Tips to Pass the Adobe Certified Exam for Photoshop

December 20, 2014 9:06 AM

I have a little over a month before I take the Adobe Certification Exam for Photoshop. I bought a study course that supposedly has a 1:1 correlation with the exam, and I am really struggling with the magnitude of the keyboard commands I have to memorize. If you've taken and passed this specific test, do you have any tips for me?

FWIW, I have 8 years of Photoshop experience but it looks like I have a narrow purview of proficiency despite being considered very skilled by my employers and coworkers. The keyboard commands are especially throwing me for a loop because I change all my shortcuts since the defaults are sometimes inconvenient to activate for someone with small hands like me. It would appear that these are the bulk of the test though. :( What should I focus on study-skills wise for the next month to maximize my chances of passing?

posted by Hermione Granger to Education (4 answers total)

Annoying as it is, I would revert all your shortcuts to the default and get used to working that way. You'll be much more likely to remember something you actually use. Once you ace the test, do things the way you prefer.
posted by tomboko at 9:34 AM on December 20, 2014

I am really struggling with the magnitude of the keyboard commands I have to memorize

Can you make flashcards?
posted by DarlingBri at 10:15 AM on December 20, 2014

Response by poster: Can I? Yes. Have I? Yes. Are they effective? Obviously not, since I'm asking this question. ;)
posted by Hermione Granger at 10:46 AM on December 20, 2014

I've never taken the exam but I've heard from others that keyboard shortcuts and modifiers (ie: holding down ALT when using the mouse to do things) are very high on the need to know list. The only way to learn keyboard shortcuts is to use them. Keep your paws off your mouse when you're using photoshop and re-examine your flashcard strategy. Not all flashcard strategies are useful. When I had to memorize a massive quantity of information from the periodic table for chemistry I reviewed my flashcards at least a dozen times a day using a modified version of the Leitner method. I didn't use boxes because I wanted my flashcards to be portable, so I used colored stack separators to organize my cards.
posted by xyzzy at 11:12 AM on December 20, 2014