In this new post to her blog today Lorna Mitchell looks at some of her experiences as she worked toward talking the Zend Certified Engineer certification (the 5.3 version), including her opinion as to whether it was even worth it.

I recently took (and passed!) the ZCE 5.3 certification. I've been a Zend Certified Engineer (5.0) for nearly 3 years, and I know a lot more about PHP today than I did then. Today I speak and write various things related to PHP, and also teach all sorts of topics including PHP certification. I thought I'd share my thoughts on the ZCE, and I'll write a follow-up post on how to prepare for it.

She talks about the changes Zend has made to the contents of the 5.3 version of the test including the removal of the "differences between PHP4 and PHP5" section. She mentions some of the resources she found to help her along the way to testing success and what the general format of the exam was like. In her opinion, the worth of the test lies in the work done to prepare for it, growing your PHP knowledge along the way. The actual piece of paper resulting from the test could, unfortunately, be more of a result of getting the "right" or "wrong" questions that could be confusing.