The Zend PHP Certification Practice Test Book: Practice Questions For The Zend Certified Engineer Exam

Books Details :

Author : John Coggeshall, Marco Tabini
Paperback: 149 pages
Publisher: Marco Tabini & Associates, Inc.; 1st edition (January 31, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN: 0973589884
Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.3 inches

Book Description
As the usage of PHP grows, the need for a globally-recognized redentials program for professional developers is becoming more and more important. The Zend Engineer Certification Program, launched by worldwide PHP leader Zend Technologies, finally creates a professional designation that represents consistently high-quality skills and knowledge in the PHP world. Written and edited by four members of the Zend Education Board who also helped create the actual Zend Certification Exam, this book contains 200 questions on every topic that is part of the exam.

The Zend Certification Practice Test Book is an invaluable resource in testing your preparedness in every area of the exam, from the basics to the most advanced topics. Each question comes with a clear answer that provides an explanation of the question's topic, its goals and end result. Answering the questions in this book will allow you to clearly and quickly identify the areas of PHP in which you are strong and those in which you need further study before being able to pass the exam! Zend Technologies, Inc. is the PHP company. Founded by the creators and ongoing innovators of PHP, it is the developer of the Zend Engine, the heart of PHP. Zend focuses on enterprise-class products and services that enable organizations to develop, deploy and manage business-critical PHP applications.

NanoBooks are excellent, in-depth resources created by the publishers of php|architect, the world's premier magazine dedicated to PHP professionals. NanoBooks focus on delivering high-quality content with in-depth analysis and expertise, centered around a single, well-defined topic and without any of the fluff of larger, more expensive books.

About the Author
John Coggeshall is a Technical Consultant for Zend Technologies, where he provides professional services to clients around the world. He got started with PHP in 1997 and is the author of three published books and over 100 articles on PHP technologies with some of the biggest names in the industry such as php|architect, SAMS Publishing, Apress and O’Reilly. John also is an active contributor to the PHP core as the author of the tidy extension, a member of the Zend Education Advisory Board, and frequent speaker at PHP-related conferences worldwide. His web site is an excellent resource for any PHP developer

Marco Tabini is the publisher of php|architect, the premier magazine for PHP professionals. The author and co-author of four books, he was also part of the group of Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who helped write the Zend Certification Exam. He regularly maintains a blog where he discusses the business of open-source software.

Excerpted from The Zend PHP Certification Practice Test Book - Practice Questions for the Zend Certified Engineer Exam by John Coggeshall, Marco Tabini. Copyright © 2005. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
FOREWORD BY ANDI GUTMANS

There are many advantages to having a PHP certification program. Foremost, it allows employers, especially those of the non-technical kind, to set a certain standard for their PHP hiring decisions; they’ll know that people who are certified have passed a set of hurdles in earning their credentials and can clearly demonstrate their knowledge of PHP and its related technologies. Not only does that mean that a Zend Certified Engineer will automatically match such criteria and have an immediate advantage on the job market, but the certification process also allows for more and more enterprises to adopt PHP. This, in turn, will lead to a much more vibrant job market for PHP developers—making it easier to make a living from what PHP developers like doing most. I have no doubt that we will see an increase in the ongoing PHP proliferation due to the existence of Zend’s PHP Certification Exam. A few weeks ago, I finally found time to take the Zend PHP Certification Exam. Despite having written some of the questions and being part of the exam education advisory board that reviewed the questions a few months ago, I was surprised to realize that I was a tad bit tense—I think not only because exams in general tend to have this effect on me, but also because I remembered that the questions were very thorough, most probably due to the fact that the exam authors themselves are leaders in the PHP community who wanted to come up with the best possible questions. Without making the exam overly difficult, this ensured that every question was well-thought-out, thoroughly peer-reviewed and carefully constructed; this is bound to make any prospective exam-taker—especially one that was an integral part of such a thorough process—a bit nervous! I’m happy to say that I passed the exam—but I admit that some questions were quite hard. I think that, overall, the exam is fair but, unlike many other certification tests, much more thorough. A PHP developer with no experience really cannot pass this exam, which I think is great. It really certifies PHP developers who have experience in developing PHP based web applications in the real world. I believe this book will be of great help in preparing for the certification exam. Both Marco and John were on the Zend PHP Certification Advisory Board and understand the nature of the exam and what its goals are. Both authors also have many years of experience in PHP, which is readily recognizable from the book’s contents. This book very nicely covers the different topics on which you will be tested and provides questions that are very similar to the ones you will see on the exam. Having the answers at the end of each chapter will make it easy for you to validate your strengths and weaknesses. I wish you all the best with the certification progress and hope you will soon join the growing family of Zend Certified Engineers.

Andi Gutmans Co-founder & VP of Technology, Zend Technologies Zend Certified Engineer

Spotlight Reviews :

Reviewer: David Norman "deekayen" (Orlando, FL United States)
Your time would be better spent reviewing the PHP manual to know what number of parameters go to basic/common functions and what they return for the major topic areas listed on the Zend website.

I got this and the Zend PHP Certification study guide. It does have errors, like others said, and I don't think I really learned anything *about PHP* from it, but I did learn about what to expect from the questions. I think it helped me on the exam only by making me look harder for bugs in questions before just selecting the seemingly obvious answer choice/output.

I don't think the questions are really any different from the chapter-end practice in the Zend book. My recommendation is to NOT get this, and just get the Zend book if you're wanting to study a book. I wanted to get both just to make sure I didn't waste the exam fee, but I think this book, in the end, didn't make a difference in whether I passed or not.

Reviewer: Bob
I just passed my Zend Certified Engineer test. It wasn't easy. For preparation, I used both the Official Zend Study Guide (by Zend Technologies) and this book. I often found myself frustrated by the numerous errata in both books, but there were significantly more mistakes in this book (ranging from having the wrong answer listed in the answers section to typos). The positive aspect of this is that it forced me to spend more time with the online php manual answering my questions. I found the questions on the actual exam to be more like those in this book, than from the Official Study Guide, but you really need the Official Study Guide to make some sense of the answers in here as well. There were questions in this book covering exam topics that wheren't covered in the Official Study Guide. That's reason enough to get it.

The print quality on the pages is sub-standard, but the questions and thorough answers were very helpful.

Simply put, I wouldn't have had any chance of passing the exam if it weren't for this practice test book, even though it's aggravating at times.

Reviewer: Kenjiro Yagi (Cupertino, CA USA)

Pros
- By working out and understanding the reasoning behind each question in this book, you will do "well" on the Zend Certification Exam.
- Excellent questions, many tricky qwerks about PHP is explained.

Cons
- The book has errors that will confuse you for hours and the authors are not too responsive in taking care of it. [...]
Note
- This book was not designed to teach, please don't expect to be taught PHP through this book.