Last Friday I had my Zend PHP 5 Certification Exam and guess what, I passed! Yeah, so now I officially am a Zend Certified Engineer. What does this mean? Well, I had a headache studying all the PHP 5 material, especially the design & PDO chapters, which I was not too familiar with.
Was it worth the time and money? Yes. I’m not sure about the certificate itself, it’s not like I’m looking for a new job or anything, but there are less than 100 certified engineers in Russia, so I guess this makes me just a little bit more awesome ;) What was worth is the knowledge I gained during the past few months. If it wasn’t for the exam, I never would have studied PDO. Now I’m quite good at it and I guess my next php/mysql based startup would be driven via PDO.
And who could have thought that interfaces could be extended? It definitely is something worth using from the design point of view. Yeah, but then again, nothing matches C ;)
I have a few practice exams left which I had no time to take, so if anybody is interested in testing their PHP5 skills, shoot me a comment, say when and why you’d like to take the PHP 5 certification, and I’ll send you a link where you could carry out an online test. Cheers!
Update (August 6th): Finally got my certificate – http://twitpic.com/2bvt4b
Congratulations!
I myself am pretty intrigued by such certifications. The Zend one, along with the Sun (Oracle?) Java certifications, are among my top priorities for the next 6 months.
I'll try to get a decent preparation as I think such exams gives you real skills (you win just by putting effort and time in studying truckloads of material for the exams themselves).
Thank you sir ;)
Congrats, you did it. I beleive its a tough job because while we set for test online, we can take helps through google but i think for zce its not possible to take help there. i've a plan for ZCE php 5 on the next few months, i already took few preparations(read php architect zce book, chris shiflett security book and php.net manual). At this moment – it would be great if i can check my ability. It would be also great if you share your experiences.
Yeah, you're not allowed to use internet, cellphones, etc. They didn't even let me use my pen and paper I brought haha ;) Anyways, I signed an NDA before taking the exam, so I couldn't share much, but I can say that it's not too complicated if you've read the book and carried out the test exams. If you know PHP, you'll pass the test ;)
I'll send you the online test by e-mail ;) Cheers!
Hi.
I've plan for ZCE php5 –
"I’ll send you the online test by e-mail ;) Cheers!"
Can i please send mi to this test online?
Thx
Jacek
Jacek, I would, but unfortunately they're finished ;) sorry!
HI
I need some test paper for ZCE please if some one have some
Test paper or study material than please send me at my email id
Thanks
Mohit
Hi kovshenin
Nice to know that you have passed the test and join the group of elite php programmers. I a also looking forward towards giving the test. Right now I am primarily using the php online manual for preparation. Then am planning to try the tests to see what I can do. Am trying to give the test within a month and the reason primarily being to document my skills and do get a better job.
Imran
That sounds cool, best of luck Imran!
Hi kovshenin,
first of all congrats on your achievement..I am also looking forward to become a zend certified engineer and has already started up doing the preparations.So can u please help me out with some guides which i can refer through..
Saranya, read through the comments to this post, I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for ;)
First of all, congrats kovshenin! I'm interested in taking the exam because I want to put my PHP skills to the test. I believe there are still a lot of PHP knowledge that I need to learn which can only be achieved through the exam. Thanks!
Stevie, thanks and best of luck!
Hey, dude sounds good now you r a zend certified engineer!! wow, I am a starter in PHP/MYSQL i just develop one work task application using just xhtml,jquery,javascrip,css,php,mysql n now, looking for zend certification.. so, plz let me know the procedure and how to prepare, learn & materials,etc… Also willing to learn the different CMS, give links of tutorial n want to start work on it!! Plz help me out of this
Thank You in advance
Dipen, thanks. If you'd like to learn some CMS I definitely suggest WordPress, you'll find all the required info and docs in the WordPress Codex, all nice and clean. I don't think you'll need any books for that.
As to the Zend PHP 5 certification exam, well, the php|architect's study guide is quite good, and the practice exams bundle will help you out too. Unfortunatelly I don't have any left, so you'll have to purchase your own ;)
Cheers and good luck!
