The Macromedia Certified Professional Program

The Macromedia Certified Professional Program

This is where certification comes into play. Formal, official certification by Macromedia helps to mark a threshold that explicitly sets apart designers by their knowledge and experience, making it possible to identify the true experts.

The Certified Flash MX Designer certification is one in a series of certification tracks from Macromedia. This one is aimed at designers using Macromedia Flash MX. Other exams and certification programs being developed concentrate on other products and areas of expertise.

Reasons to Get Certified

There's really only one important reason for a Flash designer to become certified: Being able to call yourself a Macromedia Certified Flash MX Designer means you can command the respect and recognition that goes along with being one of the best at what you do.

Just as has happened with other products and technologies in this space, certification is likely to become a prerequisite for employersan additional barometer by which to measure the potential of candidates and applicants .

Whether being certified helps you find a new or better job, helps persuade your boss that the pay raise you want is justified, helps you find new clients , or gets you listed on the Macromedia Web site so you can attract new prospectswhatever the reasonit will help you stand out from the crowd .

About the Exam

Becoming a Certified Flash MX Designer requires being tested on your knowledge of Flash MX and related technologies. As far as exams go, this one isn't easynor should it be. In fact, more than a third of all test takers fail their first exam. This is not a bad thing; on the contrary, it means that you really have to know your stuff to pass. You don't merely receive a paper certificate; the exam and subsequent certification have real value and real significance. "Very challenging but fair" is how many examinees describe the exam itself.

How You'll Take the Exam

The exam is a set of multiple-choice and true/false questions that you answer electronically . A computer application issues the test to you, and you'll know whether you passed immediately upon test completion.

In the test you're presented with each question and the possible answers. Some questions have a single correct answer, while others have two or more (you'll be told how many answers to provide). If a question stumps you, you can skip it and come back to it later.

After you have answered all the questions, you can review them to check your answers. After you're done, or after the 70-minute time limit is up, you get your results. You need to have at least 75 percent correct to pass and achieve certification. If you don't pass, you need to wait at least 30 days before you can try taking the test again. You may take the test no more than three times in a single year, starting from the date of your first test.

You will be required to pay the full exam fee each time you take the certification exam.

What You'll Be Tested On

Being a Flash MX expert requires knowing more than just how to use all the menu items. As such, the exam includes questions on related technologies. You will be tested on the following subjects:

• Project architecture, page and interface layout

• Effective visual design and scripting

• Effective motion design and ActionScripting

• Effective optimization and output design

Every question counts, and you can't assume that one particular topic is more or less significant than the others. You need to know it all, and you need to know it all well.

Preparing for the Exam

The most important preparation for the exam is using Flash MX itself. If you don't use it regularly or haven't done so for an extended period, you probably won't pass the exam.

Having said that, we can tell you that many experienced Flash MX designers still find the exam challenging. Usually, they say this is because they don't use some features and technologies, or because they learned the product but never paid attention to changing language and feature details (and thus are not using the product as effectively as they could be).

This is where this book fits in. This book is not a cheat sheet. It won't teach you Flash from scratch, nor will it give you a list of things to remember to pass the test. What it will do is help you systematically review every feature and technology in the producteverything you need to know to pass the test.

Where to Take the Exam

To offer the exams worldwide, in as many locations as possible, Macromedia has partnered with a company called VUE, which offers exams and certification programs for a wide range of companies and products, and has more than 2,500 regional testing facilities in more than 100 countries .

You can take the Macromedia Flash MX Designer exam at any VUE testing center. For a current list of locations, visit the Web site:

http://www.vue.com/macromedia/

How Much It Costs

The fee to take the exam in North America is $150 (U.S.). Pricing in other countries varies. The fee must be paid at the time you register for the exam. If you need to cancel, you must do so at least 24 hours before the exam, or the fee will not be refunded.

As a special gift to the readers of this book, and to encourage you to study appropriately for the test, Macromedia has sponsored a coupon that you can use for a discount off the exam fee. Refer to the coupon for details and usage information.