Here's my take:
I think that the resources provided by Sun are more than sufficient for passing this exam. In fact, here's my recommended study approach. If you're an SCJP and have a basic understanding of what Servlets and JSPs are, this approach should work for you.
- Copy the
exam objectives and save them to disk.
- Download the
Servlet 2.3 and
JSP 1.2 specs.
- Using the specs, try to fill in each exam objective. The answers are usually obvious, and if you get stuck... that's what JavaRanch is for!
I found that the objectives were very representative of the questions that were on the actual exam. In fact, I don't remember any surprises at all.
Now, about the $50 sample exam. If you feel comfortable with the exam objectives, the sample exam is probably not necessary. However, it is very useful for clarifying the intent of an objective, if you are uncertain. The sample exam has at least one question for each sub-objective, and it points you to the specific section of the spec where the answer is found. Unfortunately though, there is only one exam, so you get the same questions each time you take it (dissapointing when it costs $50).
The 10 questions used in the free exam are taken directly from the sample exam. And these questions are very similar to the actual exam in format and difficulty. So, the sample exam is really not essential for success. But, if you have the $50 and want to feel a little more confident going in, go for it!
I hope this info is useful
Joe