The new topics in 1.5 have been discussed, but very little mention about what has gone away in the new version. From a previous post, here is what I found:
You are correct, but also note that Input Output (I/O) is now back on the exam and the big topic of Generics is on the 1.5 exam. The exam also covers regular expressions.
The exam also convers the new printf stuff. All the syntax and conversion details are under java.util.Formatter in the API. So while they've taken a lot out, they've added some very detail oriented topics.
does 'bit shifting' include 'bit twiddling' ? Because there's no bit twiddling either
I think you've got the complete list of topics that got taken away... in a nutshell, we removed a tiny bit and added a huge, enormous stack of new stuff.
Ok, the Math class... I guess technically you could say that the Math class might play a teenie, tiny role in the exam, but if you get a Math question it will be on a common sense level. Put it this way, if you budget 500 hours to study for the exam (which would be a BIG budget), and you allot 5 minutes of study for the Math class, I'd say you spent too much time on the Math class
This does lead to a good study tip though... if you see a class mentioned in a question, and that class isn't in the objectives, then the question isn't really about that class. In other words sometimes the exam writers will use such a class as a 'red herring', a distraction.
Tha questions I came across was indeed intended to test another objective. A field/method in math class was trivially inclued in that question and even a pupil would know what that stands for!