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Rating: 
Summary: Java 2 All-in-One 3rd Edition
Review: I got this from a friend who had just used it to pass the Programmer Exam. He recommended it highly and I do too. Java 2 All-in-One covers both the programmer and the developer exams. It provides an excellent chapter by chapter breakdown of what you need to know to pass the exams, providing a solid mix of detail, examples and review.
Rating: 
Summary: No a good book
Review: I have never read a book with as many errors as this one. And I can't believe what I'm reading is a 3rd edition. There are typos, wrong answers to problems, text and pictures that mismatch, wrong examples... the errors are everywhere.The writing style of the author is simply poor. The text lacks clarity and is often ambiguous. This book is indeed sloppily written. Appendix A says you can find "the latest and greatest information concerning this book and Java certification" through the web links in the HTML files on the CD. That is certainly untrue; those links don't exist. And that means an errata is simply unavailable and you'll just have to live with all the errors. I've been reading this book for a week and it's been really frustrating. I'm starting to wonder if I can possibly get the certification without buying another book. <update>
I passed the programmer's exam and there are a few things that I'd like to add. To prepare for the test, I used many practice exams I found on the web, which were useful. I don't think I would have passed if I relied only on this book. Or at least it would have been very difficult. If you're trying to decide whether to buy this book or not, consider this: the book is in its third edition but it's still filled with errors and typos. How much do the publisher and the author care about the quality of this book? If they do care, why can't I find an errata or any kind? I don't know. What I do know is, although people and their reviews may lie, errors and typos don't.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good book, could be better, software not so good
Review: I thought the book was well done. It was very helpful and very easy to read and understand the material. It took me less than 2 weeks to read the chapters and finish all the practice questions for the Java 2 Programmer Certification. It does cover all the topics in the exam. I passed the certification exam on my first try and I don't have real world development experience yet. Just reading the book isn't enough though because the exam has very tricky questions. This was the only Certification book for Java that I bought to study with and I believe I made the right choice. This book was a great review for me and help me strengthen the areas I was weak in. There are a few typos in the book but they are pretty easy to figure out. The CD needs help. Many errors. After taking the practice exams twice you already memorize the answers so it is no longer helpful. I suggest using other sources for practicetests but be careful because practice test questions if you don't verify if their answers are correct and why they are correct, could make you make mistakes on the real exam or jumble up the java knowledge you already have.
Rating:
Summary: Content No Sufficient
Review: I'm going to make short here. The topic covered in this book is not detail enough. A lot of important detail in inner class, AWT, Layout manager, Thread, contructor override and overload is not cover in depth detail. The concept in the book is straight and simple. It may be good to understand. However to pass your examination, you need more than what is covered in the topic of this book. My suggestion is why spend so much money buying a book that doesn't give whatu need to pass your examination.
I would suggest you go for "The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide: Programmer's and Developers Exams (With CD-ROM) -- by Simon Roberts".
Rating:
Summary: # 1 for me
Review: Java 2 Certification Guide is well-organized and very detailed. The book is very good at helping me remember things I forgot and sufficiently detailed to teach me the things I didn't know. The book has extensive questions/answers, exam reviews, and more. Hundreds of practice questions and exercises--and more than any other Java certification book I looked at. If you are looking for a Java certification book or even a book to learn more about Java programming, I think this is the one. I recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Good, accurate, detailed
Review: Mr. Stanek has created a very good Java certification guide that is well-organized and very detailed. As a Java programmer with 3 yars experience, I found that the book was very good at helping me remember things I may have forgotten and also sufficiently detailed that someone with less experience would have an easy time using the book to get certification. My favorite part of the book are the extensive Q&A/exam reviews. The book must have over 1,000 practice questions and exercises. This is much more than I've found in any other book and this is wonderful! Because I've been programming for a while, I went straight to the practice exams (the book has 5!; 3 programmer; 2 developer). I took the first practice test and failed miserably. I am now going through the text chapter by chapter and looking forward to taking the next practice exam. If you are looking for a Java certification book or even a book to learn more about Java programming, I think this is the one. I recommend.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for Java 1.4 exams
Review: The Java 1.4 Exam 310-035 is the actual one I used this book to study for. One thing I didn't mention is that the version of this book I had only covered the 1.2 exam. Thanks for my friend's recommendation I skipped the java.io and java.awt discussions when studying for the Java 1.4 exam. The Java 1.4 exam also covers wrappers, collections and assertions. Wrapper classes are covered in this book on pages 301 to 305 so this gave me what I needed to know based on the 310-035 exam objectives. In this book pages 314 to 318 cover collections and gave me a good start on what I needed to know for the exam. I also used a few java web sites to help me study collections, wrappers and assertions just to be safe, so this book with the additional help from one of these sites should get you a good score. I'm waiting for mine now but had no trouble on the exam whatsoever.
Rating: 
Summary: unproofed junk
Review: This book as too many errors. I am not just talking about typos (of which there are many), I am talking about substantive errors that can cause confusion and failure for someone not catching them. Examples: Page 171: It says that the static keyword prevents a subclass from modifying a method. --Obviously the author confuses the fundamental purpose of the 'final' and 'static' keywords. Page 176: "A variable cannot be changed by a subclass if it has been declared static and final." Whoever wrote this is quite confused. First of all, if a variable has been declared final then it cannot be changed (once initialized) by ANY method, in the same class, in a subclass or wherever. Second, as indicated above, the static keyword has nothing to do with whether a variable can be modified. These are not minor points but if these were the only errors it wouldn't be that bad, but there are lots more like this. It would also be not as bad if the author was available and could at least publish an errata and promise to fix the errors in the next (the fourth) edition. But there is no email contact given and no errata. The "reviewer" should have caught the errors also. The acknowledgement says he "invites contact". So I contacted him to simply ask who I can contact about the errors in the book and the email was not even acknowledged. It has three practice exams and four on the CD, which sounds like a lot. But the exams on the CD are the same questions as in the book. There are plenty of free, good exams available on the web, so the CD should not be a factor anyway. I gave the book two stars only because it provides a healthy
amount of exercises, with solutions (with a lot of errors, nevertheless), in addition to the practice exams. But for the price it doesn't deliver. Bill Brogden's exam cram is cheaper and a better choice.
Rating:
Summary: No coverage of real stuff
Review: This book only covers what a novice programmer already know. It doesn't really cover the more difficult topics tested in the exam. I'd highly recommend that you consider the "Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide" which explains the difficult topics in a clear, concise and detailed manner.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Third Edition???
Review: While I liked the general format and content of this book, there were numerous errors in the book that were confusing and misleading, including typos in the practice exercises that invalidated questions, and several errors in the electronic test. Having experience with Java, I recognized most of these problems when they were presented, but for someone new to the language, many of these will be baffling. It is inexcusable that a book in its third edition would have so many key errors. Reviewers who liked this book either already know the material, or don't know what they missed! Perhaps the Fourth Edition will correct these? Ouch.
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