*** From the Archives ***
This article is from February 7, 2008, and is no longer current.
Crazy InDesign CS3 ACE Practice Questions
If you’re interested in becoming an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) in InDesign, you should know that the CS3 exam was released a few weeks ago. Those of us who are InDesign CS2 ACEs have until April 30, 2008 to take and pass the CS3 recertification exam.
If the practice test questions in the Prep Guide are any indication, the exam has taken a turn for the worse in regards to clarity and accuracy.
I wrote about the InDesign ACE program at length in a post last year, so I won’t rehash the details. In case some of the links have died, here is Adobe’s current Get Certified home page and the page listing their downloadable Prep Guides for each test. You can cut to the chase and download the ID CS3 Certification Prep Guide (PDF, 185 K) directly if you’d like to follow along with my rant below.
More Head Scratchers Than Ever
Like all the Adobe Certification Prep Guides, the last few pages include sample multiple choice questions that are similar to those you’ll encounter in the test. Each question is followed by what Adobe considers the correct answer … a feature not found on the actual exam. ;-)
In previous Prep Guides, there has always been one or two weirdo questions that don’t seem to make sense. In the CS3 one, to my mind at least half of them are incomprehensible, inaccurate or unnecessarily obtuse. For the life of me I cannot understand how Adobe can release these Practice Tests to the general public in their current state. Do they want to scare everyone away?
I don’t know, maybe I’m coming down to hard on them. You tell me. I’ll dissect a couple sample questions below (in bold), both of which coincidentally come from the “Converting Files” topic area.
A QuarkXPress 4.0 document contains embedded images, which were created in Quark XTension. You want to open the QuarkXPress 4.0 file in InDesign. What should you do?
Let’s see. The QuarkXPress layout was created in “Quark XTension”? Is that a new program? Or were the embedded images themselves created in XTension (maybe it’s an image editing program?).
I hate how we have to translate the questions to make sense of them. After some thought I conclude that the question is saying that the images got embedded using a feature in [a QuarkXPress] XTension, like an InDesign plug-in. I don’t know what one thing (embedded images) has to do with the other (Quark XTensions). But there you go.
So, in answer to the question, “What should you do?” what came to mind was, “Try to open it.” Because that’s what the Help file says to do — embedded images (actually, pasted-in pictures) will not come through, but so what, the file opens in InDesign anyway. The question isn’t asking how to convert the file to InDesign while maintaining the embedded images. It just says you want to open it.
Of course “give it a shot” isn’t one of the choices. Instead we must choose from these:
A. Remove the images that were created in Quark XTension.
B. Convert the embedded images to linked images.
C. Copy the Quark XTension plug-in to the InDesign plug-ins folder.
D. Save the QuarkXPress 4.0 file in the QuarkXPress 3.0 format.
Okay, so from the answers we can now suss out that the question doesn’t tell the whole story. Instead, either the file won’t open in InDesign as is, or it will open, but we’re trying to maintain the images. The question is asking how do we do one of these.
For either scenario, I can quickly eliminate C (won’t work) and D (doesn’t make a difference). Answer “A” is too vague … remove them from where? The InDesign file? The QuarkXPress file? … and sounds like a last resort.
Especially since there’s answer “B” (turn the embedded images into linked ones). You can do this in QuarkXPress … well, v7 at least, v4 is long gone from my computer … so I went with it.
But nope, the answer is “A. Remove the images that were created in Quark XTension.”
Argh. Okay, so I guessed wrong, and the real scenario was that the QXP layout file wouldn’t open in InDesign, period. But why make us guess at all?
Further, I have no idea if a QXP v4 XTension ever existed that embedded images, but even if there was (as the question proposes) who’s to say that the same XTension is required to open or print the file, and thus is the cause of the conversion error? Maybe it has nothing to do with the XTension.
Turns out that the question is jamming a whole bunch of scenarios from the InDesign CS3 Help file into one fuzzy situation. Here’s the relevant paragraph from Help about converting QuarkXPress v3 and v4 files:
Note: Embedded graphics?those added to the original document using the Paste command?are not converted. For more information on embedded graphics, see About links and embedded graphics. Tip: InDesign does not support OLE or Quark XTensions. Consequently, when you open files that contain OLE or Quark XTensions graphics, those graphics will not appear in the InDesign document. If your QuarkXPress document does not convert, check the original and remove any objects that were created by an XTension; then save, and try to convert again.
The question writer combined two separate issues — embedded pictures and “Quark XTension graphics” (what are those anyway?) — into one question. Unsuccessfully.
Fun, huh? Here’s another one:
You open a PageMaker file in InDesign. The file contains images, tables, charts, and text created by using paragraph composer. Which element remains unchanged in InDesign?
Interesting! I did not know that PageMaker has the Paragraph Composer. (That was sarcastic — it doesn’t.)
The question writer is trying to say “the text automatically uses InDesign’s Paragraph Composer engine after the PageMaker file is opened in InDesign.” Why not just end the second sentence after “and text”? Because he’s trying to include a hint that the line breaks will be different after opening the file in InDesign, due to the Paragraph Composer taking over. This is something any InDesign ACE should know without being told, in my opinion.
So, without looking at the answers, which “element” (should be “elements” — all the choices in the question are plural) remains unchanged in the InDesign file after converting?
