book to refer

[Suyash Gulati]

hello everyone,
i am a beginner to java programming, but have a sound knowledge in c++ programming.

i am aiming for this certification

which one of the following book will you refer?
1. Certification Guide by Mala Gupta or
2. Certification Guide by Edward Fingan n Robert Ligouri (oracle press)

as of 2 days back i was convinced that i will study from mala gupta as many people here suggested.

but i found out about the 2nd book and it was from oracle itself so i got confused.

thank you in advanced.

[Roel De Nijs]

I very much liked the Mala Gupta book. I think it's a true competitor for the K&B books (which are of a very high quality). Very instructive with a bunch of diagrams, drawings, tables, comics,... to get a better understanding of the things you need to know. And of course focused on this certification exam. I don't have read/used the other book, so can't give you a review about that one. But I can assure you: the Mala Gupta book is a very good choice and will definitely get you passed the OCAJP7 exam.

Good luck!

[Blake Edward]

The Certification Guide by Finegan and Ligouri was my first exam study book on the topic. It is a very straightforward study guide that covers all of the exam objectives. It is like all of the Oracle books I own on the subject: great information in a no-nonsense, matter-of-fact form. I learned a lot from this book and eventually considered it my personal introduction to the Java language rather than a study guide, because I was so new that no one book could teach me what I needed to know for the test. At first I just wanted a certification, then realized the scope of the language, got intimidated, backed off, and have returned with a different attitude and no time frame to take the test.

I am currently going through the K & B Java 6 Study Guide, the first 5 or 6 chapters, as they are relevant to the OCAJP 7 exam. The strength of this book is the diagrams and the ability to make you see the process that occurs when you run a program. This is a good book if you are more of a visual learner (which is why I think people like the Gupta book) because it has, like I said, more diagrams that reveal the workings of the language. A good example would be the events that occur when you create an object from a class that extends another class. The call to super(), the creation of the super classes and the initiation of static fields and the order in which this happens is laid out. It's like someone turned on the lights all of a sudden and you can see the process. As a visual person with a BFA in studio art, this worked for me.

The Mala Gupta book gets high praise here and I will eventually buy it and work through it as well. I'm sorry I can't give you my thoughts on it yet and it's possible this post won't really help you decide. Right now I keep building on what I know, taking my time to get it right and understand the language and its multitude of small details. When I get though the Gupta book I will start with the Enthuware mock exams and try to perfect this thing and take the exam.

I have found it helpful to keep a journal and write down the study questions and diagram them as I go. It takes a long time to do this but it has really started to pay off.

Good luck to you.

[Roel De Nijs]

Blake Edward wrote:and have returned with a different attitude and no time frame to take the test.

I can't say how happy I am with such an attitude I wish more people would prepare their certification exams with a similar attitude It might take a little bit longer to prepare (and take the exam), but on the long term you'll benefit much, much, much more!