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ZFCE passed

Andrius — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 12:49:18 +0000

Today I have passed Zend Framework Certification Exam. That does not make me a better programmer, but that makes makes me second Lithuanian (first one is Aurelijus Valeisa) to do so. Of course, it is not the reason I took it.
All I can say now, that it actually does not matter very much whether you have a ZFC badge or not. My main reason was to prove myself, that I have learned something new from the past half a year. So I am happy with that.
For those who are considering to take the exam here is my advices:

ZF is currently in 1.9 version and exam is 1.5. A lot of new things have been added from then. So think for yourself, maybe it is not so interesting to go back a few steps while preparing.
Read ZF study guide – “almost” everything is in there to pass the exam
Have a good memory, some answers looks very similiar
In my case I got a lot of questions about Zend_Filter and Zend_Form
Some questions you have to type in
Practice with framework by developing simple application, that would work for the best

Good luck for everyone

Preparing for ZFC exam

Andrius — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 22:55:48 +0000

Decided to write this post, because no information on the Google returns with query “Preparing for Zend framework exam”, about what peaople are actually studying before taking Zend Framework sertification exam. Some of them shared their thoughts “after” passing exam.

http://www.dragonbe.com/2008/10/zend-framework-certified-engineer.html
http://www.techfounder.net/2008/12/30/zend-framework-certification
http://www.ibuildings.com/resources/newsletter/archive/february-09/zend-framework
http://zendstyle.wordpress.com/2009/05/28/zend-framework-exam/
http://zendstyle.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/advices-for-the-zf-exam/
http://friendfeed.com/aurelijus/096c9312/yay-just-passed-zend-framework-certification

So I would like to share my practice “before” taking ZFC exam.
I was keen on ZF since it’s v1.5. Before that I was a big fan of CakePHP which I still think is very suitable for certain type of projects.

Half of year I’ve been into ZF code. Browsing through code and coding project to my opinion makes the best practice. After that I decided that being ZFC Engineer is a natural step of recognition, that your hours spent analyzing code was not forgotten. So I put a deadline for myself by buying an exam voucher and set an exact time when I will take it. Approximately I thought that 3 weeks would be enough. We will see.

How did I start learning ? My first idea: the best solution would be to learn from those who actually design the exam – that is Zend itself. You can take training course (which includes exam voucher) for $1000. I thought that is too much for me and I will study for myself.

Other learning sources on the web that I have discovered:

http://www.logical.co.uk/training_php.php?course=PHPZCEZF
http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/11076

Considering that I know ZF code already by browsing it and coding with it – I took Study guide. There where some things I haven’t noticed by peeking at the code. But mainly, Framework is self explanatory. Coding standards are all over. That’s whatIi like most about ZF.

Next steps:

You wont find a better resource than Reference Guide itself
Read ZF guide blog

Zend PHP5 Certification – Pass

Andrius — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:19:05 +0000

For a long time I have been considering whether it worth passing Zend PHP5 exam or not. Does it make any difference ? Well hell yes, it does. I am not saying this is very hard exam if you are working with PHP on daily basis, but having this little note about yourself makes big influence to your mind. It shows your true commitment to what you do.

A few words about exam. For me it looked very similar to Mock exams, which I have bought with exam voucher. It was not necessary but I think that helped me. After reading Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide, I have taken 4 mock exams with a grade “Excellent” and considered that was enough for me. Next I went to Pearson VUE and passed real exam in about 45min. To my mind 90 minutes it is more than enough. There was some tricky questions, but I am sure you will handle it with no problem.

Now I am looking forward of passing Zend Framework Certification. It is a shame that ZF is 1.8.4 version as I am writing this post, and exam is based on v1.5. But non the less I will take it and write about that experiance.

Try these links if yu wish to learn more:

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/02/passing-the-zend-php-5-certification-exam/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/04/php5-strings-regular-expressions/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/06/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-2-streams-and-network/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/08/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-3-xml-web-service/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/10/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-4-web-programming-web-features/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/12/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-5-database-and-sql/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/14/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-6-security/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/16/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-7-php4-and-php5/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/18/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-8-oop-in-php-5/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/20/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-9-oop-designtheory/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/22/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-10-supplementary-i/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/24/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-11-supplementary-ii/

http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/26/zend-php5-certification-exam-study-review-11-supplementary-iii/

http://mathayi.wordpress.com/2009/01/18/zce-sample-questions/

http://segfaultlabs.com/blog/post/zend-php-certification-watchouts/