My first thought would be “images.” Converting a file doesn’t change the images. Ah, but “images” isn’t one of the possible answers!
A. Drop shadow
B. Hyphenated text
C. Text links
D. Text flow
Let’s see … we know that hyphenation will change, and if we successfully translated the question, we know that text flow will change, due to the Paragraph Composer. Text links? I remembered that you could export PageMaker files to HTML but didn’t recall if you could turn text selections into hyperlinks. Drop Shadow? Did PageMaker have a Drop Shadow feature? I’m positive it didn’t, at least in the last version I used, version 6. Hmmm.
I’m flummoxed, how about you?
The answer is “C. Text Links.”
The Practice Test doesn’t explain the reasoning behind the correct answers, so it’s back to the InDesign Help file for a search on “PageMaker.” And from the Help page I eventually figured out that by “Text Links” they mean linked text files (!): “Text and graphics links are preserved and appear in the Links panel.”
Of course, how stupid of me, PageMaker layouts with links to external text files. That’s what I immediately think of when I hear “text links,” don’t you?
(I also learned in the Help file that by “Drop Shadow” they probably mean “Shadow text” … text with the Shadow style applied. Why does the answer choice say “Drop Shadow” when even the Help file calls it “Shadow text”?)
Both of these examples coincidentally had to do with converting files to InDesign. I could go on and list other teeth-gnashers in the Practice Test that are on other topics — the one about Tables is especially aggravating — but this article is going on too long. I would love to hear your own thoughts.
What’s the Deal?
It’s embarrassing to me that Adobe’s public preview of the ACE test contains these. Have they really been vetted by a product expert, or even a copy editor? Or is there a method to their madness, like some kind of Fight Club thing, testing more than product knowledge, more of a psychological stress test?
Most of all, I’m disappointed. This issue with the ACE exams has been brought up many times before, but from this latest ID CS3 Practice Test, it doesn’t appear anyone is listening. Users put in weeks of study and prep time, pony up $150 to take the test, get stressed out enough just to be in proctored situation under a time limit, and to present them with questions like these … well, it is simply unfair.
Anyway … as I said in my previous article about the ACE exams, you are forewarned. And, be sure to actually read the Help file, through-and-through, at least once before going in for the test! At least then you’ll have some sort of compass, an idea of what they could possibly be referring to, when you encounter the occasional twisted, nonsensical dead-end question in the exam.
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What percentage of answers must you answer correctly to earn the certification?
I guess you would actually answer questions, not answers. ;)
heh … see you’re getting confused already. ;-)
According to the ACE Exam Guide for InDesign CS3 (the PDF I linked to above), the test has 75 multiple-choice questions, and you need to get at least 66% to pass.
According to the ACE Exam Guide for InDesign CS3, 66% minimum to pass out of 75 questions.
Anne-Marie, I took the ID CS3 RE-certification test yesterday, and my experience with that reflects what you’ve written here. More vague, poorly-worded questions than in previous tests. I was very disappointed in the quality of the test questions. (By the way, I passed.)
Don’t worry Anne-Marie. The test was written by programmers (hard core). I encountered this problem years ago when I received training on a CompuGraphic system. Training by a user was excellent. Training by a programmer was quite literally in a foreign language which I found completely incomprehensible.
From these two sample questions I can draw one valid conclusion…the exam authors know nothing about valid multiple choice exams. Valid exam = clear questions; all answers seem possible; yet one answer is correct…and if you know your stuff, that correct answer is clear (even if it is not obvious). I know that explanation itself sounds confusing but nowhere near as confusing as the ACE questions.
If the questions on the exam are invalid, how valid is the certification itself? You quite obviously know your stuff. I’m not sure you need the alphabet soup after your name!
I am wondering if it is even worth spending the money to take the test from what I am hearing. Yes you can say you are ACE certified, but like Jennie said how much does it really mean?
Lauren, I definitely do think the ACE test is worth taking (its flaws aside) for many people. For example, if you want to be an InDesign trainer at an Adobe Authorized Training Center, you have to have current ACE certification. If you’re an independent Adobe Certified Instructor — a self-employed accredited trainer who doesn’t have a public classroom/training center (like me) — you have to have passed at least one current ACE exam.
Other than that, I’m guessing that for some employers, designers with ACE certifications are valued more highly (hired first, paid more) than those that have none. Even beyond product knowledge, I think the fact that someone invested the time and money to get their ACE certification speaks a lot to their commitment to really understanding the software.
The fact that you only need 66% correct on the test to pass makes the occasional bizarre test question a little easier to put up with, in my opinion.
I am ACE certified in CS2, it would be the recertification. That is why I am hesitating.
I took the upgrade test a few weeks ago, and I can tell you that it was hard. I took the entire time to check my answers. The Photoshop CS3 test is also just as hard, if not harder since it had a ton of CS3 extended questions. My advice is to STUDY!
Fritz, I really have no problem with the test being hard or difficult. Okay will maybe a little problem. ;-)
It’s the so-poorly-worded that you don’t understand what they’re asking kinds of questions, and the ones where it’s obvious that there *is* no correct answer, and the vague ones that could legitimately make two or three answers correct, that get to me!
