Book Review: OCJP/SCJP: OCP Java SE 6 Programmer Practice Exams by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates

If you are studying to pass the OCJP exam, you must know the most famous OCJP/SCJP book: SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for Java 6 Exam 310-065 (also written by Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates). And you problably know that it is the best book to prepare your self to pass the OCJP exam.

However, studying theory is not enough to pass the exam. If you want to be successful, you have to practice (a lot), and this book is all about practicing.

And as it says on the book cover: “Don’t let the real test be your first test!”.

Disclaimer: Neither the publisher or the authors sent me this book for review. I bought it with my own money and this is my honest opinion.

How the book is organized:

I liked the way the book is organized.

There are couple of chapters to test your knowledge called Self-Assessment and they also contain some study tips.

There are 4 chapters called Practice Exam, and they are a sample of real exams with multiple choice questions, “drag and drop” questions (kind of a complete the sentence question).

And there is also a chapter with study tips and exercises.

After each exam (Self-Assessment or Practice Exam) there is a quick answer key and then the explanation of the answer.

There is also the “Analysing your Results” section, where you can see if you are good to go or need more studying.

The book is organized in a great way. Fisrt the Self-Assessment chapters, then a Practice Exam, then some tips and then more 3 Practice Exam chapters, so you can read the book from cover to cover, and you should read it in the order: start from chapter 1, then chapter 2, and on.

My opinion about this book:

As I mentioned, the book is very well organized.

It does what is says on the cover: it is all about practicing.

The questions are great, very close to the real exam and all the question type and exam topics are covered.

The size of the book is good. It is not heavy, the font is in the right size.

Conclusion:

The only thing that I did not like about te book is the fact that it is a book – in paper version only. The OCJP exam is online, and if we have a interface that looks like the real exam (a software) it would be better. It would be nice if the book came with a CD, as the preparation book does, with a PC version of the exams.

The book is not expensive: I bought it for US$ 19 on amazon. The regular price is US$ 35.

So if you are getting ready for OCJP exam, I recommend you to buy the book, it is worth buying. The main reason I recommend you to buy the book is that it was written by the exam creators, so they know what are they talking about and the questions are just like the real exam.

I liked it and I recommend it!

From http://loianegroner.com/2011/02/book-review-ocjpscjp-ocp-java-se-6-programmer-practice-exams-by-kathy-sierra-and-bert-bates/