Unit 10 | ACP Review, Practice Exams & Certification (Apr 20 – May 3, 2027)
Unit 10 introduces no new content. Every ACP-tested objective for FDD (Illustrator) was already covered across Units 1–9 (Sep 1, 2026 – Apr 16, 2027). This unit’s entire job is to get every student from “has seen it once” to “certifies on it”: targeted review, full-length practice exams, and the actual Adobe Certified Professional exam itself.
Why this page doesn’t follow the standard lesson schema
Every other unit in this course (lesson: front matter, X_Y.md / X_Y-teacher.md pairs, four formative lessons cycling the Exit Ticket Bank, a summative block) is built around teaching and assessing new content. Unit 10 has no new SWBAT, no new _includes/vocab/ terms, and nothing that fits the check/+/− formative system. There’s no fresh skill to screenshot-receipt or fix-this-file on. Forcing this unit into 4 formative lessons + 1 summative would mean inventing fake “lessons” with no real learning target, which is worse than just describing what actually happens. Per CLAUDE.md’s Academic Calendar & Scope Context section, this unit exists to “shift pacing to targeted review and GMetrix/BrainBuffet practice-test work, not new instruction.” So this page describes that structure directly, as a planning reference, rather than pretending it’s five more content days.
A single well-organized index page (this one) is a deliberate choice over building 10 separate day1.md–day10.md pages: the day-by-day plan below is genuinely just “which ACP domain(s) does today target, and in what format.” A teacher planning this week needs a reference table, not ten thin pages that all say some version of “review + GMetrix.” If a future pass wants standalone day pages (for example, to hand a sub a single self-contained page), the table below is written so it could be split out mostly as-is, but doing that today would be padding, not added value.
Calendar context
Per _planning/2026-27-scope-and-sequence.md’s Calendar Math section: Unit 10 runs Apr 20 – May 3, 2027, 10 school days, MP4. The ACP certification window has to land between Access Testing and AP Testing (AP Exams run May 3–7 and May 10–14, 2027). Unit 10 is the only clean gap, which is why it’s built with real slack (10 days) rather than the old plan’s ~4 meetings.
The 10 meetings
| Day | Focus | Format | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Diagnostic | Short diagnostic quiz pulled from the full-year ACP vocab/question banks, covering all 5 objective domains. Review each student’s own F1–F4 formative history from Units 1–9 | Identifies each student’s weakest domain(s) before spending review time. Don’t guess, check the data |
| 2 | Domain 1 & 2 Review: Design Industry, Document Management | Station rotation: a quick re-teach mini-lesson per domain + targeted GMetrix/BrainBuffet module practice filtered to that domain | Pull materials from FDD Units 1, 2, 6, 9 (see cross-reference table below) |
| 3 | Domain 3 Review: Workflow & Interface | Station rotation, same format | Pull from FDD Units 2, 7, 8 |
| 4 | Domain 4 Review: Objects, Paths & Text | Station rotation, same format. Budget extra 1:1 time here, since it’s FDD’s largest, most-tested domain | Pull from FDD Units 3, 4, 5, 8 |
| 5 | Domain 5 Review: Appearance & Position | Station rotation, same format | Pull from FDD Units 3, 6, 7 |
| 6 | Full-Length Practice Exam #1 | Timed, full-exam-conditions GMetrix/BrainBuffet practice exam covering all 5 domains | Simulates real test conditions. Save the domain-by-domain score breakdown |
| 7 | Targeted Re-Review | Small-group re-teach built directly from Practice Exam #1’s weakest domains per student/class | Group by this week’s data, not the Day 1 diagnostic. It may have changed |
| 8 | Full-Length Practice Exam #2 + Final Study Plans | Second timed practice exam. Each student leaves with a one-page personal “what to double-check” list for their weakest domain | Last day before the real exam. Keep this low-stress, confidence-building |
| 9 | ACP Certification Exam | The actual proctored Adobe Certified Professional exam | Follow district testing-security procedures. This is not a classroom-graded day |
| 10 | Makeup Testing / Buffer + Unit 11 Preview | Makeup slot for any student who missed Day 9. For everyone else, a short reflection on the certification experience and a preview of Units 11–12’s post-certification project work | Real testing logistics (absences, technical issues) make a buffer day necessary, not optional |
Domain → Unit cross-reference (for planning Days 2–5)
Use this table to pull the actual re-teach material (guided notes, worksheets, vocab includes) straight from each domain’s original lessons rather than writing new review content from scratch.
