Concerning
Java Certification study books...
I'm very impressed with both the Mughal & Rosmussen book and the Sybex Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide book. I have a few comments though:
As others have mentioned, the Mughal book, although awesome, seems to have a lot of material that would never even be asked on the
test. On the flip side, although I love the flow and ease of reading of the Sybex book, it seems that it doesn't cover enough that could be asked on the test. (Of course not having actually taken the real test I can't be certain that either of the above statements is true, just going by what I've experienced on practice tests. If I'm wrong on the above please let me know).
If my above assertions are correct, I'm wondering why a certification book hasn't been published that covers basically only what will be on the programmers on test and at the same time is extremely thorough in doing so.
I think what would be perfect is the Sybex Java 2 Cert book with just more of the information covered in the Mughal & Rosmussen book, or at least the Mughal book stripped down to only inlclude topics that will be asked on the test. I wouldn't mind if the Sybex book was double in size (maybe the programmers and developers guide sold seperately) if it included more detail on only material that might be asked on the test. Concerning the Mughal book I sometimes find it very frustrating because even though they have at the start of the chapter a list of what is "supplemental" this is almost impossible to follow as you look over the chapter. It's sort of like bits and pieces are supplemental but all mixed in with the rest of the chapter so you end up cluttering your mind with information that won't even be asked on the test. I'm not saying this to try to take short cuts on learning Java either, I'm just saying as far as a guide goes I'd love it to be very thorough but only covering topics that will be asked on the test. For topics outside of that scope I can turn to any number of good Java programming books.
As a side note, one thing I'm find extremely frustrating is determining what parts of the API that need to be memorized. I have no problems studying and learning all the Java fundamentals, but it's difficult for me to discern what questions are going to involve knowing what kind of arguments a certain method can take or the different constructors that can be called for a certain class. It seems that they tend to be concentrating on the java.math, java.awt and the java.io APIs. If this is the case then the Java study guides should say "Hey, make sure to study this portion of the API and learn these different constructors."
To any of the editors reading this, trust me, I'm not complaining about your books. I can't give enough praises for both of them. They've both been great and a huge help in my preperation. Thanks.
Rick
