Passing the zend php 5 certification exam read the web

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Passing the Zend PHP 5 Certification Exam
On 16th, December, 2007, I have passed the new Zend PHP 5 certification exam . Well, I feel the actual exam
is very easy; it should not difficult for any php user who has certain level of php development experience. In
this post, I will publish some information regarding how to prepare and attend the exam. Of course, since Zend has
stopped back up the old PHP (PHP4) certification exam, PHP5 exam is the only exam right now you can choose to
take.
Preparing the exam
Reference books and documents:
There is one must‐have book you need go through(maybe twice) before you take the exam, that is phparchitect’s
“php|architect’s Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide“. I can’t say this book is very useful to those php
veteran; but compare to the previous ” Zend Php Certification Study Guide”(for PHP4, which published by
Sams), this book is mostly accurate on every aspect of the PHP feature, and it does cover nearly everything
you need to know in order to pass the exam.
However, though the study guide is very useful, but as it name suggests, it is just a GUIDE. According my
experience, a systematically studying on PHP 5 will very helpful for your passing the exam. I suggest the
book: “Beginning PHP and MySQL 5: From Novice to Professional, Second Edition“(by Apress, 2nd edition). Even
though, many knowledge in this book will not required in the actual exam, it provides far more detailed
explanation on those knowledge mentioned in the study guide; and I also believe that a more full scope
understanding of PHP will do you more good than no harm while you are learning PHP.
Another useful document is the paul reinheimer’s ZCE course guide—‐this document can be downloaded freely
from the internet I believe. I found that you can use this little book quickly overview the ZCE exam’s the
twelve major topics, and also following the guide‐line, you can check php.net more often! There are twelve
major topics of the ZCE exam:
1. PHP Basics
2. Functions
3. Strings
4. Arrays
5. Files and Streams
6. Security
7. Databases
8. Design and Theory
9. Object Oriented Programming
10. PHP 4 vs PHP 5

2. 11. Web Features
12. XML
I will posted a series of final reviews on each topics in future blog posts to help those who may will want
to attend this exam as well.
Practice
Even though that you may pass the exam without the actual PHP development experience, however, I strongly
suggest that that you start to do some coding in PHP as soon as you have learned some thing new, or play some
of the Open Source PHP CMS around. Actual PHP development experience is the vital part that make sure you
truly understood what you read. And, of course, php.net is alway an invaluable source that you can exploit.
Some key knowledge will be made very easy to grasp after you read some of the user discussions and examples
on php.net—‐and there is no better way to do so!
Zend PHP 5 Certification Simulator
There is always better if you can improve your confidence and familiarize the actual test environment before
you attend whatever exam. Right now, there is a very good deal at phparch, which is a 10‐use of Vulcan Zend
PHP 5 Certification Testing License. You can take ten times of the Zend PHP 5 Certification Simulator exam
before you take the actual exam. It is also a good assistant as you are preparing the exam, as their web page
says, it really can “Provides a breakdown of your score by topic to help you maximize your study time only on
those areas you really need”. I passed all of the ten simulator exams, and since from the fourth, I passed
with excellent score—‐by the way this is only available in this Vulcan system, the actual exam will only show
you either “Passed” or “Failed”—‐so you can build up your confidence all the way to the final exam room.
Register and Schedule the exam
This is what you will do after you fully prepared for the ZCE exam:
First, you will purchase a Zend PHP Certification voucher from Zend.com. Before you do the purchase, search google
for “Zend PHP5 Certification promo code” to see if you can find some promo code. For example, “zcej100″ saved me
25 bucks at the time I purchasing the certification voucher . After you got your voucher code, you need go
to Pearson VUE website to register an account and then select the right exam to make an appointment at which time
you will attend. Please carefully select the best VUE test center for you, because you must make sure you can
arrive the test center in time. You need consider location, traffic, timing; for example, if you are not a morning
person, schedule the exam at afternoon!
Take the exam
The actual exam should not difficult to you. It will easier than those Vulcan simulators. According my experience,
Functions, Strings, Arrays, Security, Object Oriented Programming and Web Features are seem more important in the
exam. Of course, the actual 70 exam questions were randomly selected every time; so every exam should have
different questions distribution among the twelve topics.
Ok. That a brief introduce how to pass the ZCE exam. PHP is most popular web programming language ever be used;
and recently I found that more and more hosting service providers have supported PHP 5. Since PHP 4 have been
deprecated, PHP 6 are still in cradle, PHP 5 will be more and more important! I encourage anyone working in the

