Brainbench PHP5 Certification

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Brainbench PHP5 Certification

Friday, July 21. 2006

So I came across an entry on PHPDeveloper.org tonight, announcing a free web-based PHP5 certification. Well, what can I say... reading the word "free" usually blanks out everything else for me so I blindly clicked the link, took the certification and was amazed.....

....at how anyone can really think something like this can provide even the tiniest glimpse of proof for even the tiniest bit of qualification. Not only did the test contain code that could not possibly run (in a question that asked what the code would do, and "throw a parse error" was not an option

) or contain outdated information... I'm still not sure if they really think I need to preceed a method name with an "&" to indicate returning a reference *in PHP5*, or if I was supposed to click another option - but the other ones were either even more wrong or even syntactically incorrect. I think what the test actually can prove is that you're able to find information in the PHP online manual about any given topic within a three minute timeframe. How they can make the claim that one of my strenghts is "databases" after answering just two database-related multiple-choice questions remains a mystery to me

What I found even more disturbing than the test was the registration process... why the hell do they need to know my race or ethnic heritage? Is this some kind of data mining operation for some future ethnic cleansing campaign? Or do they actually want to provide employers a way to filter out potential candidates that do not fit into their ethnic world view? Poor industry... *UPDATE*: Forgot to provide the link to the PHPDeveloper.org post... well, it's late...

Posted by Markus in PHP, Programming at 23:49 | Comments (9) | Trackback (1)

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Being "brainbench certified" ;)
Hehe, as Markus did, I took the so-called "Brainbench PHP 5 certification" yesterday night after some beers. Nevertheless, the result was, that was I still "scored higher than 90% of previous examinees". I have pretty much the same

Weblog: Tobias Schlitt - a passion for php
Tracked: Jul 22, 10:56

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What I found disturbing was that a certification exam would ask for the default value of the date.sunrise_zenith configuration directive. That's practically the definition of "useless trivia you will never ever need to know".

#1 random on 2006-07-22 08:43 (Reply)

On November 15th of 2006, I took the Brainbench Java 2 test. When I went into the test, I was expecting something that would test my general knowledge of the Java language and object oriented programming. The test that I took did not do that. There were a large number of questions on special purpose API's that I have never used. There were some questions on development tools that I have never used. And there were a large number of "brain teaser" questions on code snippets which I could have answered, if I would have had more time. As a result, my test score was very low (2.60). That score shows that I'm not good at guessing at API's and tools that I've never used. And it shows that I'm not good at brain teasers with a three-minute time limit. However, it shows ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about my Java and object oriented programming skills. In 2002, I studied a book on Java, and then I took a college course on it. I got an A in the course. According to my Brainbench score, I should not have been an "A" student. For over a year, I was the sole designer and developer of web software that my employer believes is marketable. That software involves thousands of lines of Java code, a large number of API's, and a large number of advanced object oriented constructs. According to my Brainbench score, I should not be able to accomplish what I have just accomplished. When I was in college, I took secondary education courses. Later, while I was working for a former employer, I designed two computer courses which I taught for several years. As a trained and experienced trainer and tester, it is my opinion that the Brainbench Java 2 test has a number of very serious flaws. It appears that there have been no sound scientific studies regarding the Brainbench claim that their tests predict employee success. And it appears that there are a large number of companies that are blindly accepting these unsubstantiated claims. It seems to me that a sound scientific study for the Java 2 test would include the following elements: have thousands of working and successful Java programmers take various Java 2 tests; have thousands of inexperienced people with Java knowledge take the same tests; for individual test takers, have tests with a large number of questions on API's and tools that they have never used; for individual test takers, have tests with a large number of questions on API's and tools that they have used; for the latter, follow their careers as Java programmers for at least five years. It appears to me that the creators of the Brainbench Java 2 test do not know what a typical Java programmer does, and they have no understanding of the art of testing. I wonder how many careers have been derailed as a result of flawed Brainbench tests. I would like to see a scientific survey on that.

