I took the
test yesterday, and passed with a score of 83%. Despite all of my preparation, I found the questions to be TOUGH (much tougher than the questions in the mock exams online and in the three certification books I studied). My hopes sunk steadily as I got further into the test, and I often said to myself, "oh, well, you can always take it again". I spent several minutes on the first question alone. I was surprised when I found out that I passed, and even more surprised at the high score. BTW, be sure to study
Java IO. I think I got six questions on that subject. Some of the questions were ridiculously tricky. For example, there was a question that went something like:
Which of these are valid assignments to a char variable?
char c = "face";
char c = 'face';
char c = "f";
char c = '\uface';
char c = 'f';
I think I actually got this one right. Notice that '\uface' is a valid value to assign to a char.
Here's what I did to prepare:
1) Read through three certification books:
a) "Sun Certified Programmer for Java 2 Study Guide" -- Syngress/Osborne (many authors). This is a very good book, although I caught many errors. The concepts are explained very clearly. CD that came with it has a timed mock exam. This book doesn't cover Java IO, which lead me to believe that it wasn't covered on the exam (it was covered on the exam!).
b) "Exam Cram -- Java 2", Second Edition, by Bill Brogden. The material is pretty condensed in this book, making it a good reference. Very good questions at the end of each chapter.
c) "Complete Java 2 Certification", Second Edition -- Sybex (several authors). This is an excellent book. The chapter on theads is the best of the three books (and the main reason I bought this book). CD that came with it has a timed mock exam. Same questions are given in the back of the book.
I recommend buying books a) and c), reading a) completely, reading the chapter on threads in c), then skimming through c). Of course, go through all the questions, and take the exams on the CDs.
2) Took a lot of mock exams. Once the material is learned, this is the BEST preparation. I frequently played the Java Roundup game. I also did the exams that came with the two big books listed above, and a couple of exams online (which you can access from this site).