Live-in-the-Application 101
Adobe Certified Professional is one of three exam programs at Certiport that are delivered with our exclusive Live-in-the-Application (LITA) technology. During an exam, the Compass software launches the corresponding locally installed Adobe software so that portions of every Adobe certification exam can take place in the actual program environment. This results in an exam experience that more closely resembles what a Test Candidate would encounter in the real world.
For example, the Photoshop exam has an objective about changing the opacity of a layer within a project. Instead of answering a multiple choice question, the Test Candidate gets to demonstrate their knowledge by literally performing this task inside the Photoshop program, during which Compass is measuring their performance.
Note: Most Adobe exams are Live-in-the-Application exams. However, the Adobe Express exam is a Selected Response (SR) exam, which does not require access to the software.
Locally installed software versions
Like all software companies, Adobe is continually introducing new versions of their software and retiring older versions. Major versions are announced each year, while routine minor versions are released and utilized throughout that year (as improvements and fixes are addressed). Certiport exams are designed to be run on a specific major version of the software. However, Certiport does not release new version suites of our exams at the same pace Adobe releases new major versions of their software.
Due to the intrinsic relationship between Compass and the locally installed Adobe software, we are constantly testing new minor (in-between) versions to ensure they work with our Compass software and result in the best experience for the Test Candidate. This non-stop evolution means that the minor versions we support can vary, and the person responsible for installing the applications needs to pay special attention in order to keep the locally installed program versions aligned with the program versions that Certiport has tested as supported, along with the exam versions that the Certiport Authorized Testing Center (CATC) has decided to administer.
This non-stop cycle is further complicated by the fact that during version attrition by Adobe, they will limit the location of where certain older versions can be obtained and retire them before Certiport retires the exam they are based on; they will also - without notice - make some versions no longer available. A testing center that found themselves setting up new workstations in their lab, or re-imaging existing workstations that were relying on a version no longer obtainable, would either have to migrate to the next version suite of the exams, or obtain the older version from a backup (see section 3: Creating a package).
Note: Once the Compass software is installed and any exam content is downloaded, both will update in the background when new versions are released (if set to Automatic). They do not require the same level of scrutiny that the locally installed Adobe software requires as new versions are released.