Zend PHP5 Certified
I decided to have a go at the Zend PHP5 certification test a few weeks ago even though I don’t believe in this type of test. After all, testing you on whether or not you know exactly what the strtr() function does isn’t going to gauge how good of a programmer you are. In the real world, you’re going to have the PHP manual and Google at your fingertips. Of course having the certification can’t hurt on a resume.
I purchased the test on line for $125 along with 5 practice tests that costed a little extra and was able to schedule for the next day. Practice test #1 I failed, but I managed to pass all the subsequent tests. Yes, the practice tests helped.. they were very similar to the actual test.
My advice: If you’re planning on taking the Zend certification test, be sure you know your OOP syntax, function arguments and XML parsers. Since I don’t use OOP or XML too often, I had to brush up on those.
Overall, the test certainly wasn’t as easy as I thought and I didn’t feel that I did that well. Unfortunately, or fortunately rather, Zend doesn’t allow you to know your score. Regardless, despite my bad feeling, I managed to pass, so now I’m Zend certified. I am still awaiting the arrival of my certificate.
