Hi all,
Although it is true that certification makes your way easy to interviews, I think that it helps a programmer, both experienced and non-experienced, in more than one way.
For an experienced programmer, there are lot of tiny tricky things in language basics you are not be aware of. You may not be able to answer confidently some tricky language questions. When you do a certification, you are forced to learn these things as well. Certification covers lot of things that you will not be using in your day to day coding. When you complete certification, you are a perfect programmer! Certification makes your experience more meaningful, and complete.
For an in-experienced programmer, certification provides you the confidence and shows the way to learn new programming things. It sets the basics right, which will help you when you are into full fledged programming.
For me the knowledge and confidence I gain are more important than the score. I know good programmers who scored less and freshers who scored very well in certification. You cannot compare these. Hence I feel that Sun is right in not showing the score in the certificate.
Best regards,
IB