There are plentiful opportunities for learning about web development and programming in general. However, one area where many students struggle is knowing how to prepare for an online test. This can be very daunting as it is impossible to know what questions you may encounter and how long you will need to answer them before timing out.
Mainly companies organise tests for the hiring purpose. If a company is looking for a PHP developer then the company will organise a test to hire PHP developer with some really good skills. So where do you start? My advice would be to think about what your strengths and weaknesses are in terms of programming. Are you more familiar with PHP syntax or SQL queries? Knowing what you need to learn is half the battle!
Below I’ve compiled a list of resources that will help students prepare for their upcoming online coding test. I encourage you to use any combination of these resources available, but don’t forget to study PHP itself as this is where your exam knowledge will come from! The areas below are not specific to any one university but there are many relevant materials across all universities that should be helpful.
Table of Contents
What you will need for the online test:
- 2 hours to set up a study space. You can use Google Drive, DropBox or whatever storage website you choose. I prefer Google Drive as it is easy to get started.
- A reliable internet connection with no interruptions – it may be at home or in a cafe (there is nothing worse than being interrupted while studying!), so make sure your internet is good enough to let you complete the online coding test without interruption. Some universities require a minimum connection speed of 5Mbps.
- A checklist of the instructions that are going to be given during the test (this can be found on their websites).
- A list of what you need to bring to the test (because I’ve seen some people before with nothing!)
An ID.
A laptop, tablet or desktop computer. It will be best if this is able to have an internet connection and has a webcam that you can use during the test. Whatever device you use, it must have an active internet connection for the duration of the test. You will not be able to print your answers off (for technical reasons), so make sure that device has a working computer as well as a printer.
Resources for preparing for online PHP testing:
- TIOBE Programming Community Index : This is a great website that explains the popularity of programming languages all around the world. It also includes interactive charts, which allow you to see how they change over time. These are great for seeing which programming languages are growing and declining in popularity. It is a great resource to help with the questions on statistics and data mining within the PHP test.
- W3Schools: This website is very simple to use and has a very simple layout. It first explains the syntax of programming language followed by examples and finally practises questions for you to test your knowledge. It’s great for learning syntax, ready made scripts and also has a few videos that can be really helpful.
- Codecademy: This website is fantastic for teaching you about programming and, at the time of writing, has more than 20 hours worth of videos, which can be tricky to navigate through. It does teach you about many different programming languages, including PHP. This is also a great website as it walks you through each step of how to program with PHP and includes examples, quizzes and exercises that are helpful. However it uses an interface that you need to download onto your computer in order to see the content, which is sometimes difficult when many cafes block access from downloading onto computers due to resource usage.
- Lynda.com: This website is great for learning an array of skills, including programming and code. It’s a very simple interface to follow and it will teach you exactly how to code the way in which the website wants you to do it. It also has some quizzes throughout the site, so if you want to take your knowledge one step further then this is where I would recommend starting.
- Code Forever: This website has a lot of practice modules that can help you build up your programming skills, as well as interactive quizzes, which are really helpful for testing your knowledge and understanding coding basics.
- LinkedIn Learning: This educational site is one of the best I have ever used! It allows you to learn by watching videos or doing quizzes that are linked to their website, which makes progression very simple and easy. Throughout the site there are also exercises that you can complete, like extending code snippets and adding new variables.
- Udemy: This website has a lot of courses on various topics that are really useful! It’s great for learning coding skills and offers interactive lessons so you can follow along with the course and see how each stage works. Be careful with the number of hours you spend on the website though as some courses can be tricky.
- Learn to Code: This is a simple but very useful website that teaches you how to code in various languages, including PHP. It uses videos and quizzes to test your knowledge and it’s a great website to learn from!
- CodeSchool: This website is a bit cheaper than some of the others, but it is also very useful for teaching you about programming. It also has a lot of practice tests that are free, which are really helpful for testing your knowledge.
- Udemy Complete: This website has a great selection of PHP courses and has interactive quizzes which are really helpful! If you haven’t tried it then I would highly recommend doing so! You can learn php from beginners to advanced level and it’s a fun way to learn coding basics. Some courses cost more than other ones, but they are all worth the money! There is no registration required either so you can just jump in without paying anything to start learning.
I hope this article will help you to practise for your upcoming test. If you want to check your knowledge about the specific test then you can visit Mercer Mettl. Mercer Mettl is one of the websites on which many companies and universities conduct their online test. If you practise for your test from Mercer Mettl then you will have a knowledge about the interface of the software on which maximum exams are taken.