| ACP Domain | Originally taught in | Key _includes/vocab/ files to re-open |
|---|---|---|
| 1: Design Industry | Unit 1 (all), Unit 9 (9.1 Copyright) | vocab/fdd-what-is-design.md, vocab/fdd-design-process.md |
| 2: Document Management | Unit 2 (2.3 Documents & Artboards), Unit 6 (6.1 Saving & File Formats), Unit 9 (9.3–9.4 Placing/Linking, Export) | Unit 2, 6, and 9’s vocab includes. See each unit’s index |
| 3: Workflow & Interface | Unit 2 (2.2 Interface, 2.4 Design Aids), Unit 7 (7.1 Layers Panel), Unit 8 (8.2 Symbols & Graphic Styles) | Unit 2, 7, and 8’s vocab includes |
| 4: Objects, Paths & Text | Unit 3 (3.2 Shape Tools), Unit 4 (all: Pen Tool & Paths), Unit 5 (all: Typography), Unit 8 (8.3–8.4 Image Trace, Generative AI) | Unit 4 and 5’s vocab includes carry the most weight here |
| 5: Appearance & Position | Unit 3 (3.3–3.4 Swatches/Gradients, Align/Arrange), Unit 6 (6.4 Transformations), Unit 7 (7.2–7.4 Appearance, Effects, Masks) | Unit 3, 6, and 7’s vocab includes |
Each course’s per-unit ACP tags are the authoritative source for this table. See this course’s section of _planning/2026-27-scope-and-sequence.md for the lesson-by-lesson breakdown. Re-check this table once every FDD unit page (1–9) is fully authored, since a lesson’s real final ACP tag can shift slightly from the current draft.
How to use each day’s data
- Day 1’s diagnostic and each student’s Unit 1–9 formative history (F1–F4 check marks in Schoology) together tell you who needs which domain. Don’t run identical whole-class review when the data shows an uneven spread.
- GMetrix/BrainBuffet’s own domain-tagged reporting should drive which specific modules get assigned on Days 2–5 and which get re-assigned after Practice Exam #1 (Day 7). The platform already knows a student’s per-domain accuracy. Use it instead of re-diagnosing from scratch.
- Practice Exam #1 and #2 scores are the real signal for Day 7–8 grouping. A student who tests strong on Domain 4 by Day 6 doesn’t need more Domain 4 time on Day 7, even if they struggled with it back on Day 1.
Assessment & grading
Unit 10 has no F1–F6 formatives and no summative. There is nothing new to grade with the check/+/− system, and the certification exam itself is scored by Adobe/Certiport, not the teacher. What still needs a grade in the gradebook:
- Completion/participation for the review stations (Days 2–5) and both practice exams (Days 6, 8). Did the student engage with the assigned modules, not “did they get every question right.”
- Growth, if your gradebook supports it: Day 1 diagnostic domain score → Practice Exam #1 → Practice Exam #2, as a simple improvement metric, is more meaningful than any single day’s raw score.
- The certification exam result itself (pass/fail, and per-domain breakdown from Certiport) is a reporting/record-keeping item, not a classroom grade. Check current district policy before entering it as one.
Differentiation notes (general, not a per-lesson matrix)
Because this page isn’t a single lesson, it doesn’t carry the standard per-lesson Differentiation Matrix, but real students are still in the room for all 10 days, so plan for:
- IEP/504: extended time on both practice exams (already a standard testing accommodation, so confirm each student’s accommodation plan covers the actual certification exam, not just in-class practice). Chunk each domain’s review station into smaller sub-checklists rather than one long list.
- ELL/Multilingual: GMetrix/BrainBuffet’s own glossary/definition features, where available, should be enabled during practice (not during the real exam, if testing rules restrict it). Confirm Certiport’s actual accommodation policy for language supports before test day.
- Advanced/GT: students who diagnose as strong across all 5 domains by Day 1 can move straight into early independent GMetrix/BrainBuffet full-exam attempts and use freed-up station time to peer-tutor a station they’ve already mastered, rather than sitting through review they don’t need.
Materials
- GMetrix/BrainBuffet access for every student (full computer/network reliability, unlike Unit 1)
- Each student’s Schoology formative history (F1–F4 records) from Units 1–9
- District ACP/Certiport testing-day logistics (proctoring, seating, technical setup). Coordinate with the testing coordinator well before Day 9
- Printed or digital domain-breakdown reports from GMetrix/BrainBuffet for Days 1, 6, and 8
What’s next
Units 11–12 (May 4 – Jun 4, 2027) are the “Extra Units”: post-certification enrichment content that returns to the standard 4-formative + 1-summative lesson schema. See FDD | Unit 11 and FDD | Unit 12.
Unit Vocabulary
This renders empty by design. See “Why this page doesn’t follow the standard lesson schema” above. Included here only for consistency with every other unit page.