By Tomas Dabasinskas, on October 2nd, 2010, 
Background
Since I was working with PHP and WEB development in general for a quite time (about 5 years), I really wanted to get me the PHP Zend certificate. The problem was that I either haven't enough time or free money for the exam. Couple months ago I've got lucky when Zend started beta certification for PHP 5.3. I filled the online survey and got selected to get this examination for free.
Preparation for the exam
There wasn't much time for the preparation since I had two weeks till my scheduled exam. Good thing was that I had Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide book read before. Because of that and the skills I had from the past PHP development I was quite confident with my general PHP knowledge. The problem was that I haven't done any project with version 5.3 of PHP in particular. So what I did was reading a few blogs and watching presentations about new features of PHP 5.3 (namespaces, lambda functions, late static binding etc). As I mentioned before, when I was thinking about Zend certification year ago, I was sure I'm going to get at least couple test vouchers but this time I decided not to spend money on them.
Exam
Since I had to sign NDA before the exam, I can't talk much about exam saying what exact questions there were. The questions varied and there were many questions I was sure about the answer as well as some question I had no idea what correct answer was so I had to make logical guesses here by trying to remove answers I though might be incorrect. After finishing all the questions I wasn't sure that I will definitely pass it. Because it was beta exam, I had to wait for results for a quite time.
Results
More then month passed when I've got the email with "PHP 5.3 Beta Exam Results" subject. To be true, my hands were shaking a bit when I was opening this e-mail. As I opened it, I found out that I actually passed this exam and became Zend Certified Engineer. Yesterday I've got the real certificate to mail mailbox (you can see photo of it in beginning of this post).
I'm really glad I've accomplished that and I hope this certificate will help me in the future while searching for a new job. If you are interested, there's my profile at Zend Yellow pages. Oh, and while looking through the list of Zend Certified Engineers from Lithuania, I've noticed that I'm the first one having PHP 5.3 certificate.
Hi Tomas.
How difficult is the exam? I want to take it but there is no tests exam anymore.
Hi Juan,
well, it depends on your knowledge and experience with PHP. What I can say that the exam isn't very easy and there are lot of things and catches you should know.
For test exams, as I see, they are indeed gone. The only way to get one, as far as I know, is to buy Test Prep for the PHP 5.3 Certification Exam + Test Voucher (http://shop.zend.com/en/php-certification/php5-certification-training.html), but it's expensive.
Hi Tomas. Can you tell, is there many questions connected with version 5.3 on the real exam? I want to pass the exam in the nearest future. But just like you I haven't done a lot of projects with version 5.3 of PHP.
Sorry, Dmitry, I don't remember number of questions related to PHP 5.3. Anyhow, since this is PHP 5.3 exam, you should at least be familiar with new features of PHP 5.3.
Ohh nice
...!
Congratulation dear friend....!
I've little question.
Friend, some of zend question consist on block of code. so we are track right solution or answer by just guessing? or we are able to test the block of code?
If I understand you correctly, you are not able to run the code. You must to think logically by interpreting the code.
Ohh I see...!
yeah you are right...!
I most certenly like this angle that you have on the subject. I wasnt thinking on this at the time I begun browsing for tips. Your ideas were totally easy to get. Im glad to find out that there’s an individual online that obviously understands on the spot what its is talking about.
Congrats Tomas, How much time did you take for Preparing Zend 5.3 Exam.
Well, let's say 3 weeks for reading the book some time ago and reading articles on the Internet.
Dear Tomas,
1) After completing exam question? result display on screen? or maybe Zend submit email ?
2) dear, any idea what is percentage for pass this exam?
Thing is that the exam I took was beta. That's why I had to wait a month to see the results. Now you should see your result on the screen right after you complete the test.
As for the % you have to score to pass - I don't know.
Hi friend Can tomas can u tell me How did u prepare to exam.Did u buy any tutorial or books?
Thankx
Hi friend tomas
can u tell me How did u prepare to exam.Did u buy any tutorial or books?
Thankx
I've bought "Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide" some time ago.
Hi Tomas,
First of congrats for your certification.
Tomas as you said in your blog that "you filled the online survey and got selected to get this examination for free", so can you tell me can we appear for certification with free of cost, if yes then how.
As far as I know, currently there's no way you could get certification for free
I am planning to give Zend Php certification exam. I have studied from PHp manual and Zend Study Guide.
Can anyone help me in the providing some gud sites where i can get the dumps. I also want to know the difficulty level of this exam.
Hey Tomas congrats. It's a great achievement. I have learned the basic components of html,php-3 and basic system of database related topics using apache. But I'm not sure is it possible for me to train myself in PHP 5.3 with the guide of zend. And how long it'll take to make myself prepare for the exam. What d you think?
My congratilations Sr.
Had discovered that I actualy don't know nothing about how many mistakes are avalible to pass the exam and what the exact policy about mistakes? I read much information around the internet but still don't found answer on this question.
Can you please explain that?
And also interesting did you saw your mistakes after you end exam? If so, how many mistakes did you do, Thomas?
hy tomas....
if i dont pass in the exam,can i participate in the exam..for free or i have to register again...please tell
Hi , congratulations on your success. Now i am also interested to give the php 5.3 exam. Please give me some suggestions for it.
How much we need to score for passing PHP 5.3 Exam?
Hi Thomas,
I found no material available for PHP 5.3 Certification Exam. Actually I want to prepare in a managed way but no way found, and all I gets response is Go through PHP Manual But as you know its quite Big, one Can not go every Topic with their user posts.
Please Give me Proper suggestion to start with.
Thanks.
Hi Thomas
Iam looking a Zend Certified Engineer with Drupal for one of our job opening; can please give me suggestions from where i can get the relevant candidates. (Job portals are not sufficient) Thanks & Regards Reena
i am also interested to give the php exam. Please give me some suggestions for it. And what is total cost for it.and Can i get it from any private classes or organisation.