Hello everybody
Thanks so much ... Lakshmi, Milind, Rashmi, Vad, Anupam, Jeff and Bert.
Finally I've been able to assimilate my happiness and get to write about my experience.
About me 1. I had absolutely no Java experience when I started preparing for the exam.
2. I do have programming experience in C, C++ and many other languages. So, I wasn't really new to Object Oriented methodology.
Preparation time 1. About 5 months total duration - 3 months casual, 1 month serious and about 2 weeks really intense !
Books 1. Khalid Mughal for SCJP 1.2
2. Kathy & Bert for SCJP 1.4
3. Java Complete Reference Programming
(I just posted my detailed and entirely *personal* opinion on the 2 books on the certification forum)
Mock Exams 1. Dan Chisholm (all 27 exams)
2. Marcus Green (all 4 exams)
3. Khalid Mughal's mock
4. K&B Master Exams (both exams)
5. Javacertificate.com (all exams)
6. Valentin Crettaz
7. Java Prepare
8. Bill Brogden
9. Java Ranch Rules roundup
Other Resources 1. JLS: One complete pass.
2. Java API Specification (of course)
Real Exam 1. Very similar to K&B Master Exam
2. About 15 questions were above average difficulty.
3. About 5 questions were HARD .. really hard, especially couple of
thread questions. I spent about 18-20 minutes on those 2 thread questions. Trust me, after attempting the first 20 questions, I was telling myself "Harwinder, you'd be lucky if you could get 80% here".
4. About 10 questions were really really simple. In fact I couldn't believe they could make it to the exam !
5. Plenty of questions with compilation and runtime errors as the correct answer.
6. Separate 15 minutes for a survey of 9 questions.
7. The 2 hr timer starts ticking on additional 3-4 survey questions. This seemed very unfair to me eventhough it takes only about 2 mins to answer them.
8. The exam software was Windows based and was pretty stable and intuitive ... no problems there.
Acknowledgements Thanks a lot, Khalid Mughal & Rasmussen for your wonderful book.
Thanks so much Kathy and Birt for your book, your assistance on this forum and your liveliness (I really enjoy your witty comments

). I must say you both are wonderful people.
Thanks so much Dan Chisholm. Your mocks definitely helped
boost my score by 15%.
Thanks to all Java Ranchers, especially to my study buddies (at least I believe so) Marlene Miller, Vad Fogel and Cathy Song. If it was not for Java Ranch, I would have scored 60-65% and would have been happy with my score.
My Journey over the past 5 months (for those wandering souls who have nothing better to do

):
I started preparing for the exam around July this year. I started with a basic Java programming book (Complete Reference) and then moved on to the certification book. Khalid Mughal was the only certification book I read for the first 3 months (started really sloooow). I was planning to write the exam in October and my target then was to get about 75%. This was before I discovered Java Ranch (got the link from Khalid's website). I registered on the Ranch on Oct 18th and slowly started getting the hang of things around here and started participating in the forum. First person who really caught my attention was Marlene Miller. I was so impressed by her knowledge, her comprehensiveness on the subject, eagerness to help others and her dedication towards her goal.
As I started hearing about people scoring 95% and more, it seemed as if nearly 95% of Java Ranchers score 95% or more marks. In fact, to be honest here, I really started doubting these results. But anyhow, as a result of all this, I raised my goal to 90% too !! I came to know of K&B's book and Dan's website through Java Ranch.
As I became a regular here, I was inspired by more people, especially the exam aspirants like Vad Fogel and Cathy Song. I was so impressed by their perseverence and their desire to go into the root of each problem. I was spending an average 2-3 hrs everyday on Java Ranch.
Slowly each one of them (Marlene, Vad and Cathy) passed the exam and I was left alone

and almost lost my focus. Then I ran into some issues in my personal life which distracted me for a while. I didn't study for about 2-3 weeks. Finally, beginning of Dec, I decided upon a date (Dec 15) and started preparing again. I must have studied for atleast 100 hrs in last 2 weeks (to make up for the time I lost earlier), spent absolutely no time on the ranch, attempted about 1500 mock questions and took the exam on 15th. Before going into the exam, I thought I was 2 weeks short of preparation.
Anyway, that's about it. I'm shifting my geographical coordinates, getting married, switching jobs and still hope to stay around
Cheers
Harwinder
[ December 16, 2003: Message edited by: Harwinder Bhatia ]