In about three weeks time I’m looking forward to taking part in some Zend Certification training at Leeds NTI (funded by the nice folks at twentysix).

After working with PHP for nearly two years I’m excited to be have been given the oportunity to gain the coveted title Zend Certified Engineer.

After doing some of the practise exams (buy them here), I’m starting to feel more confident. They provide a good way to structure your learning and highlight areas of PHP you may not use on a day to day basis.

They take the form of a 70 question multiple choice style test paper. Ninety minuets are allotted to complete the test. I find that one hour is sufficient, with the additional time required to check through the more tricky questions. Speaking of tricky questions,  the exam is littered with what could be considered ‘trick questions’. At first glance the answer seems evident however on closer examination a nuance of the language is used to produce the correct answer.

This inevitably produces a feeling of ‘exam paranoia’, I end up triple checking even the apparently easy questions.

I think the three day Zend Certification Course will help exorcise this feeling to some extent as the common ”gotchas’ that appear in the paper will be covered.

Wish me luck!

Ben