another good idea would be, u shouldnt stop with
scjp alone , just slog and struggle to finish some jcert higlevel stuff or IBM stuff(like Enterprise developer) which require scjp as a basic qualification , since those certs dont have expiry dates(As of now !! dont know Tomorrow) this validity of scjp could be preserved for life long !!! (Collectively u will be a developer say by IBM ..) careful dont take suns cert since all of its certs are now MORTAL !!! even hard certs like Architect die in 2 yrs ..painful ha .... whic also is going to make sun MORTAL (already its on that path)