Area Man Achieves Impossible: Gets 100% on ID ACE Exam
Learn about our first inductee into the InDesignSecrets 100% Pure Guru Club!
Our newbie InDesignSecrets contributor, James “The Intern” Fritz, sent a gleeful e-mail to David and I a few days ago about his results from the InDesign CS4 ACE Recertification exam:
I just took the test and got 100%.
I think it was a great test. I really enjoyed it.
Hmm. I looked at the date of the e-mail: Nope, not April 1st. (April Fool’s Day, for our international readers … the day to play practical jokes on each other. Wondering … does “practical jokes” translate?)
As you may have read in earlier posts or heard in our podcasts, David and I managed the development of this test, all the questions and answers, for both the full certification exam and the CS4-focused recertification exam, which InDesign geeks who’ve passed the previous version’s full test must pass to remain certified.
I clearly remember when Adobe returned the exams to us for a final check, after we hadn’t looked at it for a month. I read over the questions and my heart clutched. Were we insane? These were tough questions! All were fair and accurate, no nitpicky things, but … still. I called David and he had the same reaction. When this test was released, were we going endure the wrath of thousands?
Fortunately, Adobe decided you only needed to answer 69% of the questions correctly to pass the test. That is a fair assessment. And anyone who scores above 85% has to be a stone-cold InDesign genius, we’re certain of it.
Then we received Fritz’s e-mail. I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. David wrote him:
No way. 100%? That is beyond incredible. I want a photo of you holding your certificate with the percentage. We should post pictures of anyone who gets 100%. I’m serious that I think anyone over 75% is truly “expert” and I honestly don’t think I would get 100%, even after having seen and edited all the questions.
So, Fritz complied. He’s our first entry in our InDesign ACE Exam 100% Guru Club:
Are you as cynical as I am? ;-) Of course I had to zoom in to really see that score. Here’s a close-up, with a small amount of sharpening:
Fritz, once again, congratulations! Incredible. And if anyone else gets 100% on the InDesign CS4 ACE exam, please by all means send in a photo!
This article was last modified on December 19, 2021
This article was first published on March 23, 2009
Commenting is easier and faster when you're logged in!
Recommended for you
Turning Polygons to Starbursts in InDesign
Drawing starbursts isn't hard, once you know where to look. Plus, check out this...
Quickly add metadata to InDesign and PDF files
Metadata is a term that we’re hearing more and more these days. So what is...
Locking Objects For Easier Aligning
A quick tip on how to make any object the "key object" when aligning.


