The first edition of this book was for the 310-080 exam. It was quite good. The updates for the second edition are not written by the original authors. So, you should automatically be suspicious. If you are, your suspicions are warranted. The second edition does not thoroughly cover the details of the updated JSP spec (2.0) as you would expect. For example, this new edition does not cover the details of how a 2.0 compliant JSP engine (test 310-081) locates a TLD as opposed to how previous JSP engines located a TLD (test 310-080), and you are expected to know both. I found this deficiency just glancing through the new book (chapter 15 in both editions). In contrast, the OReilly book (Basham, Sierra, Bates) covers this specific subject very well. I expect to find more of the same deficiencies in the second edition of Manning's SCWCD Exam Study Kit. If you are studing to pass the 310-081 exam, get both books (the Manning book and the O'Reilly book), but rely on the OReilly book as the final authority for everything. If you do that, the Manning book can be useful as it takes a traditional teaching approach and is mostly well written.