Rating: 
Summary: Did the author read this book?
Review: Ok, I'm only on chapter 3, and I have found many blatant errors already. In fact, I found 2 errors in adjacent pages on Chapter 3. 1st off, session-timeout is set in increments of minutes, not seconds, page 110. There's a complete lack of understanding of the meaning of url-pattern on page 109, where the url pattern is appended to the docBase as the mapping to the actual class file..??wtf? If the reader doesn't have any experience working with an actual servlet container, he/she will probably just go to the test with the wrong answers. The book is still an OK study guide in that it covers the high level stuff quite well just be sure to test out all the examples and all the conflicting info!
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely disgusting
Review: This book has so many errors that I cannot trust a word that it says. Not just typos - I'm talking about things like the wrong answers to questions(even justified with a wrong explanation!), code with several lines just randomly inserted, calling classes interfaces and vice-versa, etc, etc, etc. I've got fed up with 'proof-reading it' and penning-in corrections. I daren't read any more incase I don't spot some mistakes, learn the wrong things, and fail as a result! Even if it were faultless I would only give 3 stars because a number of the explanations are tangled and unclear. I'll think twice before relying on the Heller approval in future.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, But Some Errors
Review: This book has some very well written content. Unfortunately, it also has many blatant errors. Hopefully they will release a new edition that fixes the problems. It could be a very good book.
Rating: 
Summary: A book that will help you pass the exam
Review: For the past two weeks I have studied this book and just took the test. I am happy to say I passed the Web Developers exam and did very well as a result of this study guide. Because each chapter focused on addressing one or two objectives I was able to focus on each area until I felt completely comfortable with the material before moving to the next topic. I did notice a few errors, but that is to be expected on any first release. I also noticed how many difficult topics like distributed servlets, session management, implicit object scope and correct error handling were explained so clearly and simply. Before this book was released I studied the topics listed in the objectives by using the Java Server Programming J2EE book by Wrox and the Java Servlet Programming book by O'Reily. Unfortunately I found I had to re-read and piece together many of the concepts and at times I still did not have a clear understanding of issues such as scope. I found this guide put everything together--the explanations and images were clear and made complex topics easy. This book is very helpful and I have recommended it to my co-workers.
Rating:
Summary: Proof-reading disaster!
Review: This is a decent book to get you started studying for the exam, but only if you look at the big picture. It explains a lot and puts you in a good position to start taking some practice tests and gear up for the exams. I was very annoyed with all the mistakes in the code examples. I am not talking about a missing semicolon or the like. In several examples that exact idea - object or ACTION or METHOD that the author is discussing and trying to show in the example is completely wrong or in some cases (I am not exaggerating) MISSING from the sample code. This infuriates me. You know Heller did such a great job on the SCJP book I am surprised he leant his name to this. If you plan to use this to study you'll also need Professional JSP 2nd edition by wrox. Too many of the points are ambiguous or just touched on to briefly. Maybe that's just me but I constantly found myself asking what does this mean or why and/or how would you use this. Those points can be cleared up in the wrox book.
Rating:
Summary: A Huge Disappointment
Review: I guess this book was published in a big hurry under big demand. Not well organized; the statements are confusing; obvious errors all over the place; the review questions are not clear; even some answers are wrong! A huge disappointment to me.
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: 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: I don't reccommend this !!
Review: I recommend using additional resources
to help you pass the exam. A lot mistakes involving Servlet Thread-Safe Model.
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