I just passed yesterday with 78% score. I have been studying for 1 month and 2 weeks, very short time for someone who works 8 hours per day and is 24 years old. I live a normal life to my age, it means that I go for a drinks with friends every week, enjoy my girlfriend and I like to travel to beaches and amazing waterfalls that we have in Brazil, reducing my time for study. However, I work with J2EE since 5 years ago, what gave me a experience that helped a lot to understand the knowledge needed to the exam.
This community is fantastic and was the main guide for me to decide which way to study, i really want to say thanks to everybody that make this the best java community.
I also have some complains about this certification experience. First, I bought HFJS, that is a very good book, thanks to the authors, but unfortunately I got one translated to portuguese(because of my short time), that has a lot of translations mistakes, specially in the mock exams. And i disagree with the final exam of HFJS to don�t give us the answer, some question just say a reference where we can find the answer, what make us to lost time with questions that we don�t need to study more, specially if we don�t have enough time. Another problem that i had, was during the exam, I didn�t know that we can�t go for a toilet and I have drunk a lot of water before, it was terrible, i asked for the receptionist of prometric place but she said that is not allowed.
Now I am deciding if I will keep studying hard to EJB certification or if i will take a holiday in my free time studying to Java Associate.