This is very interesting reading. I've been using PHP (almost) daily for the past 7 months so Chris' comments do encourage me to consider the possibility of going for the certification in time. I do think I would need the study guide though as there are many topics being discussed on this list that are new to me and my experience has been with only one application at present. My problem (as I'm sure is true with many others) is that I need to get the job done ASAP and rarely have time to research the 'best' way of doing things. This list is very good at getting me to see alternatives to how I am doing things.
Thanks Graham -----Original Message----- From: Chris Shiflett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: 30 September 2004 18:18 To: Rory Browne; PHP General Subject: Re: [PHP] Zend PHP Certification test --- Rory Browne <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I haven't done the exam, yet, but based on some of the practice > questions, I'm getting worried. I'm finding sample questions whose > answers are not covered in the book. If you're talking about the questions in the back of the Zend Certification Guide, don't worry - those questions are much more difficult and obscure than what you'll find on the actual exam. If it makes you feel better, several of us from the advisory board looked through those at OSCON, and we all missed most of the first few questions. :-) > One such question was a list(, $var) = whatever, and nowhere in > the book could I find an explanation for same. Yeah, I got that one, but the other guys thought it would be a parse error or something. Having the comma first just skips the first argument - it's like you don't want to assign the first value to a variable. Not knowing this is fine. > I've also used count, and strlen many times, but I've never used > count on a non-array, which is what strlen returns. I think this is something you should be able to answer, but that's just me. It's true that most people who use count() use it on an array, but it's not really an array function. It just happens to not make much practical sense to count something that's only going to have one value (or null, which will return 0). However, while practicality is great, I think some theoretical foundation is also important. I didn't write this question, so that's not why I'm defending it. :-) Some of the questions in the guide require you to deduce the correct answer from what you've learned. This can rarely be achieved if the guide is your only exposure to a topic, and this is somewhat intentional. We tried to target developers who have at least 6 months of professional PHP experience (e.g., you've been writing non-trivial PHP applications every day for at least 6 months). The guide was written to help people expose themselves to a broader range of topics than their practical experience might have exposed them to, because the exam is pretty thorough. I think a very experienced developer can pass the exam without using the guide with little trouble, but I don't think an inexperienced developer can read the guide and hope to pass. You need more than that. Hope that helps. Chris ===== Chris Shiflett - http://shiflett.org/ PHP Security - O'Reilly HTTP Developer's Handbook - Sams Coming December 2004 http://httphandbook.org/ -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php -- PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