In response to my little rant above, I’ve received a bunch of private emails already from people who’ve taken the test (the full one and the recert one), some of whom passed, a couple who’ve failed (one of these, an acknowledged ID expert and long-time trainer who missed by *one* question), saying that the quality of the CS3 test questions is worse than before. That’s disheartening. I was kinda hoping it was only the Practice Test questions that were bad.
I haven’t taken my recert on ID CS3 yet, but I’m girding for battle. ;-) The fact that you, Fritz, passed it, as well as Michael Murphy and James Wamser, gives me hope. heh…
I think the question of “how much does it really mean” is a good one. If Adobe continues putting out lousy tests that don’t test real knowledge and are written so poorly, I think the industry will soon realize that passing this test means nothing. That’s sad.
Not that it’s excusable from such a large company like Adobe, but I happen to know from personal experience with the people in the certified group at Adobe that they’ve been going through a lot of changes. I know that a manager named Vicki (a very nice woman by the way) took very ill and didn’t return to work. I sincerely hope she’s doing better now. So they’ve had personnel changes and a Macromedia acquisition. Of course it’s still no excuse for such a large company.
It reminds me of the same, surprising lack of quality control as the Adobe Studio Exchange has received (I still can’t update my listings after a year!). While they got things done, but should have hired the right people to get them done “right.”
I’ll be taking my recert exams soon. I must take them to stay an Adobe Certified Instructor. But even if I didn’t have to take them, I think the recert exams are worth it because they are cheaper and easier than re-testing entirely. If you let your certification run out you must start over again with the $150 test instead of the $50 recert. I also think the tests still show a certain level of knowledge and intelligence, even if it’s obscure. Plus I like being able to use the Adobe Certified Logo. :)
The Adobe ACE test are just plain crap.
1. Questions are written by people who have no idea what publishing is !
2. These people write questions composed in such a way that the correct answer is just a mind gymnastic than really a real word situation.
3. When the test is translated in another language, points 1. and 2. are even worser.
4. They are not afraid to charge 179 euros (250 dollars) to European to take one test that most of the people fail to pass, not because they don’t have the knowledge but because Adobe is incompetent in this area.
5. Adobe France gave me a code so I take the test for free so I check the quality of the test. During the test, I wrote down all the questions of the Acrobat 7 test and went back home to try to figure out what they talking about. And you know what ? Even if a person had questions before taking the test, this person would fail because questions (the one translated in French) have absolutely no relations with the user manual. How that for a 179 euros sneak trick, uh ?
6. Being certified means absolutely nothing. I make 6 figures per year business without the ACE logo.
7. I have posted my own test “my way” in French for InDesign on my site and all those who tried it said : “though test but incredibily real life”.
8. Everytime I have proposed my services to Adobe to enhance or the tests, or the communications, or the products,… I have always been ingored.
9. Translations errors in InDesign CS3 in French are so big and so ridiculous that people ***ARE LAUGHING*** during my trainings !!! Do you hear that Adobe ? You ignore experts that are on the field and that is a stupid behavior.
Oh yeah, another thing. In the Acorbat 7 Professionnal for prepress, I was asked
– 2+3 questions about Microsoft Publisher and no one question about InDesign.
– “Which option is important to tick when you create from InDesign a PDF intended for offset printing ? :
a. trim marks (“traits de rognage in French”)
b. crop marks (“traits de coupe” in French).
c. proposal #3
d. proposal #4″
Too much funny.
I did not have time to read all the comments yet. So sorry if this is a double comment that someone has already said.
In 7 years I have never come across a PageMagker file. Not once. I have not used Quark 4 in about the same time. I did not know that you had to be a certified expert in PageMaker and Quark before sitting the InDesign ACE exam.
Which brings me to the point, what about the average new designer that steps into InDesign CS3 straight out of college. Never heard of pagemaker, never used Quark 4. How in heavens are they meant to know anything about the features in Quark in Pagemaker, like Xtensions and shadow text?
I want to sit the exam. I want to go through the paces and become a certified expert. I have looked at test centers in Ireland. They all do the preparation for the ACE but there is not one Test Center (from my research, that is what I understand).
There are no courses for InCopy, no courses on XML provided by these test centers. Each course here in Ireland only deals with Level 1 and Level 2, which is basic stuff, really basic. The classes are always about 30 people. They cost 695 euro for a two day course. And they teach me nothing I do not already know.
I have been trying to find information on become an ACE but I find the trawl of Adobes site a complete time waste, it is so vast.
Thanks so much Anne-Marie for posting the links to very relevant documentation on becoming an ACE.
I read Mr. Blatners post on becoming an ACE some time ago, and he had a rant. I read Michael Murphys post on becoming a ACE, he had a rant. Now, Anne-Marrie is having a rant.
If you guys are having trouble with the exam then there really is no hope for the rest of us, is there?
It seems to me that there are three of the finest minds in InDesign living next door to each other. You see where I am going with this…
Also, apologies for the lack of apostrophes, my apostrophe key is not working right now?
I wrote in comment #14 : “9. Translations errors in InDesign CS3 in French are so big and so ridiculous that people ***ARE LAUGHING*** during my trainings !!! Do you hear that Adobe ? You ignore experts that are on the field and that is a stupid behavior.”
Not only InDesign is full of errors in French translation, Photoshop and Illustrator too. And some mistakes are there since CS2 despite the incredible amount of bad feedbacks about the French version. I simply don’t understand what is going on there.
