Zend PHP Certification Study Guide

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Zend PHP Certification Study Guide
Authors: Rhonda Mize-Tinch, Shelley Johnston, Damon Jordan and George E. Nedeff
Review Written by Vulture

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The “Zend PHP Certification Guide” from Zend Technologies is the perfect companion for any PHP programmer who is either aiming to sit the PHP Certification, or simply wants to have an excellent tour through the major constituents of PHP. This shouldn’t be mistaken for neither a complete reference of PHP nor a beginner's guide to PHP. The introduction of the guide emphasises this point: “…this book is not a PHP development tutorial…Our goal in developing the guide is to provide you with a study aid” It is crucial to make this clear, however it certainly shouldn’t be considered a black mark – I’ll come back to that later.

This book from Zend is clearly designed for a programmer who will be sitting the exam sometime soon. Because of this, the book does not focus on the new aspect of PHP 5. However it does provide an excellent layout which focuses your attention on exactly what you’re going to be asked about. The beginning of each chapter contains a list of “Terms you’ll need to understand” – these are the core learning points of the chapter which provides an excellent checklist before you sit the exam. There is also a list of “Techniques you’ll need to master” which outlines the practical skills you should have after you read that chapter. To ensure you understand what has been discussed, there are numerous “Exam prep questions” at the end of the chapter, which show you examples of questions you are likely to be asked. Detailed answers are provided to the questions, showing you why the other choices are incorrect.

The “Zend PHP Certification Guide” is written by the experts of the PHP exam, the people who created it. Because of this it is the only book available which deals with exactly what is covered. The book is laid out over 13 main chapters, 12 of which deal with PHP and a final chapter which explains the format of the exam. Each of the first 12 chapters contains clear code listings which are often taken from real life examples. An explanation of the code then follows, illustrating the good and/or the bad points of that method. These chapters also include common pitfalls and show how to avoid making coding mistakes. Easy to follow figures and tables have been used throughout the book to help make topics easier to understand. The 13th chapter contains valuable information for candidates, and uses excellent screenshots of how the exam is structured. This final chapter has priceless advice on how to tackle sitting the exam, and how to avoid a resit. A further 18 exam questions can the be attempted using any topic included in the book. These are excellent to uncover areas of difficulty or certain chapters which may need to be rechecked before sitting the exam. An in-depth glossary and index make finding specific topics very simple – making the whole book one which is worthy of the name “Zend”.

While it is the main purpose of the book to ensure the exam is covered, this doesn’t need to be the sole reasoning behind its purchase. The “Zend PHP Certification Guide” includes extremely useful advice, reminders and maybe even a few things you haven’t yet discovered. Some other PHP books either try to crush in the entire PHP manual or are too busy focusing on basics for beginners. This guide, however, focuses on highlighting parts of code which are most likely to be used daily by PHP programmers. The book does move fast though, and someone who has never wrote PHP before may find it a little thin when explaining the basics.

There is no doubt that the “Zend PHP Certification Guide” is an invaluable book for anyone looking to get certified. Code, questions and technique are all covered in this guide, written by the people who know more about the exam than anyone else. The study guide is also useful for PHP coders who simply want to sharpen their knowledge of PHP. An excellent overall guide, something we’d expect from Zend – The PHP Company.