OCA/OCP Java SE 7 Programmer I & II Study Guide (Exams 1Z0-803 & 1Z0-804) (Certification Press) 1st Edition

I took the OCA7 last year and got 85%. Some of the questions were hideously tricky, and from what I've seen so far in this book is that the self-test questions at the end of each chapter are as hard (or even a bit harder) than the real exam. In the exam, being 3 hours (or whatever it was) I didn't think I'd be under time pressure but I was somewhat - I did finish in time but couldn't check and revise my answers as much as I would've liked to. I would advise not to even think about doing OCAP unless you've done substantial preparation with this book then plenty of hard practice tests such as Enthuware. For the OCA I had the Liquori/Finegan book and although great and definitely worth buying, it simply doesn't cover all that is needed. But having said that, a book covering every trap and corner case would perhaps run to 2000 pages?For a progressive approach, maybe do Liquori/Finegan (for the OCA) Ganesh/Sharma (for the OCP) first, then move up to thisSierra/Bates book.Well I'm now prepping for the OCP7. I have Ganesh/Sharma and am nearing the end of that book (up to the Threads chapter). It's great and I would give it 5 stars too - despite its errors. Ganesh/Sharma's book is worth buying for some of the examples alone (e.g. I/O is very well explained). With this Sierra/Bates monolith, I'm starting right from the beginning to refresh the OCA stuff and currently up to chapter 4. It's so thorough and feels absolutely complete, with explanations often (and very appropriately) being repeated and re-explained to really hammer the points in. The self tests were difficult (as expected) and in Ch.1 I got 3 wrong, Ch.2, 5 wrong and Ch.3, 4 wrong. Like they say in the book - good for 'toughening up' for the real exams. There are some very funny little quips throughout the text too and I've found myself laughing quite a few times. Back to the self tests: the questions are often very convoluted and tricky, even Kafkaesque at times but yes, to be sure, this is what the questions in the real exams are like (from having taken the OCA - and no doubt the OCP is no different).5 stars from me for Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates's book and a big thank you to the authors!

Amazing, just amazing. I bought this book initially to pass the exams, but ended up learning so much in the process. It is correct that it is not one of the most comprehensive books in market about Java 7, but the writers never promised that ever. This book is for passing the exam and even though I can't speak for that, but countless others have corroborated the fact that it delivers what it promises. Even the critics of this book say that this book is best for passing the exams. However I loved the content, there were so many subtle things covered in core java, multi-threading and concurrency is explained in the simplest way possible, considering the fact these are two hard topics to understand. Even though book leaves a lot multi-threading and concurrency, but the way it explains the basics is incomparable. Another amazing part is book's production quality, this book is hardcover and paper finishing is very good. The writing style is typical Sierra/Bates style, even though it misses the images and pictures of Head First Java, it still is a joy to read. I was able to finish 900 pages in about 3 weeks. Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates, you guys are geniuses, I wish you could write every single computer book, at least one on every platform. Wishing you all the best and hope to see more books from you.

I used this to prepare for both the OCA & OCP exams and it was tremendously helpful. The writing got a bit more arcane in the OCP section, but that makes sense since the topics covered were more complex. All in all, this is well worth the purchase price for those preparing for either exam.

I absolutely LOVE this book. I have been a mainframe developer for 18 years, but over those years I have tried to keep myself current on PC based languages. I've taken classes in c++, Java, and HTML, so I had a little experience with Java before buying this book. Unfortunately, even after passing every University Java class (basic and advanced) with A+'s , whenever I would take a mock OCA exam on the internet I would fail miserably.I finally decided that I needed to buy this book and start learning what the Universities weren't teaching me. I have to say, I really wish that I would have done this long ago. The information in this book feels so complete, and it's in a very easy to understand format. The authors did a fantastic job with taking something so complex and making it feel easy.The first couple of chapters, IMO, were worth the cost of the entire book. That's where they're talking about access modifiers (default, public, protected, private), inheritence, polymorphism, and casting among other things. I feel as though I know REALLY DO know Java.I also bought access to Enthuware's tests, and that is a SUPERB deal (around $10.00). I would HIGHLY recommend buying this book AND Enthuware's tests.