The first and only officially authorized book on the PHP Certification exam developed by Zend Technologies, the commercial developer of PHP. Zend’s PHP Certification exam is a high-quality, carefully developed exam designed to enhance and certify the skills of the PHP professional. The Zend PHP Certification Study Guide is a concise, densely packed book that will get you up to speed quickly on the nature of the exam’s questions and what to expect on exam day. It’s authoritative content comes directly from those writing the exam at Zend Technologies.

The first and only officially authorized book on the PHP Certification exam developed by Zend Technologies, the commercial developer of PHP. Zend’s PHP Certification exam is a high-quality, carefully developed exam designed to enhance and certify the skills of the PHP professional. The Zend PHP Certification Study Guide is a concise, densely packed book that will get you up to speed quickly on the nature of the exam’s questions and what to expect on exam day. It’s authoritative content comes directly from those writing the exam at Zend Technologies.

PHP4 ONLY!!!!! USELESS FOR PHP5 CERTIFICATION
this is a good book, good review of the php4 language, but useless if you want to get a PHP5 certification.

I buy the book cause i want to make the certification on PHP5 so i wasted my money...

Could help if the title of the book specify the language version.

Worth Buying, but don’t rely on it
This book was a good overview, but be careful. There are numerous mistakes in the book and on the "practice" tests. Not that his book will even be worth anything since the PHP4 test will no longer be given in a month, but if it’s any indicator of what the PHP5 book is like I recommend you use more then one source of study material. Certain topics that are in the test were very briefly covered in the book, but I had two or three questions on it. I would recommend the cert course through Zend if you are worried about your knowledge.

Good overview, nowhere near enough problems on sample exam
When studying for a technical certification exam, there are two things that you must do. The first is to achieve the appropriate level of expertise and the second is to become familiar with the forms that the questions may take. Questions on technical examinations can be very tricky, a common cause of failure is to misread or misinterpret the question. Programming is such a precise activity that it is easy to write a question where the "obvious" answer is in fact wrong.
While this book does have some description of how to program in PHP, it is a review only and there is not enough to impart the appropriate level of expertise in PHP. A small number of sample questions are given at the end of each chapter and there is a sample exam with eighteen questions at the end. Solutions to all of the questions are included.
Although I found the study questions to be good, my personal opinion is that there are not enough of them. It would have been better if there were at least fifty questions in a sample exam, or two exams with at least fifty. When providing study questions, overkill is difficult to impossible to achieve, and eighteen is nowhere near that lofty goal.

The book is harder than the exam
I just took and passed the the test today and read this book cover to cover twice. I think it is a great book, but it seemed that the book’s questions were a lot harder then the exams.

Absolutely Terrible
Coming from "The PHP Company", I fully expected this book to be "up-to-snuff" on everything it covered. I was sadly mistaken.

I barely made it past the third page of the first chapter, and I had to shelf it. The technical errors, the grammatical errors (I know, I’m not perfect), and the cheesey analogies all made it a very uncomfortable experience.

As another reviewer mentioned, this book needs to be updated to reflect the errata and such. I’m very displeased with it, and I will be sharing my opinion with Zend.

good review
I don’t regret getting this book, because I passed. It was a good *refresher* on some topics I don’t normally script with (like file resources), but it was by no means the ticket to passing the exam. I’m not writing a gleaming review because I think it’s easily possible to pass the exam, never having read this book *if* you’re actually experienced with PHP.

Chances are, if you’re taking the exam because you want to have a certification to go with your experience, you probably won’t get much from this book (think review). If you don’t consider yourself an expert, and you’re taking the exam, this book won’t make you pass, even if you memorize every word on every page.

I’m actually kind of glad this book took the middle road between complete PHP teaching and total crap since I think it probably helps keep the certification more pure for people who actually have experience to get certified. Read through the exam topics on the Zend website. If you think there’s an area you’re weak on, the book will probably help you realize what you might want to review in the PHP manual.

Perfect Study Guide
The "Zend PHP Certification Study Guide" is the perfect book for those wanting to take, and pass the "Zend PHP Certification Exam".

Relatively new to PHP myself, I found the majority of this book useful. With a "Terms You’ll Need To Understand" and a "Techniques You’ll Need To Master" section at the start of each chapter, the areas you are expected to know for the exam is explained. Also, with "Exam Prep Questions" at the end of each chapter, you are given a chance to put what you’ve just learned into practice.

Although it covers the basics, I would not recommend this to anyone wanting to learn PHP. The book, as stated in the Introduction "...is not a PHP development tutorial or a reference book on the language and its extensions.", so those with no experience in PHP that are looking to take the exam should seek to learn the basics elsewhere before buying this book.

Wanting to take the exam doesn’t have to be the only reason to purchase this book. It serves as a useful reminder to those out of practice, and may even teach you a few new things you’ve yet to discover about PHP. There is no doubt however, that this guide is invaluable to those looking to get certified. And written by those who write the exam questions, who’s to argue with that?

Highly Dissapointed
I purchased this book because it was supposed to be a study guide for a certification test. From what i have seen this book is filled with typo’s and error that have been corrected in the errata. Not only that but i have talked to people whom have read the guide and taken the test and they said there were things on the exam that were never covered in the book.

A good start... but not deep enough for the exam.
This book will really help get your mind geared toward the exam, but don’t think that you’ll be ready just by reading this book. The breakdown of topics by chapter are a great way to get familiar with the exam subjects. I read every word on every page about 3 times, and while it helped for the test, it wasn’t 100% inclusive of the material you’ll be expected to know. Get the practice exam book, and spend some serious time with the relevant sections of the php manual online, writing code trying out questions you don’t understand/ got wrong, and going through the php-recommended.ini file that is distributed with PHP 4.*. Of course, programming experience will be helpful, but many of the subjects are in areas that you might not used on a daily basis, especially to the knowledge level you’ll need for the exam.

Good luck!

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

Good Study Guide
This book albeit different from what I was expecting, did live up to other expectations that I had prior to reading. I was expecting a high quality, in-depth book that was written by those with real php knowledge, as well as some examples of snippets in action. These were fulfilled, with Zend PHP Certification having very in-depth chapters, relative to the sections which are covered in the "PHP Exam."

Zend PHP Certification is as its title suggests; it is a practice guide for the "PHP Exam" not a guide for those who are new to php. It is a thorough guide to php, starting a chapter with the basics, then moving up to the advanced scripts which can be compiled using that code. I believe it is a must for those serious about their php coding.

I believe some areas of the book could have done with more explanation, but this in its rights, maybe because I am still relatively new to php.

Zend PHP Certification is a great guide and once again, I strongly recommend it to those who are serious about, or want to take their php seriously.
-Vercz-

I am unimpressed
I got the second not the first edition of this book, so at least some of the errors have been corrected. And I agree with what the other reviewers said, this is certainly NOT the book to learn PHP from. I’ve been using PHP extensively for four years and I thought I might go for the cert.

What this book will provide you is a list of topics to know. But it fails to fill in the details, which are precisely what I forget in areas of development that I haven’t been hanging out in lately.

And I just can’t believe that the certification exam questions are really that easy.