How to achieve PHP proficiency

It's not really a matter of memorizing as many functions as you can. In fact, countless professional developers will gladly admit that they refer to the PHP docs and StackOverflow all the time (including me).

Mostly, it comes down to learning a little bit every single day (literally), and writing and reading lots of code. There's no shortcut.

If those tests are about memorizing tons of functions f*** them. Stay on Laracasts and you will be proficient eventually. @JeffreyWay is the Aristotle of PHP :).

Probably you will never memorize every PHP function. This isn't to be proficient.

I'm aways looking for PHP documentation, Laracasts, blogs, stackoverflow. The important is know how to find the solutions for your problems.

Of course that with the experience, you will learn a lot of PHP functions, syntax and more. But it's always changing, new functions, new syntax, new methods to solve the same problem, old methods being deprecated. You need to be always up to date.

You don't learn english by reading entirely the English Dictionary. But you lean if every time that you have a doubt you get your dictionary and find the answer.

That's my way of learning. I've never read an entire programming book.

If you want to learn PHP inside out, http://www.phparch.com/books/zend-php-5-certification-study-guide-3rd-edition/ is one of the books you should probably read. It also has a exam practice guide with it so you can test yourself for the exam. That's one way of learning PHP.

Another one would be, practice the theory on your own projects, start with simple ones and later on continue building them so they become bigger and bigger. Add newer features, try new architectures etc.

I believe that real life applications will help you learn a lot (if you have the chance to work for a company) but your own projects are good too.

Just like almost everything in life, it's best to learn by practicing the stuff you already know in theory, at a slower pace. Once you understand it enough, move to the next level (intermediate or advanced stuff).

It's impossible to learn everything about the language (or even the development process), so it's better if you just learn the things that you'll need or use the most in your everyday life.

@Ruffles thanks a bunch. I'll check it out in addition to learning here.

Its just like learning a different spoken language, you try learning new words and speak them on daily basis, eventually you will master them. There's a saying, practice makes a man perfect (not sure if that works for women :) but it does work. Start little by little, make some programs. All you need is focus and do something every other day. And don't forget to be on Laracasts. You will see new questions almost every other moment. Follow along with the community to broaden your mind. But it does take some time, so patience and have an urge to learn.