Few days ago I was asked if I can review on of uCertify prepkits. I wrote a review some time ago for a different prepkit – full review here XK0-002: Linux + PrepKit – and at the time I was impressed with the quality of the kit. So I agreed to do it again. This time, I picked the prepkit for the Certified Ethical Hacker or CEH certification. For those of you who don’t know it, this is the Chuck Norris of security certifications.

I downloaded the Windows executable version of the prepkit, in hope that I will be able to make it work on my Macbook. No such luck. I tried Wine and CrossOver, but it kept on crashing. After several hours of frustration I emailed back the guys at uCertify with the issue. They suggested using the web version of the prepkit – at the the time I didn’t know there was a web version – which worked like a charm on all platform. So, first lesson learned – if you have a Linux / Mac system – go straight to the web version.

Usability, look and feel

I found the prepkit to be particularly easy to use. The interface is really straight forward, very clean, with good typography that doesn’t tire your eyes. Typography is particularly in this case, as geeks – myself included – wear glasses and don’t like hard to read “artistic” fonts.

The information is structured in a logical manner, everything is where you expect it to be. Just have a quick look to the screenshot on the right!

Maximum score to usability & ease of use.

Features

The information is divided into 3 main areas: Learn & Practice, Study Material and Performance Assessment and Analytics and each section is divided into multiple sub-sections.

The Learn & Practice section is comprised of various tests, which can be used to mimic a real life exam (Test mode), study (Learning mode) or to review your knowledge (Review mode). Screenshot to the right!

Study Material is comprised of:

• Subject/Exam Standards & Objectives
• Study notes
• Articles
• Flash Cards
• Key Terms
• Glossary
• Online Reference Library
• Study Tips

…and Performance Assessment and Analytics of:

• Study Planner
• Progress reports
• My Activity
• Daily Snapshot
• My Focus
• Performance on Practice Tests
• Readiness Report

Some of the features are really cool, I especially liked the Study Planner, which helps you plan and keep track of your progress, a very important tool as we all know that IT guys are generally lazy and don’t like reading manuals.

Although getting messages like:

Your preparation is about 0.5% complete. You took 1 days to complete 0.5%. At this pace you will need another 6 Months, 2 Weeks, 5 Days, to be fully prepared for the exam.

might be a bit demotivational.

Usefulness

To make things clear from the start, this is not an online course for beginners. The prepkit targets experienced professionals, not learners or script kiddies. But that’s not necessarily bad, as the last two categories are not even eligible for certification according to EC-Council’s eligibility form.

As I have yet to take the CEH exam, I can’t say how accurate or useful the questions are in a real life scenario, but given uCertify’s vast experience in the area of preparation kits for top IT certifications, I’m sure it’s useful.

Conclusion

I found the prepkit easy to use, filled with high quality information and well structured. I think it’s a good deal for $119.99 (aprox. €91 / £75), especially since uCertify offers a full refund if you fail the exam. Give it a try. Or if my review didn’t convince you, try it for your self. There’s a demo version available here.

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for a while but I didn’t quite get the time to do it. It’s about me finally taking the ZF certification exam. I wanted to take this certification for over an year and a half, but first I postponed it because I was learning python and working with Django and I didn’t have the time to actually look over Zend Framework’s manual and read it. Then I moved to Spain, got caught up with other problems and so on, and so on…

Thing is that I bought a voucher for this exam about an year ago, and, as most Zend issued vouchers, it only lasts one year. So, few weeks ago I found myself with an already paid non-refundable voucher bound to expire. Since I had nothing to lose, I decided to take my chances and take the exam. And I did Hooray for me!

About the exam

The Zend Framework is much more “to the point” than the PHP 5 and it’s a piece of cake for the seasoned Zend Framework developer. No more “which comes first: the needle or the haystack?” questions. Everything is focused on asserting the fact that the candidate has the knowledge required to be productive using ZF. The topics cover a large part of the ZF manual, with focus on commonly used features. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t pay attention to more “exotic” topics like Zend_Memory, Zend_TimeSync or Zend_Wildfire. Although the test refers to version 1.5 of Zend Framework – the current version is 1.11 – there’s nothing specific to that version and the questions refer to those features that are common throughout all the versions (MVC, coding standards, plugins, validator chains, etc).

PS: don’t email me asking for the questions to the test! Go study…

Zend is looking for beta-tester for its new PHP 5.3 certification programme. If you’re interested, all you have to do is simply take this survey and provide your contact details (so that they can find you).

In this post I’m going to review the XK0-002: Linux + PrepKit from uCertify. Since I haven’t taken the real exam yet – but I intend to in the following months – I’ve evaluated the kit from the candidate’s perspective. Hopefully, in May or June, I will post a follow up and evaluate the kit’s performance from the point of view of a CompTIA Linux + certified engineer

Also note that the kit is not meant to teach you how to use Linux or to prepare you for a sysadmin job. Its stated goal is to prepare you for the CompTIA Exam, nothing more, nothing less. If you want to learn the inner workings of *nix operating systems, this kit isn’t for you, but if you already know how to use linux and want to get the ComTIA certification to prove your skills then using this kit to get acquainted with the exam’s requirements and methodology is a fairly good idea. Read the rest of this entry »

As I’ve said before, we’re living in exponential times. The motto of our lives will be “learn, learn, learn” as new jobs appear all the time. For instance, SEO specialist – a job that pays quite well today – didn’t exist 6 years ago. And all these new jobs require new skills. Either adapt or fall behind. And in the current economical climate, it’s a very good idea to have those skills certified. Just in case…Usually employers get tons of resumes when they post a job and if you want to step in front of the crowd, your resume should say more than the usual “hard working, very motivated person” yatta-yatta. And some well known industry certification might just do the trick.

Even if I work in a very prosperous company and it’s unlikely that the recession will get to me (by the way, we’re hiring – so have a look at our openings on www.zitec.com), I’ve decided to spend some time and bucks on my education this year. I’ve taken the Zend Certified Engineer exam for PHP 5 in January and I want to continue with the Comptia Linux+ exam. Today, courtesy of uCertify, I’ve received this Comptia Linux+ preparation kit for review. I haven’t got the time to review it yet, but I know now what I’m doing this weekend

Stay tuned!

Today I have passed Zend’s PHP5 exam and I’ve joined the select group of Zend Certified Engineers. Although my programming skills today (as a ZCE) are basically the same as yesterday (as a regular PHP developer), I consider this to be quite an accomplishment. It proves that I’m a valuable professional and proves my commitment to PHP and to the open source movement.

Here’s my Zend Yellow Pages Profile.