I think I smell the next really big challenge for all of the pros. I rely on all of you and on the fabulous books, blogs, podcasts and videos that you have created. Why don’t you gang up on the test writers at Adobe and write your own sets of questions. Submit them for Adobe review. I have a feeling that the tremendous expertise that each and all of you have will produce a new and improved set of ACE exams with a solid base in reality. Please think about it.
This is all mounting evidence that the ACE system is a scandalous matter. I took the ID CS3 two weeks ago, I flunked by a modest margin — and I KNOW that at least two questions — 3% — of those 75 questions were utter nonsense, where no amount of knowledge could produce a sensible answer. While I took the test in Oslo, we use the English tests here, so the ACE Q&A mess can’t be explained away by inept translations: the ineptness is built-in at the source.
I do want the ACE logo on me website and my biz card, so I will take it again — but the ACE credentials are now much less personally meaningful to me, since I know how “problematic” many of the test questions are. And, as David, Anne-Marie and Branislav are proving, it’s not just *I* who’s “problematic” — for a change!
Jennie, I have submitted this proposal 2 years ago but they said : “well, not interested because we have already a team that does that.”
Branislav … I’d love to see your Acrobat test. Is it available in English? Also … I completely agree that there are tons of fantastic product experts/trainers who never bothered with pursuing an ACE.
Eugene … good point about new grads not having knowledge of QXP or PageMaker. But since so many new ID users (the ones under the tutelage of an InDesign ACE) are moving from PM/QXP workflows; I think familiarity with conversion issues should still be a requirement for ID ACEs. Maybe in another two or three years, when the ranks of switchers have been greatly thinned down, it will be much less of an issue.
Jennie: Interesting thought!
Everyone: I think Dan Rodney has hit it on the head. Adobe’s resources appear to be stretched pretty thin (because I am certain that the dedicated, hardworking Adobe staff that I’ve been lucky enough to get to know strive for the best in everything they do).
While it is obvious to me that the test questions did not get/have not gotten the amount of attention they deserve, perhaps when they were being developed, there were simply not enough qualified Adobe staffers to keep a close eye on it. Sometimes it’s impossible to keep all the plates spinning at the same pace. The ACE test and practice questions, and the Adobe Exchange, (and probably other services/initiatives), are some of the more wobbly examples.
They can’t eliminate the ACE program, they had to get tests out there … after all, CS3 was released nine months ago. And this is what we’ve got.
It’s also obvious to me that the test question team or outside company they hired relied heavily on the Help file (at least for the InDesign CS3 test) to develop questions. Thus my advice to read that thing, word for word, in your prep for taking the test.
Klaus, none of you are problematic. Poorly crafted exams are the problem. I work in the printing department of a county school system in Maryland. Students are tested so much and so often that it is amazing that they have time to learn anything, but the tests must be taken and some of them are very poorly written. The ACE exams are similar in that they are “necessary” check boxes on your list of qualifications.
If the exams (exam questions) are well constructed, the resulting certification is so much more meaningful at all levels.
Well I’ll always remember the absolutely worst ACE question I was ever confronted with during a proctored, $150 exam. It was an early Photoshop exam, probably v6 or v7.
I don’t remember the exact wording of the question, but the construction pattern of the multiple choice answers I was given to choose from are seared into my brain and make me chuckle (ruefully) to this day.
It was something like this:
Q: You’re enhancing a digital photograph in Photoshop. You want to increase the amount of detail in the image’s shadows. To do this, you open the Curves dialog box and:
A. Entry 4ABLQZ1
B. Entry 4ABLQZ1
C. Entry 4ABLQZ1
D. Entry 4ABLQZ1
!!!!
The most frustrating thing, of course, is that there’s no one to turn to and complain. The testing center has nothing to do with the questions. It is your job to finish the test in the time allotted.
Is there a way to take the ACE exam online, or do you have to go to a test center? Because I can’t find a test center in Ireland. I can find a place I can prepare for the ACE exam, but nobody is authorised to host the ACE exam.
Any suggestions?
Anne-Marie, your old PS Q beats one of mine on the ID CS3 — slightly. Mine had 4x multiple-choice answers, in plain English, but where TWO of those answers were totally IDENTICAL! I re-read them ten times, to make sure there wasn’t a comma or something distinguishing them, but they were TWINS. Surely, that is NOT how a proper exam should be laid out.
That Adobe may be stretched thin regarding people-power is NO excuse: super-competent folks like David and Branislav have offered to write exams for Adobe, and Adobe has refused their offers. Assuming those fine fellows weren’t demanding unreasonable fees for their work, Adobe should be ashamed for producing such bad exams in-house when outsourcing would have produced great exams.
Eugene only the recerts can be taken online. You might try calling the closest Prometric/Thompson center and seeing if they have an alternative … maybe a temp site they can set up local for you (and others), something like that.
David, any news on when your IDCS3 “Beyond the Basics” goes online at Lynda.com? Flunking minds want to know!
Klaus, sorry, but it now looks like it will be near the beginning of March. Editing all that footage down takes time! (The editors there do a great job of it, removing most of the umms and ahhs along the way.) I’ll be sure to post something on the site here when it goes live.
