In the new pattern of SCJP 2, sun has given more emphasis on programming rather than simple theoretical questions. So before taking exam you have to make sure how to write code for all important concepts covered in the exam objectives. Code related questions will have 10 to 15 lines of code.The exam contains 60% of code related questions and the rest are theoretical questions.

Differences between earlier pattern and present pattern are:

1.The number of correct choices are mentioned which was not done previously
2.The passing percentage has been decreased from 71% to 61%.
3. Duration of exam has also been reduced from 120 min. to 90 min.

Important topics to be covered in depth are:

1.Definition and implementations of inner classes and anonymous classes.
2.Thread's and different ways to manipulate threads.
3.Constructing Input/output Streams/Readers/Writers
4.String and StringBuffer related topics.
5.Overloading and Overriding concepts.
6.Passing primitives and object variables to methods.

The best reference authors suggested are:

1.Java Certification Study Guide by
Simon Roberts and Philip Heller
2.Java Study guide by
Jamie Jaworski
3.Java API
from java site