Zend PHP5 Certification Exam is coming.

jtp51

Finally...

I received an email from Zend asking for suggestions towards the PHP5 Certification Exam.

"Since the Zend PHP Certification Exam is designed to mimic the community aspects of PHP, we are asking you, a member of the ZCE community, to lend your thoughts on the current Certification Exam, and suggestions for the next one."

I'm at the odd position of:

Yes, I will take the exam when offered. Passing the PHP5 exam will still be a great achievement that employeers should take notice of... mine did at least.

However, I don't do much PHP development anymore.

Anyways, I'd like your thoughts or suggestions on the PHP5 Certification exam as well.

What do you want to see or I like questions similar to?

Thanks,

bpat1434

I'd like to see this posted in the right section of the forum... the Echo Lounge....

But mainly: How about less manual based questions (like memorizing syntax of elements on function calls) and more on application design and use. I.e. Not the proper way to use strpos or explode (note the flip in needle and haystack!!) but stuff like how would you do this? And give options. A PHP developer should know where to find answers, and also be able to solve problems with the language, not strictly know how to call functions.

It's too stanardized of a test if you ask me....

But still, this should have gone in the Echo Lounge

bradgrafelman

That reminds me of Dell's Computer Technician certification exam. Basically, I became a Dell certified tech so I could go on to their website and order parts without having to call a single person and answer all of the idiot questions (yes it's plugged in, yes I turned it on, etc.).

In order to become Dell certified, the only real requirement boiled down to this: you have to be able to read. You were allowed (actually, you were TOLD) to open the online Dell manual that spells out everything you need to know (with pictures, too) in a separate window while taking the test. Basically, they wanted to see if you could access the information you needed and correctly interpret it.

Granted, with a PHP certification it should probably be a little more demanding than that, but that was just the quickest example I could think of.

bpat1434

Well, I mean it should be tough, but it should not test on the structure, unless it follows a uniform pattern. But some functions that have similar parameters passed to them (like searching arrays or strings and what not) have slightly different syntaxes for each function. I don't want to memorize 5,000+ functions, but rather familiarize myself with what they are/do, and know where to look if I get stuck.

But that dell thing is pretty funny....

laserlight

You were allowed (actually, you were TOLD) to open the online Dell manual that spells out everything you need to know (with pictures, too) in a separate window while taking the test. Basically, they wanted to see if you could access the information you needed and correctly interpret it.

I think that's the way to go. I remember sitting for tests as a kid where the test consisted of regurgitation from the periodic table of elements... yet any professional chemist would have the reference at hand, and know where to look.