Pixiq

With the recent announcement of the new Lightroom Adobe Certified Expert exam for Lightroom 3, it's good to see  tools coming on board to aid users in the exam. While you can study the Help files to achieve your goals, the exam engine used by the Lightroom 3 ACE Exam Aid (Mac, Win) allows you to both study and test using an interface similar to the actual test. 

Exam Aids make a range of product for ACE exams, for example, InDesign and Photoshop, so the interface is the same for all the products. I've tech edited the content for the creator, Shangara Singh for a number of version of the product. I've no financial return from them, bar dinner from Shangara every now and again in London. The reason I work on them is both the challenge and the information I get from it. While some of the question on this are straightforward, a lot are not and will tax even the most competent Lightroom expert. 

There's been a change in emphasis in this exam, and 25% of the exam covers Photoshop and Bridge, along with Lightroom interaction with them. The exam aid covers a fair bit of ground in this regard. Other additions compared to the previous exam are the new Import dialog and Publish services. Again, there are quite a lot of questions in this regard. 

Overall the topics follow those recommended in the ACE preparation guide and mirror both content and style. Each multiple choice question has a range of answers, and help references to understand where you go wrong. 

The screenshot above shows the UI. At the top you have tabs to choose between Study and Pratice Modes, along with settings. From the dropdown menu underneath, you choose which areas of the ACE exam you want to concentrate on, followed by options to help flags areas of issue etc. The main area shows the question. If you tick the *right* answer, then the explanatory answer and hyperlink show automatically. If you tick the *wrong* answer and then Show Answer, you will see your choice in red, and correct choice in green. Beneath this is where the reference material shows. Finally at the bottom, you can show the answer if unsure, show a summary of your efforts, and go to the previous and next question. 

In Practice mode, you can do a timed exam to get a feel for the real thing. Overall I really like the work that's gone into this and have seen first hand the effort Shangara has put in. Highly recommended.