Taking Illustrator CS5 ACE exam - F/U

[evilrobot]

58% = failed. (70% to pass)

70 (brutal) questions. some are basic questions regarding tool function and a lot of work scenario questions. sounds easy, but many of the correct answers that you could narrow it down to are worded VERY similar to each other - so you end up with 2 answers that both sound very plausible. also, about 5 questions have options to pick 2 correct answers.

yeah, i have some sour grapes because of the amount of time (a lot) that i have studied for this. i took it seriously and read the CIB and most of CS5 on demand. i think the only way to pass this is to know every tool pallet, behavior, pull out menu, and file format. know them in your sleep. as a designer that has used iterations of AI since 1988, there are features buried in there that we will never use on a professional level. oh well.

to actually pass this, you truly are an expert or else they would call it Adobe Illustrator Certified Solid Working Knowledge. i can take it again in 30 days, but not sure if i want to drop another $150 on something that i'm only doing for the sheer challenge.

[mattkime]

yeah, seems that an evilrobot would have better things to do with its time.

[laarree]

I think I posted on your previous thread a similar opinion. From what I've seen online about example questions from the ACE exams, it seems like the tests focus on vexing people with trivial, obscure details about the least-often-used features in the applications, and have little to do with problem solving and actually creating a document/image efficiently and elegantly. I've used Illustrator since 1988, Photoshop since c. 1991, InDesign since pre-CS1 days, and am very proficient and professional with them, but there are big chunks of these applications I NEVER use -- I would fail these tests. If the certificate doesn't earn you a job or teaching opportunity, why bother pursuing one??

[Bosco]

What laarree said.

Don't bother wasting your time with trivial matters.