I passed the Zend PHP5 Certification Exam last week and thought I would share my experience with it.
Zend Yellow Pages
I decided that I wanted to take the test about 2 1/2 months ago. The
first thing I did was visit the site and learn more about the exam
itself. I discovered it covers almost every facet of the language and
its use. Here is a breakdown of the major sections:
- PHP Basics
- Functions
- Arrays
- Object Oriented Programming
- Security
- XML & Web Services
- Strings & Patterns
- Databases & SQL
- Web Features
- Streams & Network Programming
- PHP 4/5 Differences
- Design & Theory
You can get a more details topic list for each section on the PHP5 Certification Landing Page.
For
the first month I spent time reading e-books and other free material on
the subjects mentioned above that I felt weak in. I was not very
devoted during the first month and only spent a couple hours (3-5) each
week.
At the beginning of the second month, I purchased two books recommended by a lot of others who passed the exam.
The first book is published by Zend and is 'the official study guide to prepare for the Zend
PHP Certification exam'. I liked this book because it was very focused
and clear about the topics it was covering. It also has a couple of
practice questions at the end of each chapter to prepare you for the
real thing.
There is also a glossary of terms that help you become familiar with
some of the terminology used. Not sure what a HEREDOC or MTA is? Look
it up quickly with this book.
This book does have a few technical errors in some examples that you do need to watch out for.
I
actually started reading this book first. This book contains more
information about each topic but seems less focused. What I mean is
that the major topics are covered and explained fairly well but it
doesn't go as in-depth when it comes to sub-topics. I frequently caught
myself going to this book when I needed more general information about
something but tended to stay with the aforementioned book because it helped me stay focused.
This book does not contain any practice questions or glossary, which is a bummer.
My last resource was the online practice tests made available Zend.
They are in the same format as the real test: 70 questions with
a 90 minute timer. The layout of the actual test is a little different
than these practice tests but nothing significant. The advantage to
these practice tests is that you can go on past the 90 minutes and it
will give you two scores. One when the time expired and the other is
based on the final submission.
It's important to note that the practice tests do not tell you how you did on each question.
Rather it breaks the test down into each major section and gives you
one of three scores - fail, pass, or passed with flying colors. I found
this to be very annoying but understood the intended benefit.
I
took a total of 5 exams out of the 10 that I purchased. After the 5th
exam a significant number of questions were repeats which really took
away from the 'fear' and 'anxiety' factor of the test. I heavily
recommend you take the test until you pass with flying colors in each
major section to be ready for the real thing.
Overview
It's been mentioned before and I agree that none of these resources
alone are enough to make you feel confident going into the test.
Rather, a combination of each resource should be taken advantage of to
feel fully prepared. I took every practice question in Zend's book twice and
read the entire book two or three times total. I spent a good deal of
time in PHP Architect's book but probably only read it front-to-back
once.
I consider the practice test to be the most beneficial. I took one test almost immediately
after I purchased them to have a baseline benchmark. With a general
idea of where I stood in each section I was able to concentrate my
studying in those sections. After I was satisfied that I had improved I
retook the test and repeated the process until I passed every section
with flying colors.
Even with this I still considered the real
test to be difficult. The practice test claims to be generally harder
than the exam - In my opinion, this is not true.
The style of
questions was very test-like. They were very obscure blocks of code
that obviously had no real-world use but still covered several very
important concepts. There are four types of questions:
- Single choice questions - Multiple choice, choose one
- Multiple choice questions - Multiple choice, choose several
- Fill in the blank questions - Several blanks in a sentence, choose from multiple possible answers
- Open questions - fill in the blank (text input)
Test Day!
The test was observed by a proctor at a Pearson Vue
testing center of my choice. They took all my belongings and stored
them in a secure area (unlocked closet), sat me down in front
of a computer, and gave me a laminated sheet of legal-length paper with
a dry-erase marker (no eraser, although I'm sure I could have asked for
one). The proctor starts the exam and after a few screens explaining
the rules, agreeing to a NDA, andmaking sure I was ready, the test
began.
I
can't really talk much about the test or specific questions that were
asked but I can say that they were from every topic. A good variety of
mixed-up questions. I don't believe it was the type of test where the
questions adjusted themselves based on whether or not you answered
correctly or not. It is important to note that there are trick questions.
I
found these questions in the book, practice exam, and the exam itself.
There would be large blocks of code that would never get executed
because of some small detail. I don't believe they are intended to be
tricky just for the sake of amusing the test-authors, rather to see if
you really pay attention to details in the code. I think we can all
agree that attention to detail is of utmost importance in this
profession.
Once you have completed all 70 questions you are
presented with a chance to go back to any particular question and
re-evaluate your answer. Once you're satisfied with your performance
you submit the test for grading. After a couple seconds (seemed like
days) of plugging and chugging you get a screen with either Pass or
Fail. The proctor hands you a printed certificate with your candidate
number, grade, and sends you on your way.
Tough Subjects
These were the toughest subjects for me because I do not use them very often:
- Bitwise operators.
- Data Types
- XML & Web Services.
- Type Hinting
- Database topics - PDO, mysqli, transactions, and other database technologies.
- A lot of functions. I had to memorize a lot of functions that I
forgot about or used often yet never seemed to remember the parameter
order or particular definition. I've become conditioned to pull up the
PHP manual and look something up in my sleep. The function you need to
know pulled from every corner of PHP. Strings, arrays, files, and
network streams just to name a few.
- Nuances of PHP's variable juggling.
- And more!
Conclusion
I spent a lot of time studying at my leisure but really buckled down
the last two weeks leading up to the exam. As I said before, none of
the resources I found are enough to make you feelconfident going into
the test. Rather, all of them together do a nice job preparing you.
There are a lot of questions on subjects that you probably have never
used in the past and may never use in the future. I recommend spending
some extra time as you may have to memorize several key functions and
their parameters for the exam.
I'm glad I spent the time and effort to earn the certification. I
know that there are those out there who question its usefulness
but I found it extremely helpful. Not only do I find myself more
confident in my abilities to use the language properly, but I get to
use the Zend logo on my site :)
-Read More
I
just wanted to let everyone know that there is a big change coming up
in my life. After much thought, discussion, and stress I have decided
to leave 
I have accepted an offer to join the