Hey !!
Finally glad to inform you all that I cleared
SCJP on Dec 31, 2004 (It was a resolution for year 2004

).
I scored
90% in the final exam. But I must say the exam was a bit tough. I took complete 119 Mins of the allotted time. I found the questions more complex compared to most of the mock exams available on net, definitely tougher than Marcus Greens' Mock tests 1, 2, 3 and exam Menu
test. Many questions were not 'straight forward', in the sense that they involved multiple logics to be applied. A knowledge on more than one topic (
Exam Objectives ) was required to solve the problem.
And one more thing, which I did not know till the last minute.
The exam clock was started even before the first question appeared
. There were some 9 questions (survey) asking the comfort level of each of the exam objectives. I marked myself as "expert" or "pro" in 8 of the exam objectives. Not sure if this is considered while selecting the questions (difficulty level) in real exam. May be exam experts like
K&B, Dan, Marcus, Barry Gaunt and other folks can throw some light on this. Then there was another survey in the end, but as it was optional and morerover I was eagerly waiting for the exam results

. I skipped it.
Finally, for all new SCJP aspirants, this is what I used (and recommend) to clear SCJP.
Books: I started with
Khalid Mughal, Rolf Rasmussen but later moved to
Kathy Sierra and Bert Bates and loved this book till the end. This is really a fantastic book and has a good compilation of topics, description, objectives, exam info, last min reading. I did review all the questions in the real exam as per the K&B instructions and I thank K&B that I found 3 questions answered incorrectly in hurry. If you are already familiar with
Java, have spent some time with Java programming then I must say
look no further, this book is a single stop "Excellent guide for SCJP".
As I was working with Java for more than 2 years, I found (exam objectives and questions) to be bit more different than the day-to-day work in Java. I came across lot of surprises and miraculous behavior of Java while studying for SCJP. But yes, now I'm not just another Java guy, I'm a confident (and certified

) Java Developer.
I studied approx for 3 weeks for exam. (obvoiusly, not full time

). First the thorough reading of K&B and then mock tests and more mock tests. Overall, I spent more then 50% time practicing the mock exams (freely

) available on net. I went through all the questions from all the chapters of
Dan Chisholm's Study Guide (1 and 2). These are really tough questions and requires lot of attention and patience, especially after 15th question

.
I even suggest to just go through some sample mock questions to be familiar with the
pattern, difficulty level then overall gauge yourself on the basis of that and then gear up with book and study guides.
I must say, to clear SCJP
you should be a fan (like me) of
Big Moose Saloon. I used to browse this site (even old discussion topics) whenever possible. I referred it even 2 hours before the exam. Its an
Excellent "LIVE" Forum for discussion of the SCJP Exam and questions.
No, I'm not leaving it
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, but just moving onto
SCJD or SCWCD

. Hope to find same liveliness there too

.
Last but not the least, there are no shortcuts for this exam

. You got to study hard and practice more and more mock exams, and most of all,
enjoy doing it.
Wish you all the best and happy studying.
Swapnil
[ January 03, 2005: Message edited by: Swapnil Sapar ]