But the important thing here is that the ACE exams don’t currently test a lot about process and knowledge… they test a lot about how closely you have read the manual for details — a fact that turns my stomach.
David, does that give RTFM a whole new meaning???
OK, David, thanks. I won’t book my next ID ACE until I know I can take your course. But yes, alas, true, the ACE tests more for manual-memorizing than for actual working knowledge. And it performs that memory-test in an imprecise, convoluted way. It turns my stomach, too.
New grads not having knowledge of QXP or PageMaker and really not needing it is valid as long as they are only creating new material.
If you are ever given an old edition of a file and asked to re-use it–since it was done previously it will obviously take less time to re-use than redo (ha, ha)–then you need to know what is and is not possible.
About being ACE certified, I do not think that in my 10+ years of doing Desktop Publishing (mostly doing College level text books) that a certification of any kind would have gotten me more money. (Less in fact since I would have had to pay for the test.)
What has gotten me more money is my ability to do, faster, the job that I have to do. So shortcuts keys, scripts, and the like have become my friends. I don’t think being certified would make me work any faster. (I’m not dissing on the test, everyone else has done that, just don’t see that it would have worked for me.)
Jennie: spoken like a True Lady! ;-)
On top of all of this they have the certification and recertification guides reversed on the site and there’s no InCopy CS3 exam at all.
I’ll take the recertification exam in the next little while but I’m rather disappointed in this. The Classroom in a Book series seems to be getting panned, too.
Klaus, those words are rarely used when referring to me! But I do have a wickedly warped sense of humor ;-)
I hope that I have been clear about one thing: Adobe makes outstanding software!
There is a strange irony that the publishers of these great programs produces publications and exams that have a one-half star rating.
If left to do what they do best, the people of Adobe will write programs that knock your socks off. As I said earlier, these same programmers, speak a language completely unlike that of we mere mortals. That is why I suggested that you guys get together and hand Adobe a true “Expert” exam. It might be one of the worlds more difficult exams, but instead of saying “what were they asking?” it would be “I need to study harder?”
Something clearly went badly wrong in the Adobe department that handles the exams. They finally posted the ILLUSTRATOR exam bulletin in the last day or so (the full exam, not the recertification), and I just printed it out. In the Test Content section that lists topic areas and objectives, the Topic Areas are completely wrong: They are the Topic Areas for the PHOTOSHOP Exam.
Thanks Anne-Marie, I was getting increasingly frustrated at my situation. I’ll definitely give your suggestion a try. Thanks for your help.
I just took the InDesign CS3 Recert exam. I have passed the 2.0 and CS exams and the CS2 recert exam in the past with flying colors. This exam was totally a waste of my time, money, and an embarrassment to Adobe. The questions were not fully set up. Situations were not completely explained. When I was told “an object was selected” it didn’t mention HOW to select it, ie which tool, which as we all know makes a huge difference in the outcome. Many questions had no answer that was actually possible. There were topics in the recert exam that have not been updated in the program for years, and that very few actually use. Situations were presented that NO person who correctly uses the program would EVER do. One possible answer (and a few of us that talked about it actually found it to be the best of the 4 answers – actually said to put in multiple returns to move something down. Come ON!)
If this was a recert exam I would think that I should be tested on NEW features, when in fact, there were only a handful of NEW TOPIC questions, but many on old, outdated topics.
In the past 2 days I have contacted many levels of Adobe and sent my 6 page, question by question critique about each one. After talking to many others who have taken this test, I’m not sure if my efforts will do anything, but we’ll see.
My advice… wait for a month or so to take the test. A few have told me that there are “conversations” going on at adobe about this. Maybe if more of us complain, they will see that something must be done.
Some on this bolg have given the advice to study hard. Don’t bother…. even if you know your stuff, which I feel that I do, the questions don’t make any sense, so throwing a dart at your screen would give you better results. Good luck!
And here comes Laurie, another big ACE fan, to join our happy fanclub! Laurie, you’ve convinced me to email Adobe about my IDCS3 ACE complaints, too (as well as to maybe wait a couple of months to take my ACE again, in the hope that some of the garbage has been improved). One of them goes like this, in briefest essence:
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“Multiply” blend mode — does its transparency ever affect any objects ABOVE it? Not in my 18+ years of graphics experience. But that’s what one question clearly stated, by logical implication of how its accompanying graphic was drawn, which was supposed to visualize a blend mode scenario. But it was a nonsensical scenario, with no possibility of giving a real, true answer.
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Is it good for a laugh — or a cry?
I took the ACE exams for Acrobat 7, Indesign CS2 and Illustrator CS2 early last year. I failed the Acro exam miserably the first time around mainly because I thought some of the questions asked were completely unfair and had more to do with knowledge of the printing industry itself rather than knowing how to use a feature of the program. I noticed the same in the other exams as well. Fortunately I passed all three exams in the end (just) and was happy that my employer at the time paid for them because I wouldn’t want to invest so much time and money into an unfair testing system.
Having said that, I’m glad I took the exams because it raised my skill level and allowed me to move on to a better job.
If you’re planning on taking one though, my advice would be to first glance over the test exam questions so that you get a feeling of the type of questions asked, read the help file, watch as many video tutorials as you can (Lynda.com, TotalTraining), create a project for yourself, buy a book (such as Real World InDesign) and read it cover-to-cover, read the help file once more and then test yourself using the test exam questions. If you then feel confident enough, take the exam. Good luck!
