*** From the Archives ***
This article is from February 25, 2013, and is no longer current.
InDesign CS6 Examaid study guide
If you’re looking for an extra tool to help you study for your InDesign ACE exam, we have a couple of suggestions. First, check out what our friends at examaids.com are offering. They provide a study guide that simulates the actual ACE exam. The Examaids website has been around for a while now but they just recently released the InDesign CS6 exam. The kit contains almost 400 unique questions divided into modules based on Adobe’s published ACE Exam Objectives. (Even better, the exam was co-authored by Bart Van de Wiele, who recently joined our InDesignSecrets blog as a contributor.)
The study kit is broken down into two modes:
- Study mode: allows you to explore and try the questions and answers. Every question is accompanied by a block of extra information and a direct link to the correct online help page.
- Practice mode: this is the actual ACE exam simulation. You will be faced with the same amount of questions from the same categories as the official exam, using the same time limit.
Study mode
The InDesignSecrets eBooks
While we’re somewhat biased, we can also highly recommend two ebooks:
- The InDesignSecrets Guide to the InDesign CS5 ACE Exam: While this is technically outdated (it was written for CS5), it is actually still extremely useful for two important reasons. First, the scope of the exam hasn’t changed that much. Second, and more importantly, there is a lot of general information in here which is relevant for any version (of any ACE exam, actually). Note that InDesign Magazine readers can also read an excerpt of Mike’s ACE ebook in the February/March issue.
- The InDesignSecrets Guide to What’s New in InDesign CS6: For a focused look at all the new features in CS6 (for your studying pleasure!), check out this excellent eBook by Keith Gilbert.
Of course, while both examaids and the ebooks can help you study InDesign, nothing replaces actually using the software until you know it inside and out! And no one can guarantee you passing the actual exam. Nevertheless, we strongly recommend you use some kind of tool or reference to study for the exams, as it certainly betters your chance of passing.
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Aargh, too bad. I did my recert. exam on InDesign two weeks ago. I’ve seen this training aid, but it wasn’t available.
I’ve passed anyway! But I had somehow the impression that the criterias were raised for this exam. I wasn’t sure for 4-5 questions and wrote comments without getting an answer to what I asked.
The questions were somewhat old school. Lots of questions about printing (to a printer, not to a press). Really, a lot of such questions. Paperless offices are probably still a foreign concept. Only a very few questions were about the new features (for a recert exam). So don’t just learn the “New in InDesign CS5.5” and “New in InDesign CS6” release notes. Take also a deeper look at the PDF/X standards and definitions, who are not exactly explained in the above guides!
The certification validation takes damn long these days. I did not yet receive my certificate from Adobe.
so glad you posted this. ACE certification is one of my goals this year.
Awesome. Thanks for the tip. This is something I’ve been looking for.
We were a bit late releasing the exam aid this cycle. For a while, it looked like it wasn’t going to happen but then it came together.
We normally include a What’s New (Recertification) module but this cycle, for a number of exams, Adobe have published the same objectives for both the certification and the recertification exams, so we didn’t include one.
If you are using or thinking of using the Adobe InDesign CS6 ACE Exam Aid to prepare, our advice is to study all of the objectives covered by the exam aid.
Yves said: “Take also a deeper look at the PDF/X standards and definitions, who are not exactly explained in the above guides!”
We do, in fact, cover PDF/X standards and have done so for several versions now.
I bought this programme from Examaids and it’s absolutely great!
However, I’ve found out that my brain and hands are not related in any shape or form. Put me in front of the software and I’m fine – take it away and I’m lost but I shall plod on!
By the way, I’ve used Mike Rankin’s ebook as well and it’s a gem!
Thanks for your recommendations.
Glad to hear it, Anita!
I have 2 question about Indesign CS6:
1. Type style includes the option:
A: Bold, align left, underline, and reverse.
B: Leading, color, position, case and track,
C: Leading, bold, italic, and underline
D: Normal, bold italic, and underline
2. What type of document would not require facing pages?
A: Magazine
B: Catalog
C: Business caed
D: Book
qn1 ans is d
qn2 ans is a
mpereire med: Um…. I assume you’re joking. The answer to #1 is “This question makes no sense” and the answer to #2 is: “it depends.”