...and now there are probably too many!
Anyway,
many thanks to JavaRanch and everyone where especially Jim who put up with my pedantry...
I passed today with 92% overall....we won't get into the specific areas that were significantly lower...

I finished and reviewed in an 1 hour. Like another ranchhand here, I agree that some of the questions were ambiguous to me at least; I don't know who these language experts were but I think Sun should get their money back...of course, I guess it could have been worse.
At JavaRanch, (1) Rules Roundup gave me confidence on language fundamentals and helped me to procede to mock exams. The ones I found the most helpful were the ones included with the books.
I used RHE, Exam Cram (thanks Bill!), and Mughal & Rasmussen ("Khalid") all to varying degrees...mostly Exam Cram except for in-depth coverage of topics I was weak on (which Exam Cram is supposed to show you).
plus
http://www.jaworski.com/java/certification/ however beware that there are wrong answers (and no e-mail for errata) and it is 172 questions with a ticking clock. My final score there was 93...coincidence?
(2) Helping others was the other big help because it made me look up things I didn't know.
I'm off for a month long retreat (right now--how's that for a tight schedule?) but I'll come back to visit in mid-August...I've got to learn to actually develop stuff, now.

Completely off topic,

-shaped fireworks in Washington DC last night. They were really cool...plus "Peace Signs." How do they get the little bits of fire to go where they're supposed to?
Thanks again,
Steve Butcher
[email protected]