Tag Archives: ZCE

Zend Certification Practice Exam

In preparation for the Zend Certification Exam (ZCE), Zend provides a great (sarcasm) online practice test that consists of 8 questions. That is right, 8 questions. A certification exam that consists of 70 questions and Zend offers 8 questions. And the other thing with the practice test, is that if you get 5 out of 8 correct, then you are “ready” to take the exam. Which I would not suggest, unless of course you have at least 1 year of real PHP experience coding, testing, even hacking. Plus, there is a good amount of DB stuff on the test, as well as security, streams, XML/Web Services and other stuff. I also suggest you pay (that is right, pay) for a set of practice exams. But I digress. Back to the Zend practice test. They give you 8 questions, then just tell you how many you got right/wrong. There is no feedback (like a real exam) on the practice test, which I think there ought to be. So I decided I would not only give you the answer, but why it is the answer. Following is the exam questions and the answers and why they are the answers.
Continue reading Zend Certification Practice Exam

Zend Certification

Another quick post this week, as I am bogged down in work and preparing for a Zend Certification Exam. I am going to be taking the exam for Zend Certified Engineer (ZCE). While I do not expect it to be much problem, these types of exams are usually worded in a way that may not give you all the basics.

I do highly recommend to visit the Zend site, download the exam prep book, and then also get a 5 pack of the test exams. The Zend store has the book and you can add on the practice exams for $17 (for 5 exams). The book explains the basics on the exam, things like network programming, XML and web services, and other items that will appear on the exam. Then if you get the 5 pack for the exam, you can take a practice test 5 times, and be able to get an idea of what the exam will be like.

Some of the questions seem like no brainers, but then there are times when the question has a key word, that makes the question mean something completely different than first appearances. One of the things I learned a long time ago, is that with these types of exams, the multiple choice has four to five questions that can be peared down quickly. Usually one is not going to be correct because of absurdity, one is going to sound like it is right, but for obvious reasons it is incorrect. Then there are the final 2 questions that can both be correct, but there is one answer they are looking for.

Sounds easy right? Would be if it was just like college, where you get to take a test, if you do not get a “pass” grade, then there are other things you can do to make up the score. With these exams, and this one in particular, it is $125 for one certification exam. You do not pass, not only are you out $125, you do not get anything, no certification of any kind. You need to pay again for another shot at the exam. So no matter how much you know a language, no matter how much you think you may know, always study and prepare. It never hurts and in the process, you may get to know more about the language than you did before.