I took the ACE Exam for Photoshop 5. One thing you should know is six months after the release of a new version of Photoshop your certification is technically invalid. So depending on your reasons for taking the test you should consider waiting. The disadvantage of waiting is it takes quite a while to become proficient enough in the new features to have the confidence to take the test. The test is HARD. Not too hard but you need to be up on color setup, calibration, working with publishing houses and idiosyncracies of file formats. So be sure you really really know Photoshop inside and out before you go in or you may not pass. As for the promotional aspects for your career, nobody is looking for ACE certified experts but I think it does carry some weight when you can flash the piss poor looking certificate. Because frankly just about everybody and his uncle claims they are good at Photoshop. Not many can prove it. I tried the simple preview test on my friend who thought he was pretty good and would take it too.. He got thirty percent. I got 95 percent. But the preview test is much easier then the real one. If you only get eighty percent on the preview test I recommend you study more. You need seventy on the real test to pass. As I mentioned earlier the certificate is the cheesiest looking thing I have ever seen. My friends would see it and laugh that it looked like it was run off on cheap color printer. However like the diploma for the scarecrow, and the heart for the tinman, it is just trinkets. But you know you have proved to yourself at least that you really know the program well. So while some may see it as meaningless it may be a meaningful trinket to you. I should think only a very tiny percent of the people who use Photoshop could pass the test and I should think a good percentage of those who go into the test without some years under their belt or some serious training can't pass it either. So you can feel fairly proud of yourself if you get the certificate.