3. web develop field get the ACE certification. Good luck!
18 Comments
Md. Mahmud Ahsan
What you think about the difference of the mock exams and the actual exams? Which is harder?
Tuesday April 29th, 2008 at 08:27 PM
Md. Mahmud Ahsan
hello,
Will you please send me your email address. I want to send you my 6 mock exams result. And want to evaluate
me from you.
Thanks
Tuesday April 29th, 2008 at 08:30 PM
David Adam
Hi, thanks for you comment. I think the actual exams are easier than the mock exams.
Friday May 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 AM
Md. Mahmud Ahsan
Hello,
On 5th May I passed the real exam and become Zend Certified Engineer. Here is the link:
http://www.zend.com/store/education/certification/authenticate.php?
ClientCandidateID=ZEND007769&RegistrationID=225231754
but, my opinion is:
Compare to Mock exams I found real exam’s questions are harder. As the questions of real exam are randomly
choosen so it depends on one’s luck.
Wednesday May 7th, 2008 at 01:16 PM
shawkat
Thursday June 5th, 2008 at 09:44 PM

4. Can you help me to get paul reinheimer’s ZCE course guide as I have searched in the internet desparately
with no success…
David Adam
Hi, really. You think the real exam questions are harder?
Um, maybe. When I passed the exam, I feel it is easier, maybe it is not necessary than the mod test, but
than some questions I read through other books and forums.
By the way, congratulations!
Monday June 9th, 2008 at 01:51 PM
David Adam
paul reinheimer’s ZCE course guide:
http://readtheweb.info/wp‐content/uploads/2008/06/paul_reinheimer‐zce.pdf
Monday June 9th, 2008 at 02:16 PM
quoted on Zend Certification Exam experience ‐ C
[...] Mr “I like PHP” – http://readtheweb.info/2008/01/02/passing‐the‐zend‐php‐5‐certification‐exam [...]
Thursday July 10th, 2008 at 06:18 AM
Lekha R
sir.
i would like to know about the way they will ask questions in exam. Currently I am working as a PHP
Programmer. I am planning to attend the PCE exam. Could you please send some early asked questions of PCE
exam.
thanks and regards
Lekha
Thursday November 13th, 2008 at 04:17 PM
abinash
visit http://www.abinashg.com/zend
Saturday November 22nd, 2008 at 04:15 AM
tao yu
Wednesday December 17th, 2008 at 10:10 AM

5. Anyone know which one is better?
http://www.phparch.com/c/phpa/product/vulcan/view
http://www.zend.com/en/store/php‐certification/online‐practice‐testing
David Adam
I used the phparch one. But, the price seems the same. You am try out the zend’s. But, I suspect the two are
the same.
Sunday December 28th, 2008 at 09:44 PM
Todd
A very late congratulations, but congratulations no less. I’ll be taking the exam this upcoming Friday.
Wednesday March 4th, 2009 at 11:46 AM
quoted on Falta pouco para a ZCE « Igor Escobar // Blog
[...] Passing the Zend php 5 certification exam [...]
Monday July 5th, 2010 at 01:35 PM
quoted on PHPirate » Zend PHP5 Certification Exam
[...] http://readtheweb.info – First of a collection of posts with advice on each category covered in the
exam. [...]
Friday August 27th, 2010 at 07:01 AM
Xuni
Hi!
I just failed the exam, don’t know how since I passed the mock exam with excellent degree twice in a row.
I actually found the real test more challenging.
Or maybe it was just bad luck, I noticed that I sucked at the parts where I thought I was good at… maybe
something about the double negation wording. Don’t know. Anyhow. 150$ down the drain.
I will read these instructions and then try again.
Xuni
Monday September 13th, 2010 at 11:56 PM
echo
haha,good article
Monday December 6th, 2010 at 12:02 PM

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Dan Kelly
Hello,
I started a Study group. Do you have any suggestions for us to maybe study maybe one topic more than the
other or any ideas in general?
Monday June 13th, 2011 at 09:04 PM