Anybody interested in selling me their book?

[Marj Gumayagay]

Hi,

I've been waiting and waiting for Amazon to ship me my copy of the Sun Certified Programmer & Developer Study Guide (Exam 310-035 & 310-027) by Kathy Sierra / Bert Bates, but it's been postponed because the book is out of stock.
I've tried other sources short of going to the bookstore and asking them to order it for me, which will cost an arm and a leg. I've also tried eBay but there's nothing there.

If anybody is done with their certification and wants to sell their book or knows somebody who does, please PLEASE e-mail me at:

[e-mail]

Also, is there a new edition of the book? I think I saw one somewhere - it's for Exam 310-035 & 310-037? Is this correct? Apparently, it came out August 2004 but it's always out-of-stock or hasn't arrived yet. For someone interested in taking the SCJP exam, do I need this new edition?

Thanks.

[Kathy Sierra]

Hi there Marj,
We don't know *what* is happening with Amazon, but the books should be shipping again within just a couple of days. Right now, Amazon US says "2 to 4 weeks" but this is what they do when they are out of stock, even when they expect to get books again in the next few days.

There is not a new edition now, although there has been some strange stuff on Amazon! The next edition will be for the Tiger (1.5) version of SCJP, and that book will not be out until the exam comes out sometime after April of 2005.

So, no matter what you see on Amazon, there is still only one book by us (Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates) and it should be shipping again very soon. However, I'm going to talk to the publisher tomorrow and confirm that for you.

Sorry about the delay! It's very unusual for them to run out of stock like that; we'll be sure to give the publisher a hard time about that

good luck,
Kathy

[Nicholas Cheung]

Kathy,

So Bert and you are going to review and upgrade the book SCJP 1.4 to SCJP Tiger?

Also, would you give us some hints about SCJP Tiger beta?

Nick

[Marj Gumayagay]

Kathy,

When the new SCJP Tiger comes out, will I need to write the exam again if I've passed the SCJP 1.4?

I'm a total newbie, so I don't know how certifications work.

Thanks.

[Kathy Sierra]

Howdy,
Well, I have a little bit of bad news Marj-- Amazon probably will *not* be shipping the book for at least another week or more. Apparently the publisher really did run completely out of stock, and they are in the middle of reprinting now. Not sure what happened there. So that means it might be more difficult to find in stores as well. Did you try other online sites like B&N and bookpool? Otherwise, you indeed might want to see if you can get it from someone used if you are really wanting to get it now.

For your other question, you will not need to take the exam again if you pass 1.4, although we *will* have what we call the 1.5 "upgrade" exam that you *can* take if you want. This is a smaller, less expensive version of the exam that gives you the complete new certification, but with far fewer questions (mostly just the newer topics related to 1.5). This probably will not be out until perhaps July 2005.

Hmmm... hints on the SCJP Tiger exam:

* VERY different - every objective is different.
* More difficult (I think)
* Much better in that it is more *performance* based and less about memorizing facts.
* The objectives will include most of the new Tiger features, but will also include things you have not seen before. RUMOR ALERT--you *may* see some I/O again!! (but do NOT expect to see anything about GUI code).

The beta will probably be in February 2005, and the real exam released in April 2005 or a little later. This time we have asked some other javaranch bartenders to be involved in the exam development, so that should be fun

For this exam, Jim Yingst and Mark Spritzler will also be involved along with Bert and I, and many other Java experts inside and outside of Sun.

Stay tuned... but for now, you should be focusing on studying/preparing the 1.4 exam. The new exam is not coming for at least six months!

cheers,
Kathy

[Nicholas Cheung]

Kathy,

Seems the exam is very difficult.

Could you guys make it a bit easier?

BTW, when would the preliminary objectives come out?

Nick

[janne s]

Hi! Kathy,

I'm preparing for SCJP1.4. I bought your book. i just started reading...its cool. The book i bought was printed in 2003 and i
was wondering were there any corrections made in new prints 2004.

Thank you,
jaya

[Andrei Pop]

I bought Sierra & Bates book from a discount retailer in Toronto. The price I paid was of 15 CAD + taxes.

So, anyone in Toronto could try getting it from PC Maniak.

Good luck!

[Marj Gumayagay]

Wow, good price! Which retailer did you get it from, if I may ask?

Thanks.

[Kathy Sierra]

Originally posted by Nicholas Cheung:
Could you guys make it a bit easier?

Now, where would the fun be in that?

The cool thing about the Java exam is that it IS so difficult, and that makes it much more valuable than other exams that *are* much easier. Although on javaranch, it seems like so many people (most) pass the exams on their first try, this is NOT true when you look at all the people who take the exam (and are not studying like they do on javaranch). The pass rate for javaranchers is SO much higher than for the rest of the population who take Sun's Java exams.

Trust us on this--if you pass one of Sun's exams, you are in a very special group.

Not get back to work...don't you have some studying to do or something?

[Bert Bates]

Hey Jaya,

Here's how you can tell what printing the cert book you have is:

Near the beginning of the book is the copyright page; it lists the names of the publisher, the v.p., the editors, etc.

In the middle of the page is a row of numbers something like this:

34567890 DOC DOC 01298765...

The first number in the list is the printing number.

I think that the last printing is number 6 or 7- if you have a high number say 3 or higher, then most of the errata have been fixed. If you have number 1 or 2 then you should go to the Osborne errata page.

HTH,

Bert

[janne s]

Hi! Bert,

The number in my book is:

67890 DOC DOC 01987654

So, i've a edition with errors fixed. Right !


Thank you,
jaya

[Nicholas Cheung]

Kathy,

don't you have some studying to do or something?

I planned to learn Tiger after the rest exams.

Before HF Tiger comes out, any materials for preparing?

Nick

[Bert Bates]

Jaya -

You've got a 6th printing - almost error free!

- Bert