I thought you had to pass with a 75% or better. Did they lower the standard?
There are so many valid comments here. I have passed the certs for InDesign, Acrobat and Dreamweaver.
The issue that bothers me most is that the questions frequently have nothing to do with real world situations, just attempts at tripping you up on a turn of phrase or trick answers.
And in the end, it doesn’t test you on your real knowledge of the program, just on how well you read the menus and can parse the questions.
I would love it if the exam actually gave you a project to create.
Someone asked about the % needed to pass the InDesign Recert exam… it’s 47 questions and you need to get 32 right, which is 66% or higher. Apparently they don’t have confidence in us either that we can understand that many of the questions. Illustrator recert is 32 questions and you need a 61% to pass.
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I agree that it would be a better test of my knowledge to create a project, but we all know that is too difficult to administer and grade, so we are forced to guess at a multiple choice answer.
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Has anyone taken the Illustrator Recert exam? I looked at the exam bulletin and like stated above, there are photoshop topics listed. And, I went through the practice test and there were a few questions, just like the InDesign bulletin that just flat out made no sense. ie – question: how do you change the stroke of an object to have a dotted-line border? answer is to put on a rounded cap? HUH? Don’t you need to click the Dashed line box first? This is typical of the exams… they try to trip you up so much by leaving out an important step, but in this case, the step is left out, but it’s the correct answer. Other times, if this step were to be left out, it would make it an incorrect answer. Always confusing. Take a look at the bulletin, It’s quite comical.
I just took and passed the IDCS3 Exam. Ditto to lots of the above. With all of ID experts who are also top-notch writers, why can’t Adobe ask some of them to write the ACE tests?
I’ve been writing Layers Magazine Tips of the Day for over two years now, and was totally baffled by some of the strange wording in both the questions and answers. I don’t mind questions about obscure features that are rarely used. Experts should know enough of this stuff to get a passing grade.
But the poor writing was totally ridiculous. I kept finding myself looking for answer E. None of the above OR answer F. This is a confusing question with no real answer!
Boy, this one has “hot topic post” written all over it! :)
I haven’t read all 44 previous comments, but I get the general idea and completely agree. This test was torture not because I was unprepared or didn’t realize how cryptic and obscure these tests are, but because much of it flat-out didn’t make sense. There were questions on my exam that I am certain had no correct answer and for which I had to select the answer that seemed the least wrong. Others, to me, seemed not to be about CS3 at all, but about features that go back to at least CS2.
I didn’t expect this test to be easy, but I certainly didn’t expect a test with far fewer questions to take me longer than the full CS2 certification exam did. Something’s just not right here.
Unfortunately that’s yet another reason why ACE certification as it is currently handled is a waste of money, and a useless certification to have if those around know anything of the process… (ACE Photoshop 5 holder who is not going to bother with any more ACE testing)
I just spoke with someone at Adobe. They said they are aware of the issue and they are making corrections to the InDesign test (and others). I suggest waiting a bit before taking the test.
I have contacted Tim Cole at Adobe, and he says that they’re indeed aware of problematic aspects of the current ACE test(s) — and that things will change. So, as Daniel suggest, waiting is now the best policy — except that for those seeking recertification, they have only a 3-month window before they must take the full exam again. So hopefully, things will be improved fairly soon.
It now galls me considerably that I took my IDCS3 ACE exam two weeks before all this merde hit the fan — since I failed by 10 percent points (which is around 7 questions), it’s not inconceivable that I might have passed on my first ACE attempt if the exam questions had been more sensible. As I’ve described above, I am totally certain that at least two of them were utter nonsense.
I just started preparing for recert exams in InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. While looking for resources I found this topic listing. Unfortunately for me, and probably others, I can’t wait for the exams to be fixed. I have to pass in the next 6 weeks or so to stay eligible as a contract instructor with Adobe Certified Training Centers. At the mercy of the system, so to speak.
On a related topic, Does anyone know anything about the proposed Certified Associate exams? I read about them last fall and wanted to include training for them in college courses I teach, but information is hard to find. (And if those exams are anything like the expert exams, maybe not even worth the trouble?)
Hello tu everybody! I failed my Indesign CS3 yesterday with 61% and I´m very surprised! I´ll wait then! How long! I´m Photoshop ACE and it didn´t take me so effort!! I don´t understand. I´m confused. Snif!
I’ve booked to sit my exam Feb. 10th and downloaded Adobe’s Exam structure .pdf and noticed in the Topic Area the percentage of the exam equals 100 but the number of questions is 67. Yet they say you have 75 to answer. Are some questions worth more than others or can they not add up?
Linz
Lin, there is mounting evidence they cannot add up. Nor read nor write nor think. (I had 75 Qs on my exam.)
I read all comments and as a PsCS2 ACE I have to say: it was bad but it got a lot worse. Even more guessing and a lower min score.
The PsCS2 training from examaids.com was a good preparation for the actual test. Why? Because it was expensive and FULL OF MISTAKES. I also noticed (besides the terrible nervous speech impediments and weirdo laughs) many of Lynda.com’s trainers talk complete crap and the only one who almost never makes any mistake is Deke.
