My Experience With Adobe Certification Testing
To become an Adobe certified associate, a lot of technical software knowledge and dedication are required. Studying and practicing are key to passing the Adobe certification tests. This is how I passed my Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign tests with a not only passing but above average passing score. If you have experience with Adobe software, you are almost guaranteed to pass after taking your test the first time. I would not say the same for those who don’t have experience, but you could get lucky.
I personally used two main and very helpful tools to study and prepare for the test. Without these tools, I honestly don’t think I would have done as well or even passed. The main thing I utilized to get ready for this test was ACAtestprep.com. This website offers numerous practice quizzes, projects, and detailed videos that explain the technicality of the software and important things to know about it that are asked about on the test. It was created by Rob Schwartz, who is a local in my school. Fortunately, my college is connected with the owner, so the usage of this site was conveniently free. I recommend paying for the basic tools just to have to use because it is extremely helpful for the test. It tells you what questions you get wrong for the practice tests, how to get the right answer and why, and explains so many things about the software in videos.
The other extremely helpful tool I used is the practice testing software, gmetrix.com. This website allows you to join a specific proctor and choose numerous tests from the different Adobe software, both training, and actual testing. The training tests are so helpful with explaining the correct answer and the correct way to accomplish whatever it asks you to do. The testing versions of the training tests have the same questions, but will only tell you what questions you got wrong at the end, and it won’t tell you how to get the correct answer.
I recommend taking multiple practice tests on both ACAtestprep and Gmetrix for ALL the Creative Cloud software you can become certified in. The more you practice, the better chance you have of becoming a certified associate for Adobe.
I passed my Photoshop test with 860, Illustrator with 880, and InDesign with 800. These scores are all out of 1000. To pass, however, it is required that you get at least a score of 700. Again, I was able to perform better than what was required because of my great experience and practice with the software I tested for. The saying is true - practice makes perfect.
At the beginning of this entire testing and preparing process, I wish I could’ve known some other resources, even though the ones I used were helpful enough. I also wish I could have studied better directly before I tested, so that I would’ve retained the information better, fresh in my head. A lot of the time, I took practice tests and studied a day before the test. I think others trying to become certified should try studying more about the day before the test, and practice the questions and testing environment relatively close to the testing time.
In the future, I plan to become an Adobe Certified Associate of ALL the Adobe creative cloud software. This looks extremely good on a resume not only because it's industry certified, but it shows that you have a solid record in design principles and technicalities. The software I plan to get certified in next includes Dreamweaver, Premiere, Flash, and Animate. In my opinion, these are going to be the hardest tests to become certified in because there is so much more complex information to know. These are also the most overlooked of the Adobe creative cloud software because they each do a very niche thing.
The most important things of all that I advise all designers to do before taking an Adobe certification test is to sleep well the night before, try your best to start your day on a positive note, stay confident, and do not be discouraged if you fail your first time!!! The majority of people fail an industry certification test the first time. It is only required to wait 24 hours to take another test the second time. I also HIGHLY recommend resetting the question asked every time you try to find the answer with clicks and/or make mistakes before finding the answer.