Skills test prep

Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2011 6:12 pm

Hey all-

I have been invited to apply with a medium+ sized file sharing company to work as a software developer (php/js is what the listing said) and on Monday I've scheduled a skills test as it's required.

First... I want to thank all the mentors who've helped me grow over the past year (actually less) in my understanding of web programming. Without your guidance... I don't think I'd have been able to hang in here this long.

On to why I started this topic.... I'm asking for advice from the "elders" in the field in how I should prepare for this. More direct... I've never done this and somewhat doubt my abilities. I also don't know this sort of process or what pitfalls/hurdles I should watch for.

Any insight from experience would be highly appreciated. Thanks!

Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2011 2:23 pm

A little late here, but I would probably just brush up on the basics... which you are probably already doing.. there are some online skills tests, I tried one at w3c shools but it was pretty basic. They are ok for generalized info, but tend to have some inaccuracies as well. Some hardliners don't care for them.. [ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ]
[ Only registered users can see links on this board! Get registered or login! ] is pretty good for quick refresher on JS related stuff.

Best of luck tomorrow Smile

Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2011 4:24 pm

Went in for it... bah... what a mess.

Firstly... the test is 115 questions (various types) however, it's an "overall" test for all the positions they hire for. So in essence... I was answering questions (or not answering them) on things that do not pertain to the job description.

Second... The questions hop from one area to another and there is no way to really distinguish when it is making that jump.

Third... the wording in some of the questions were poorly chosen and left some grey areas in the responses.

So... I don't really know how well I did in relation to what the position required, but I gave it the good ol' college try.

And I did try the tests on w3schools before taking this skills test... (the skills test pulled some questions from those tests) and passed them with flying colors in PHP & Jquery, 75% in MYSQL & Javascript.

In the end... if I did good... great... if not... I keep plugging away.