Hello Konstantin,
I tend to arrange Zend Certification exam by the end of this summer. What book of tests did you use? i've found php|architect's zce preparation, or you have another one?:) also if you have some mock exams left – could share a key :)
Serge, unfortunately I'm out of mock exams, sorry. php|architect's ZCE is definitely the best book to get you through the exam, but misses some questions. You should google the web for questions and answers to the exam and you'll come across a little book with a lot of questions and detailed answers to each one for each chapter ;) Good luck with the exam!
Is this the book you've told about? http://bit.ly/bHG1iG, because the only two books i've found after torough search were this one and http://bit.ly/9HdJFR. Could you just tell the name of that test "little book with a lot of questions"?;)
Exactly. Google for PDF versions of those ;)
I have them both:) Thought that there's something else useful on the web.
p.s.: two people, who can speak russian, speak english here ;D
Рад знакомству, удачи на экзамене ;)
Спасибі, наприкінці літа скажу як воно:)
Congratulations!! I am also going to take the exam next month. I am also interested on the practice exam you have left. Send me an email if you don't mind. Thanks and good luck :)
Sorry bro, I'm all out of mock exams ;)
Congratulations!! I am also interested on the practice exam you have left. Send me an email if you donot mind. Thanks and have a good day.
Hey sorry, that was over 7 months ago, I'm out of mock exams :)
Константин, присоединяюсь к поздравлениям!
Я также приобрел бандл из 10 тренировочных экзаменов, не смотря на опыт, они кажутся достачно сложными и "заковыристыми". Что говорит в пользу того, что это действительно стоящий экзамен :)
Как ты думаешь, реальный экзамен значительно сложнее тех мокапов от php architect?
И допускаются ли fail по некоторым областям экзамена (например тем же PDO), или чтоб здать экзамен, необходимо по всем областям получить pass? На реальном экзамене пишут какие области завалены? (если этот вопрос, конечно, не противоричит подписанному тобой NDA).
2Serge Smertin: Сергію, а як в тебе справи? Здав екзамен? Якщо навіть й не вийшло цього разу, цікаво було б дізнатися про твої враження.
Хорошего дня!
Сергей, спасибо. Нет, настоящий экзамен того же уровня, только вопросы немного отличаются, главное внимательно всё читать. По поводу fail'ов не знаю, настоящий экзамен в конце выдаёт pass или fail, какие конкретные области не показывает как моки, и значит ли pass что ни одного фейла небыло тоже не известно. В общем лучше конечно подтянуть всё, что там есть, включая PDO.
Успехов вам в экзамене, надеюсь скоро встречу ваше имя в Zend Yellow Pages ;)
You just gave me a little more motivation. Thanks!
Hi,
I'm very interested on the online tests. I have a startup company and I'm studying for the Zend PHP-5.3 certification. The online test would be very useful for me and my coworkers.
While preparing for your certification, did you find anything useful? Other sites with online tests? Good online material?
Diogo, unfortunately I ran out of online tests last year. The PHP book you'll get with the bundle and the 10 mock exams are enough to pass the tests. Good luck!
Hi Kovshenin,
Today i gave my php5.3 certification and couldn't get through in my first attempt. Can you please tell me where can i get the onlin mock test.
Thanks
devphp
Hey devphp (hope that's not your real name). Your mock exams should be available to you if you purchased the bundle with the book, all that should be enough to get you past your tests, really. I don't have any mock exams left, just look at when this post was published ;)
hello
just passed the test! it is actually not that hard (when you code php professionally and have read the guide), but there are questions that require a thorough understanding/knowledge of php5… AND… they are not part of the study guide.
best thing is to do one or two mock tests before and after reading the guide and then write down the questions that you found hard or did not know nothing about and then query google for it.
and most important: yes… buy the study guide! it gets you halfway through. the rest is thinking and a little bit of learning php stuff by heart.
good luck, n0085 ;-)
Markus, congratulations buddy! :)
Hello,
I' preparing to exam Zend PHP5 certificate. This preparing helps me to understand PHP more clear and deep. There are a lot of basic conception that i missed :(. So, Could you tell me how to take the online mock test? It is very excellent if I can see what is my level :).
Thank you in advance.
Toan, have you seen the date of this post? :) I've run out of mock tests long time ago, sorry!