#1.1 Ralph on 2006-11-21 22:20 (Reply)

Hehe, I share your sentiment. Just to give you final proof that these tests say absolutely nothing whatsoever: Just for the "fun" of it, I also took their free Java2 Fundamentals and RDBMS Concepts exams. My knowledge of Java is sketchy. I know the language by concept, I've played around with it a bit, I've read a book once - but I never did any real-world project in Java, ever. If I had to do it, I'd have to look up every single method call for even the most basic APIs. Still, I passed with a score of 3.05. Not good, but not bad either. The RDBMS topic, on the other hand is something where I'd describe my knowledge as "advanced". I'm not a database expert, by any means, but I've got plenty of experience, am familiar with most concepts and unless you want me to do hardcore perfomance tuning stuff, I'm doing pretty well. Still, I only got a mere 3.71 from the exam. Which still ain't that bad, but I'd have expected at least 0.5 more, if I had to compare my database knowledge to my knowledge of PHP. Bah, what the hell - Brainbench sucks. I'll continue to use their exams just for fun though, as long as I don't have to pay for them. Who knows, maybe one day I'll find someone dumb enough to give me that dream job where I have to do nothing but look important and get an annual �100.000 out of it - just on the grounds of my 500 certifications

#1.1.1 Markus (Homepage) on 2006-11-21 22:37 (Reply)

I took the Brainbench Java 2 test last night and I concur 100% with Ralph. Many questions dealt with API questions that I have used infrequently. There are code snippets that essentially test whether you can follow loops and figure out the output values. Additionally, they also threw in Design Pattern questions which I believe is related to Software Design rather than exclusively to Java. Who are the people that design these tests? Like Ralph, I work for a company that has a visualization tactical display written entirely in Java. It has over 400,000 line of code and has been deployed at NORAD, AWACS and the Missile Defense Agency. The engineers we hire, including myself, went through a company assessment procedure before being hired. I seriously question the validity of this test. It should not be solely used for employment decisions.

#1.1.2 Manish Patel on 2008-10-23 14:36 (Reply)

Wow, I wasn't quite prepared for how appauling this was going to be. I'm in the 85% percentile, but I made good use of the feedback form they had at the end of the 'test'. I would hate to be given that sort of test at an interview or something - It'd be embarassing to have to walk out.

#2 Marc Gear on 2006-07-22 11:16 (Reply)

First, I did not see the test because I didn't want to register ... Only objects are returned/processed by reference. To return an array or a scalar variable by reference you still need the & preceeding the function's or method's name.

#3 Felix on 2006-08-01 10:35 (Reply)

I just written a post for my new blog on that as well. It's frankly embarrassing for someone to (as they have in my own recent search for developers) put onto a CV or covering letter that they got 3.57/5.0. It's trivial knowledge - that if you don't know it offhand, you can find out in an instant - and you are right on your own PC - so why isn't php.net in the next window? I don't even put it on my resume/CV. I still get calls from the agency that paid for it last year though - wanting to know if I'm looking for a job (they paid for probably a dozen or more people to take it after they did a presentation at a PHP London meetup, in Feb 2007).

#4 Topbit (Homepage) on 2008-03-11 00:43 (Reply)

Ugh, brainbench. It seems that just about any exam like that won't actually hold much wait in the employment world. But where I work, we check for Zend and OCTPHP certifications, and that's it with PHP. I've never taken the Zend courses, but I've heard good things about them, but maybe it's just about your manual searching. I do hold an OCTPHP cert though, which is 100% online (testing on my ability to search), but it mimics the work environment. for example, they say "Write a script that does this, this, and this", then I write the script. I can lookup whatever I want, but what matters is the time taken (measured) and the finished product (the script). Here at RightNow technologies, we care about the time taken to make the product and the ability to follow instructions. The OCTPHP certification tests on ALL of those things, plus the code is up for display to employers. The OCT home page (www.octonline.org) Zend offers a slightly better approach then Brainbench too, but I know little of them so I'd advise checking it out (Zend.com). Thanks for the input!

#5 Webgovernor (Homepage) on 2008-03-17 21:04 (Reply)

I have taken the Brainbench tests in a number of mainframe technologies. I have observed that the persons creating the test simply take things from manuals without regard to accepted programming techniques and nit pick on features that no one in the real world use or that are not permitted in most shops. The main thing that I think that Brainbench tests are good for is to keep potentially knowledgable employees out of the work place in preference to those who memorize every detail of the manual.

#6 JAL on 2008-03-24 20:54 (Reply)

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