Reviews for Sun Certified Web Component Developer Study Companion: SCWCD Java EE 5 (exams 310-083 and 310-084)

1. Good book but...

   Rated 4 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2009

   Really a good book, clear and well written. But I found too many errors in the tests at the end of each chapter.

2. Disappointed

   Rated 3 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2009

   The book is well written. But the only reason I bought this book is because it is for the 310-083 exam. But after receiving the book. It's the same as the old book with a sticker with the updated exams on the front page.
   I expected I was paying for a newly printed book.. not an old book with stickers covering words.

3. Probably the best book I have read on the subject

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, November 12rd, 2008

   For a number of years I worked in Java developing web applications with the technologies covered in this book. Believe me I wish I had a copy of this book then.
   
   For the past few years I have worked exclusively on enterprise applications so I decided rather than lose the presentation tier I would revise the material and take the exam.
   
   Initially I bought the head first book JSPs & Servlets. Don't get me wrong I love the head first books but I didn't feel as if I was learning a lot of detail. The head first book is a huge book and is very daunting, yet it felt lacking in detail.
   
   This book simply provides way more detail than the head first book.
   
   Granted I'm only 3/4 way through the book but it's been a fantastic read so far. I tend to underline/highlight anything I feel is important in my first pass of a book. I have pretty much underlined the entire book! There is very little padding in there.
   
   I have a feeling that this book probably has a little bit too much detail for the exam. However since I haven't taken the exam yet this is a hunch. I do believe this book will make a fantastic companion if you are actually using these technologies in your daily working life.
   
   To summarise fantastic read, probably best on this subject. Concise but detailed. A must have.

4. Excellent: keep this in arms reach!!!

   Rated 5 out of 5 stars, April 12th, 2008

   I had already been learning J2EE for a couple of months but it soon became clear I didn't really know my way around the Web container ;) The book starts off with the absolute basics and walks though everything you need to know to write and deploy servlets and JSPs. The end of chapter questions are tough but they helped me find areas that my brain skipped over on the first read. I think this is possibly the best referance book on the market and several months later I'm still thumbing through it on my desk! The diagrams really are "at a glance" as it says on the books description. The only downside is that this book has mostly code snippets and only contains a couple of full working examples - which actually makes the book better for quick reference. I found other reviews and a sample chapter on the publishers site - take a look!