOT buy this book if you intend to write the certification exam. Before teaching you anything it smacks you with a 65 questions 'assessment test' that is as hard as the real exam. That test is supposed to help you identify your weak spots but no where in the questions or answers it tells you where in the book you can read to improve. Delivery of concepts is confusing. Some answers of the practice questions don't even match!
Rating:
Summary: Too many misleading errors to be worthwhile
Review: I agree with most of the previous reviewers of this book: there are simply too many hair-pullingly obvious errors and misleading aspects of this book to make it worth the money. Don't think that you're going to use just this book to pass the exam. You'll need to use other resources in order to pass the test. Case in point: You *will* need to know about the Front Controller design pattern for the exam--which is convienently not even mentioned in the book!!
Rating: 
Summary: Not much has changed in 2nd edition
Review: The second edition of this book simply corrects the typing errors in the first edition (lots of them). Unfortunately, it does not address some of the key flaws in this book: a) Chapter 8 Thread-Safe Servlets is still wrong. Session variables and Servlet Context variables are not thread safe (the book states they are, which is incorrect). They are not thread safe!
b) Chapter 11 Web Tier Design Patterns does not cover "Front Controller" design pattern. This is not author's fault because it is not listed in the exam objectives. However, you probably want to know what this pattern is all about before the exam.
c) Some questions in the book are about XML DTD. They are not related to the exam and seem fairly pointless. Some questions in the book are misleading.
d) Personally, I feel Chapter 10 Using Custom Tags is not very well explained (mainly because the examples used are too simple). So why 3 stars? Well, despite all those issues, I believe you can pass with just this book (I bought the SCWCD Exam Study Kit as well as this book. The SCWCD Exam Study Kit by Hanumant Deshmukh, Jignesh Malavia is far better than this book). The flaws mentioned probably will cost you at most 10-15% of your score so you most likely can still pass with this book. Therefore, the book still deserves a pass (2.5 stars, but there is no option for 2.5 so I picked 3). If you can get this book cheap, it is worth reading (quite easy to read). However, if you want to be really safe (or you want to get only 1 book for the exam), it is wise to stay away from this book and get The SCWCD Exam Study Kit book instead.
Rating:
Summary: Useful book, but too many errors
Review: As of now (second edition, hardcover), the book is in a pretty bad shape. Numerous typographical and logical errors make it a very annoying occupation to read it and, especially, to use it to study for the Exam. Questions and answers of the review sections and mock-up exams are often poorly worded and sometimes flat-out wrong. Despite of its serious drawbacks, the book can be used productively (it helped me considerably to pass the Exam) since, in my view, it gives the reader an indication of the depth and breadth to which the exam will probe his/her knowledge. However, to benefit from the book in this way, the reader needs to be already familiar with the subject.
Rating:
Summary: errors and misprints
Review: This is a pretty bad book with huge amount of errors and misprints. It's only good to get an impression of the scope of the exam.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book
Review: This is the only book I studied before sitting and passing the exam. As usual the Sybex authors were pretty clear and concise, but I do recommend purchasing some sample exam software to help focus your study.
Rating:
Summary: Not even close...
Review: This book is simply not up to snuff to prepare people to take this exam. I consider myself an advanced to expert level J2EE developer, but decided that in advance of taking the certification exam I should purchase an exam specific reference as a quick review. Even quickly reviewing the book demonstrates it to be chock full of technical and typographical errors, as well as sorely lacking in a true understanding of the material that is being presented. If I were reading chapters from this book without having any advance knowledge of who the authors were, my impression would be that they were intelligent people who had recently taken a first training class on these topics - a fair conceptual grasp of the material, but nowhere near the level of knowledge required to pass on information to anyone else! I imagine there are better test specific guides out there, or even better you could grab a copy of the relevant specs from Sun's website and a copy of Tomcat and learn the old-fashioned way. Whatever you do, I strongly encourage you not to spend your money on this particular item - if your skills are at an advanced level it won't help you and if you're a beginner it will only confuse you!
Rating:
Summary: Rushed & poorly edited
Review: Overall I don't recommend this book - want to buy mine used, I'll give you a good deal! I found so many mistakes in the chapter review questions - from a quality of question stand point that I got frustrated and bought a different book. An Example: Ch 2 Question 3
Which HttpServlet method should be used to publish a resource on the server? A doGet B doOptions C doPost D doPut Depending on your interpretation of "publish" a knowledgable developer will answer either A or D - I interpret "publish" to be what a server does with it's resources when it makes them avalible to the public via downloads - therefore I choose A doGet. But the author chooses D doPut and answers the question like:
"A PUT request is used to publish resources at a location on the server". I disagree with this use of the term "publish", it is misleading. This is just one of many examples of poor use of terms that lead to confussion and frustration. Don't purchase this book.
Rating:
Summary: there is no excuse
Review: the majority of the errata are silly typos and are excuseable.
But there is no excuse for telling the reader
the opposite of what is true,
especially when you're claiming to be an expert. I bought this book on Heller's name alone
and did not bother to read the reviews here.
The book was so confusing I finaly had to check the reviews.
From now on, when I see Heller's name,
I will check the reviews here first before buying. I hope Sybex got a good use from my $$.
I can't say the exchange was a win-win.
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