The Bottom Line
The Illustrator CS2 ACE Exam Aid is a useful, interactive program to help you identify the topic areas you will need to study before taking Adobe's Certified Expert Exam. Cross references point you to the study material in Illustrator Help. The Illustrator CS2 ACE Exam Aid has been updated with a newsection for users wishing to re-certify, new questions, updated help file references, and also includes several PDF documents which can be printed for offline study.
Pros
- Helpful points to remember for each section.
- Each question cross-referenced to Illustrator Help for quick reference.
- Includes a section for people wishing to re-certify.
- Includes PDF reference documents which can be printed for offline study.
- For Windows and Macintosh
Cons
- Better statistics could help identify weak areas.
Description
- The program is divided into two sections for certification and re-certification.
- More than 300 multiple-choice questions are arranged into 10 topic areas and repeated in 12 exams.
- The practice exams feature a countdown clock, scoring, and the option of checking your answers.
- Points to remember are provided for each topic area, and in a 50-page PDF for printing.
- The certification mock exams contain 66 multiple-choice questions and last 1 hour 25 minutes.
- The re-certification mock exams contain 33 multiple-choice questions and last 55 minutes.
- All questions include cross-references for referring to related material in Illustrator's Help file.
- Questions can be flagged and referred to later.
- Click a button when reviewing by topic to see the correct answer explained and cross-referenced.
- Crib Sheet and Tips & Tricks PDFs are also included — these can be printed for offline reference.
Guide Review - Adobe Illustrator CS2 ACE Exam Aid by David Creamer & Shangara Singh
The Illustrator CS2 ACE Exam Aid is well put together and easy to use. It offers a good mix of questions based on the topic areas Adobe recommends for study. The program is divided into two sections for certification and re-certification. Topic areas include: general knowledge, knowing type, laying out a document, managing color, outputting to print, publishing for the Web, saving and exporting, shapes and objects, and working with layers.
I found the reversed white type on dark gray background a bit hard to read, but reading the questions aloud helped. I'd like to see better missed-question statistics to help identify weak areas. I was happy to see that sound effects have been removed from this updated version for Illustrator CS2.
I've never taken an Adobe Certified Expert exam myself, but the Exam Aid is said to be laid out in a similar style. I have no doubt you can learn from this tool, and with dedication and study it will certainly improve your chances of "acing" the Illustrator ACE exam.
Note: The Exam Aid is an interactive program for download only. It is not a book or video.
