Product Description

An integrated study system based on proven instructional methodology, this book and CD package shows you not only what--but how--to study for the SCWCD exam. The book offers complete coverage of all official exam objectives, 190+ practice exam questions, step-by-step exercises, on-the-job elements, and chapter self-tests. The CD-ROM contains MasterExam software with a complete 69-question exam, a searchable electronic book, 45+ complete web applications with source, and access to a downloadable bonus exam (with free online registration).

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #163624 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 818 pages

From the Back Cover

Get the book that shows you not only what--but how--to study

• 100% complete coverage of all official objectives for exams 310-081 and 310-082
• Exam Readiness checklist at the front of the book--you’re ready for the exams when all objectives on the list are checked off
• Real-world exercises--Step-by-step instruction modeled after the hands-on exam questions
• Inside the Exam sections highlight key exam topics covered
• 45+ complete web applications, with source code illustrate the official objectives
• Simulated exam questions match the format, tone, topics, and difficulty of the real exams

Covers all exam 310-081 and 310-082 topics, including: The Servlet Model * Web Applications * The Web Container Model * Sessions and Listeners * Security * Java Server Pages * JSP Standard Actions, XML, and EL * JSP Tag Libraries * Custom Tags * J2EE Patterns

The best fully integrated study system available. CD-ROM includes:

• Complete MasterExam practice testing engine, featuring:
• One full practice exam
• Detailed answers with explanations
• Score Report performance assessment tool
• Electronic book for studying on the go
• Bonus downloadable MasterExam practice test with free online registration

About the Author
David Bridgewater a Java consultant and trainer, teaches Java and WebSphere technologies for IBM. He has written extensively on Java topics for industry magazines, and is a regular contributor to javaranch.com.

Customer Reviews

Messy , but practical
This book material is actually decent, accurate and complete, but exposed in a very disorganized and confusing way, with a writing style that will put you to sleep in seconds. It also contains some typos, a defect particularly unforgivable in a certification book. For style , organization and overall coolness 'Head First SCWCD' is way ahead of this book, but it does have a drawback: no code examples. Certification book or not, lack of code examples is a mortal sin (of laziness) by the authors. This book does have a few code example (structured as exercises) for the most important sections in each chapter, and a final 'lab' (simple exercise) at the end of each chapter. I like that, but I also have to say that the code examples are sometimes unnecessarily convoluted, and badly structured. Each small example is a single web application. Trust me, you will soon get tired of having to decompress and mess with every single damn war of these examples. How about a single web application organized as an Eclipse project with a ant build file to build it and deploy it instead? So, if you already have enough practice in coding java webapps, and just want to brush up the dusty corners and get used to the nasty, useless, tricky questions that plague certification exams, 'Head First SCWCD' should be your favorite choice.
But if you like to do a little practice and see the concept you're studying in action, this book would be more appropriate. This book can also be used to actually learn Servlet & JSP, not just to pass the exam.
Finally, a big plus is having the entire pdf version of the book on the accompanying CD, which also contains a free exam simulator. (All things you don't get with the O'Reilly book).

Needs better technical editing, or at least an online errata guide
After I finished the first chapter self-test, and saw that there were two obvious errors in the answer key (questions 7 and 19), I considered buying another book. I searched for an errata listing for the book online, with no success. I emailed the author and techical editor. To his credit, David Bridgewater replied promptly, but was not much help: he suggested that the publisher probably has it on their website (as of when I emailed him, they did not); and he also sent me corrections to two places in the book, but there are a lot more just two errors in the book.

The technical editor did not reply to my email. This comes as no surprise; perhaps she is embarrased at the poor job she did editing this book. She obviously did not give thorough consideration to the self-tests.

I decided that I did not want to spend the time or money to get a different exam guide, and that 99% of the book was most likely accurate, and the errata are probably easy to spot (even if they are really annoying), so I trudged on.

I regret that decision. I am now at the end of chapter 4, and have spotted a total of five major errors in the self-tests, and at least a dozen minor errors in the self-tests and the text of the chapters. Also annoying is the ambiguous wording in some of the self-test questions; some of the phrases used are open to interpretation, and should be worded to be less ambiguous.

Without knowing how good or bad other SCWCD exam guides are, I'd feel pretty confident in recommending that you should probably go with a different study guide that this one.

save your money
The author probably has great insight into the subject matter;unfortunately, he does not know how to convey his knoeledge to the reader. The practice test questions are ambiguous and full of errors. There was probably minimal editing of questions and answers; as a result, a reader has to correct the errors and then try to fully comprehend the explanations to the practice questions. It is an inefficient way to study and learn. Head First,despite its errata (it has corrections at its website), is a superior product. This textbook is not worth the headaches.