Monday, August 15. 2005
Zend Certified Engineer
I passed. 200 sample questions, 134 flash cards, and hours of studying later — I am now officially a Zend Certified Engineer. Three months ago, Daniel Kushner offered me a voucher to take the test for free, “to help advance PHP into the enterprise and to endorse PHP as the leading Web development language” since I am a “PHP community leader and professional developer.” In fact, I have over five solid years of PHP coding experience. So why so much studying? Frankly, I needed it — but more on that later. Because I decided to take on the ZCE as the subject for my upcoming article in PHP Magazine, I also decided to take the angle of a participant-observer, trying as much as possible to put myself in the shoes of an average candidate taking this exam by going through all the motions. Plus, I care about having a reliable standard for measuring knowledge in the community. So I tried the whole thing on for size in a thorough manner.
In celebration of Zend’s ZCE Month, I plan to unpack some of my own experience taking the ZCE Exam here on my blog. For now, here is a quick run-through of some of my study tactics, complete with photos:
134 Flash Cards
The practice book cut up
I plan to write more about the test itself on this blog, and to pack many more study tips and my own color-coded reference sheet I used for studying into my article for PHP Magazine. For now, here is what the certificate looks like that I took away from the testing center — if you read closely you’ll see those blurry letters in the middle spell that all important word “PASS”:
I passed!
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Congrats!
I’m impresses with your preparations.
At first, I thought of taking the test without any preparation, being under the impression that 5 years of PHP experience should be enough to pass without additional preparations.
The sample questions on the site made me rethink that though.
Ok, so I code PHP for almost 6 years now, but I still don’t know a lot of function parameters by head. So my advice to others would be, even if you have a lot of experience, learn from the book.
I’m impresses with your preparations.
At first, I thought of taking the test without any preparation, being under the impression that 5 years of PHP experience should be enough to pass without additional preparations.
The sample questions on the site made me rethink that though.
Ok, so I code PHP for almost 6 years now, but I still don’t know a lot of function parameters by head. So my advice to others would be, even if you have a lot of experience, learn from the book.Wow, i’m thinking of taking some of your techniques and applying them to my revision - you’re right tho, the books are invaluble.
Could you e-mail me, I am very impressed with your prepartions, and im going to get my php cert, but I need some flash cards. e-mail me at dcs@dewitts.biz pelase
Hi Tyler,
Actually, they were on 3x5 cards (hard to email) and now I don’t know where they are. Really, making up the cards for yourself is part of the study process — helps you identify what you don’t know so you can drill on it. I derived my flash cards from the sample tests — take them, and anytime you get something wrong, ask "why?" If it’s because you didn’t remember something you should have remembered, write that out on a card. In no time you should have your own custom stack — all the stuff you need to learn, none of the stuff you already know. Then when you drill, exclude the stuff you already know — repeat and repeat the stuff you keep getting wrong. Just keep two piles. Occasionaly go back to the stuff you already know to make sure you still do know it, but focus on the pile of stuff you got wrong. Very efficient way to memorize, and should help you a ton on the test.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Robert
Actually, they were on 3x5 cards (hard to email) and now I don’t know where they are. Really, making up the cards for yourself is part of the study process — helps you identify what you don’t know so you can drill on it. I derived my flash cards from the sample tests — take them, and anytime you get something wrong, ask "why?" If it’s because you didn’t remember something you should have remembered, write that out on a card. In no time you should have your own custom stack — all the stuff you need to learn, none of the stuff you already know. Then when you drill, exclude the stuff you already know — repeat and repeat the stuff you keep getting wrong. Just keep two piles. Occasionaly go back to the stuff you already know to make sure you still do know it, but focus on the pile of stuff you got wrong. Very efficient way to memorize, and should help you a ton on the test.
Good luck!
Cheers,
Robert
Well, it's offical -- my status as a Zend Certified Engineer has been posted to the Zend Yellowpages. Look for my upcoming article in the next issue of PHP Magazine to spell out the gory details of my experience. (Or whet your appetite with some of my mus
Tracked: Sep 14, 10:22
Along with the current issue containing my article on the ZCE exam, International PHP Magazine has announced a bold new move: they're going digital, and staying there. Publishing a PDF version every month will allow them to reach an international audience
Tracked: Nov 15, 23:18