10th Grade — The ACP Exam: Take It For Real

⏰ Do Now — Start Here

On a scale of 1-10, how ready do you feel for the real exam right now -- and is that feeling backed up by your last practice score?

🎯 Today's Big Question

After all that practice, what does it actually feel like to sit the real Adobe Certified Professional exam?

📈 By the End of Today, You Will Be Able To

Sit the real ACP Photoshop exam if ready, or complete one more targeted GMetrix practice round if not.
Identify their real score/outcome and what it means for next steps.
Log the exam attempt (passed, or a specific weak domain to revisit) in their portfolio notes.

🧰 What You'll Need

Computer with GMetrix/ACP exam access
Quiet testing environment

📋 Your Plan for Today

Testing block (35 min): students who are ready sit the real ACP exam; students who aren't yet take one more full, timed GMetrix practice round.
Log (10 min): record the outcome and, if needed, one specific domain to revisit.

🖥️ Today's Slide Deck

Short, on-the-board pacing slides — project these to follow along. (The full details are in the handout above, not here.)

⬇️ Open / download this slide PDF

📚 Key Words

Certification: An official, third-party credential proving a specific, tested skill -- something a resume can name specifically.

✅ What Your Finished Work Should Include

Exam outcome or practice score logged; any student who didn't pass has one specific, named domain to revisit.

Exit Ticket: What is the very next thing you're going to do about your result, today?

📊 Before You Leave

Quick, anonymous class check-in -- takes less than a minute.

Class Check-In

📤 How You Submit This — For Credit

How you submit today's work depends on what kind of work it was. Physical/paper work (most of this semester so far): photograph it with a classroom camera, upload the photo from its SD card onto a computer, and save it into your portfolio -- that upload is your submission, and the physical piece itself is yours to keep, the same as in Grade 9 (your notebook is the one thing with a home base in the room, and even that's your call to bring home when you want it). Digital work (once you're producing files in Photoshop, second semester on): no camera needed -- instead, EXPORT the file. Export your finished project as a JPG, as a PNG, AND save a copy as a PSD (all three), then upload all three into your portfolio. Either way: the portfolio upload, with a description, is what actually counts as turning the assignment in for credit.

📁 Portfolio Update — Once a Week

Once a week, add your best finished or in-progress piece to your portfolio (the Google Drive folder you started in Grade 9, becoming your Google Sites portfolio in Lesson 10) with a 1-2 sentence caption: what it is, what tool/skill it used, and one thing you learned. Keep it current -- don't save it all for the portfolio-website lesson.

✍️ Example description for your Google Sites portfolio (fill in YOUR blanks -- don't just copy this):

For this piece, I made ______________ (name what you made) for “The ACP Exam: Take It For Real.” This project asked: “After all that practice, what does it actually feel like to sit the real Adobe Certified Professional exam?” I used Certification by ______________ (explain how you used it in THIS piece). The hardest part was ______________, and I solved it by ______________. I'm proud of ______________ because ______________.

🎓 ACP Exam Prep

This lesson connects to the Photoshop Adobe Certified Professional exam: Domain 1: Working in the Design Industry · Domain 5: Publishing Digital Media

🔗 Want to Learn More?

No extra links for this lesson.

🚀 The Extra Mile

Cross-Class Connection: The same test-day nerves and prep strategy as any real Regents exam day.

Career Connection: The certification itself is referenced across multiple career pages on the Careers hub as a real, resume-worthy asset.

Go further -- turn this into a portfolio piece:

Write a short "how I prepared" guide for next year's students sitting the same exam. Start here: list your actual study schedule and the specific resources you used (practice tests, review sheets) from memory right after the exam, while it's still fresh.
Design a "certified" badge graphic to add to your portfolio site marking the achievement, even before the official certificate arrives. Start here: sketch three small round or shield-shaped badge layouts under 200x200 pixels first, since a badge that only reads clearly at full screen size won't work as a small site icon.