Unni Kainila

I ordered mine from Chapters and received it in 3-4 business days (I opted for the free shipping).

Suneela,
If you are not a person targeting 100% score on the exam, and don't mind loosing 1 or 2(max) possible correct answers, you can *totally ignore* the shift-operators for the exam. Well, that is what I did. I find it hard to get the shift-operators on my head. So I just decided not to study it at all. And I had only one question on shift-operators in my scjp exam...and answered it on guess. I just did not want to spend all the time learning it...(and not use in real life programming). I rather spend time on learning threads...gc..exception..OO etc.
Now, that is just my humble opinion (many other people I know told me the same about the number of question on shift-operators), other may differ..
Good Luck

Check out the FAQ here

Marlene, from my personal experience with the exam, you are right. The errors are with reasons like un-inialized local variables etc...as you mentioned. It won't be silly errors like braces are missing, end quote is missing...etc. Again, that is what I found in the exam.
But that is not an excuse to not to pay attentions to brances, brackets etc...
Marlene, it looks like you are targeting a century (100%)
cheers
Unni

In the context of the discussion on the topic, this article may be interesting to you.
Why extends is Evil?

Congrats Gopal
It is really a good score!
Well, Sun's exam has many thread questions...that is an area one's score can suffer. Good tips Gopal
cheers

Barkat,
The test on the CD that comes with K&B book gives you 90 minutes only for the test, isn't it? Sun exam will ahve 120 minutes. But ideally, you should be able to finish Sun's exam in 90 minutes, and use your last 30 minutes for a couple of more passes thru your answers...I find that approach worked for me. (I read in this site that same was the experiences for many..). Again from my presonal experience, my Score in Sun's exam was very close to the MasterExams.
Do Dan's exams as well - if you have not done so. They are harder than the real exam...but it is a good work-out!
Good luck
Unni

If you have not done any previous programming with Threads, I would suggest you to write as many sample codes as you can. Threads would seem bit simple when you read K&B's thread section in the beginning...I am not trying to scare you off, ..in Sun's exam you will get some good number of questions on Threads.
To answer your question, the thread section is reasonably enough reading...but more code-practices and mock exams on threads are essential.

Cathy,
Yes, JVM sees two methods at runtime, but it is too late since the compiler has already binded the method of reference type A for "a".
To summarise:
- Overloaded methods are resolved/binded at compile time with the reference type.
- Overriden methods are resolved at runtime with the actual object the reference is 'pointing' to.

Deep,
Hopefully this will help you.
regards
Unni

If there is more than one possible correct answers, Sun's exam question will tell you how many correct answers you should select.

From my experience with the exam, you need to know hierarchy of Collection and Map classes (also note the differences of Collections and Collection).
You also should be able identify the collection classes associated with their features like: sorted, key/map, ordered etc. Understand the specific interfaces they implement.
Most of the questions I got on Collections on the real exam was to identify the class names by giving their features - like of the following:
a) Which collection class allows you to grow or shrink its size and provides index access to its elemenets, and ...bla..bla..
b) Which collections class allows you to associate its elements with key values, and allows you to...bla..bla..
I don't think you really need to know the methods and their features..

Smita,
Pradeep is right - Dan's questions are tougher than what you would see on Sun's exam. But they are very thought-provoking. A 70%+ score on his exam tells that you are ready for exam. (I used to score similar to your score on his exam, and I passed scjp with 85% - 2 weeks ago).
But, if you have any doubt about your level of comfort on Threads, do more readings and experiments. From most of the exam-takers I hear that they had lot of questions on threads.
Good Luck
Unni

I did not download the logo from the URL I got. But I think the way it works is...one have to fill out a form online (giving their student id, e-mail id etc). After Sun verifies the credentials, you will receive an e-mail with necessary information (probably a pincode or so) so that you can download the logo.

Sorry, I overlooked the code. Uma is right about it.