Hi,
I'm about to take the
SCJP certification. I planned to detail my sources of information after I passed the
test, but I thought I might as well do that now.
This way, other people will benefit from that 'right now', and maybe others could give me their own sources and that could help me some more 'right now'...
Some book I used or know about :
Java2 Programmer Exam Cram 2 : not too good up to me, I don't recommand it.
Khalid A. Mughal - A Programmers Guide To
Java Certification 2nd Edition : Real good. I really recommand this one.
K & B : I did not use this book, but heard good comments.
JQPlus v4 : software with mock exam. I did not use it a lot yet, but soon. The difficulty is high. I you feel ok with their mock exams, you will be ok at the real test (my friend used only this piece of software to prepare).
Whizlab : software with mock exams. its fine, difficulty is average.
Javaranch : Its good to read question from others and try to figure the answer for yourself. There's a whole bunch of stuff that I didn't know simply because I didnt think about that. Other's questions are good for everyone.
I read the whole Khalid A. Mughal book and now I'm going through the mock exams. For every question I fail, I go back to the study board to re-read the topic concerned. I guess you have to assess yourself to see why you are taking the exams.
I think the certification is the best way to motivate yourself to really learn java. I'm not taking it at all for my cv, I do it to know Java.
I also used a lot of articles from javaranch, the links are below :
Why SCJP:
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/Mar2003/newslettermar2003.jsp#accept Collections, Comparable, Set, Map, List...:
http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/June2002/newsletterjune2002.jsp#collections http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/July2002/newsletterjuly2002.jsp#collections HashCode and Equals:
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200407/Journal200407.jsp#a1 http://www.javaranch.com/newsletter/Oct2002/newsletteroct2002.jsp#equalandhash Bit Shifting:
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200406/Journal200406.jsp#a1 String:
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200409/Journal200409.jsp#a1 javap, bytecode:
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200408/Journal200408.jsp#a1 Conversion:
http://www.javaranch.com/journal/200410/Journal200410.jsp#a4 Regards,
Alex