I just refuse to throw any more green at them for such a lousy lousy job, that hard working people like us would get fired for.
If anyone wants to do a website with me, correcting graphic design-/typography-/printing-books, dvds and help files of any language, drop a line.
Oh and I meant Adobe with the lousy job, not Lynda.com, at least they get a halfway decent product out.
I passed Photoshop CS2 ACE with examaids programm too. This time I bought them preparation exam software for Indesign CS3 and I noticed this is not as good as CS2. A question? Have I´ve got three months till I can reschudle my exam? Half cost? Thanks to all and visit my site, spanish readers.
I took my recert exam, and it was VERY confusing.
I remember in one question scenario, I was given a word file with an embedded excel file and a linked powerpoint presentation that I had to drop into indesign. I had to maintain editability of the excel file, and the link to the powerpoint slide…. what would I do?
Extremely frustrating, convoluted scenarios, vague wording..etc
yup. I took the recert. exteremly frustrating. vague wording, convoluted, unrealistic scenarios, tons of WTF moments.
I chuckled when I got to the end of the Recertification Exam Bulletin and saw:
“This brochure was created with Adobe FrameMaker software.”
I would have used InDesign myself.
Oh, and they should have turned on Ligatures. The “fi” in “Adobe Certified” looks horrible.
Overall, I give them a 65% on their page layout capabilities.
If you want a good way to catch adobe out with proof of the absolutely crappy questions purchase a screen capture application like iShow you so you can record your exam as you take it and analyze it all you want, you could even do screen grabs I guess. I have to recertify for PS, ID & IL. I passed the PS exam on my first attempt, however my first attempt at ID wasnt so good. Im convinced that the exam questions were totally unrealistic and plan on making this point with Adobe real soon. Why should I waste weeks of studying and my 50 bucks on such rubbish questions. I used to look up to Adobe, I must say these exams just dont cut it. A recertification exam should test your skills on all the new features you would think, I spent all my time studying the new features to find that the exam itself had only a few new feature questions… What a joke.
Neil
I think it’s quite obvious that Adobe failed miserably on this test. The only thing that they got right — I received my certificate in less than a week.
This is hilarious and maddening at the same time. Adobe must have assigned this task to an intern. Clearly, someone who does not use the programs wrote these things. Check out Question 2.5 on the Illustrator CS3 Exam Guide. Bizarre! Sadly, some of us need the certification for our livelihood. I passed the CS2 exams with only one mistake in InDesign and two mistakes in Illustrator. Hell, I was drunk for the InCopy exam (thought I was registering online and up popped the exam!) and I still passed. But, based on the sample questions, I don’t think I could pass the CS3 ones.
Great?just great….
I have been teaching design and prepress since the mid 80s and have used just about every Adobe application one can think of (and consider myself an expert… or at least I believe I am), but this whole thread is making me really nervous….
I am currently teaching at a large college in Chicago and have recently become the Assessment Chair of our Art & Design Department. I have been recommending that all our faculty teach objectives based on the ACE Certification Exam checklists and that all our graphic design faculty become certified instructors. (We recently started teaching Adobe Suite products, exclusively.) Am I making a really big mistake and wasting our time and hard-earned cash? I figured being ACE certified would give us more credibility, but I’m not so sure now.
What would you do?
I think someone’s been listening.
Check those PDFs again.
Hello all! Apparently Adobe got our message and has updated the exam for InDesign. The PDF’s exam bulletins have been changed, and also from what I’ve been told, so have the exams. They should be posted on or around Feb 20th. I’ll be retaking it in the next few weeks and will let you know if they got it right this time.
Yes, thanks, Bob and Laurie. I forgot to include the follow up link here. For more information on the new tests, see this post.
Hello,
Can InDesign CS3 (IE) make ps level 1 !!! ps file? (to a Xerox Digipath)
Sincerely
Alex Koszi
Hello all, well, I’ve just completed my InDesign REcertification test, and I’m happy to report that I passed with a score of 100%. Much better than the my 64% from the last horribly written test.
I’m still not completely happy with the test, but the questions have all been rewritten and are much clearer. If I didn’t know the exact answer, I could at least follow their line of thought and get the answer (which this time WAS an actual answer).
There were about half the same questions from the previous test, but I think they’ve been edited a bit to be more clear. The recert test should be able to be passed by competent users of InDesign.
Best of Luck!
Laurie
Alex, I believe that ID needs PostScript level 1. Perhaps you can export as PDF, then print from Acrobat to a level 1 device? I can’t recall.
Hello,
I figured out, that InDesign CS3 supports only level2 and 3 ps. We have to upgrade the Digipath to a higher level first.
Sincerely
Alex Koszi
I won’t be taking the test. Just spent the whole day reinstalling CS3 Premium but still can’t get InDesign to make PDFs. OK, it’ll make them, but the setting (check mark) to open the PDF results in an “Acrobat Not Found” error. I reinstalled CS3 Premium to get rid of Acrobat 8 (a dog) and use my Acrobat Reader 7 instead. CS3 doesn’t want to know about Acrobat Reader 7, possibly because it’s lean, it’s mean, and it works. Good reason to replace it with a “feature-rich” and “powerful” application like Acrobat 8 Professional. That is, a dog that takes 100%CPU to open a silly PDF document – taking several minutes.
