It is not requried that you
prove you have 6-12 months of programming experience in
Java. You can have absolutely no experience and still take the SCJP exam.
The point of putting that requirement on there is to help get the point across that going after the SCJP certification isn't necessarily the best way to "learn" Java. Rather, it's something that
you should consider acquiring after you've already got some experience with Java. As a certified programmer, I agree.
Corey