Well, I’m glad I’m not a developer! They have to read these, and worse, solve them. Acrobat Reader 8, Acrobat Professional (don’t install). They even have a check mark for the latter.
These exams are a total scam! Full of poorly worded, ambiguous and irrelevant questions. I have passed both Photoshop and Flash.
I recently wrote a Dreamweaver CS3 exam – it was pathetic! I have subsequently discovered that Adobe has actually admitted that the exam was no good, and allowed all the Dreamwever 8 certificate holders to maintain their ACE status.(usually one must continually maintain their status by writing re-certifications).
? oh and by the way! You can BUY the exact exam questions on various websites(https://www.pass-guaranteed.com/). I guarantee 70% of your exam questions are in there!
“But nope, the answer is ?A. Remove the images that were created in Quark XTension.?
Argh. Okay, so I guessed wrong, and the real scenario was that the QXP layout file wouldn?t open in InDesign, period. But why make us guess at all?”
LOL! That’s what multiple choice does best, make you guess.
After reading this whole thread, I am so discouraged, I cant even think about wasting hundreds of dollars hoping to pass a bullshit test like this. I have a pilot certificate. The FAA has a syllabus of possible questions and answers, Like 20,000 of them all multiple choice. The test is done at a FAA flight center, and id 150 questions. I passed that with a 99% in 45 minuets. I studied for months but passed with ease. I will not waste a penny on a test I know is a joke. What gives. I have spent thousands of dollars on the Adobe CS3 Master collection. I have spent hundreds on books to learn all of the programs, Now when I am ready to study for the test, I find its a JOKE. I am really pissed off right now. How can I even begin to study for a test like this? Where can I buy the prep guides (not re cert Guides) for all the CS3 programs. After I spend a couple of thousand on study material, what then BURN the MONEY taking these BS Tests, at $150 a crack. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.
Tom, the InDesign CS3 ACE exam was pulled and rewritten so now it’s definitely better.
More info in this follow-up post:
ID CS3 ACE Deadline Extended
After being possibly the first person in history to take — and fail, by a few points — the dreadfully-constructed ID CS3 exam in late January, I’m trying to work up the nerve to take the NEW! IMPROVED! version in September. Adobe’s Tim Cole has sent me a code-voucher which will let me take the exam again at any training center without paying — very decent of him & them. So I’m feeling a bit better about taking this exam. But I’m not exactly looking forward to it, either, which I kind of did the first time around — and of course, the actual value of passing this exam is somewhat dubious.
Klaus, one of the best reasons to take the ID CS3 ACE test NOW is that shortly after CS4 comes out, they pull the CS3 test and only offer the CS4 one.
If you’ve passed the CS3 test, then you just need to “recertify” on CS4 … you take the test in your browser, and it’s much cheaper (and shorter) than the full CS4 test.
Since you’ve had so much experience working in CS3, there’s never going to be a better time to take it than now. Just do it quickly, before they pull the test!
Anne-Marie, you’re right! I’m gonna book it for early September somewhere here in Oslo. Fingers crossed!
FYI – the acrobat 9 recert is out now.
klaus, how can i get in touch in with tim cole? i took the exam today, failed and i’m feeling very ripped off about the whole thing. i’ve re-scheduled to take the exam at the end of september and i’d feel a whole lot better about it if i had a voucher too. thanks!
ps – i saw charles’ comment about getting “the exact exam questions on various websites(https://www.pass-guaranteed.com/). I guarantee 70% of your exam questions are in there!” i did exactly that and memorized all of the questions and answers pass-guaranteed.com sent me. save your money, none of them were included in the exam i took today. i guarantee it.
Tim, since you took the revised test, now in August, you won’t get a retake voucher from Adobe — that was for the first-generation test, which Adobe admitted was, ahem, shall we say “substandard”? That’s why I got the voucher, but that scenario no longer applies to anyone who’s taken the new batch of tests, since around April (I think?). It’s frustrating to flunk, of course, but I don’t think you have grounds to feel “ripped-off” because of flunking. You’ll just need to study some more and retake the test. And, yes, pay again — frustrating that, too!
*gulp*
I’ve got “Get an Illustrator ACE” on my performance objectives at work (mostly because I thought it would help me get a better job!), so now I’ve pretty much got to do it. I read the practice questions today and spent an hour writing an email to a friend about how poorly written it was.
Reading this thread has at least made me realise I’m not going crazy, the test just sucks. Phew!
Thanks for the comfort… I think! :) At least if I fail, I know it’s because of their poor training.
I am a teacher with no InDesign experience thrown into a class to teach it. Have looked EVERYWHERE trying to solve this issue: Actual size of documents. E.g making a statndard 3.5 inch X 2 inch business card. Open a new doc/enter those inch measurements which convert to picas, choose landscape. Up pops a construction space way bigger, which I assume is for ease of working. Invariably, it I print I get a fraction of the intended size.
A LITTLE HELP HERE, PLEASE. What/where (can I find) the proper correlation between setting up a document like this thru new docs and getting it to print to the desired size? What am I missing?
Spending money for anything you don’t really enjoy
is not a good idea, even if you conserve a number of money onto it.
Do not invest toomuch time couponing.
I am really scared to attend InDesign CC ACE exam on July 16, 2016 reading these comments.