E X A M   D I F F I C U L T Y • What to Know • Study Tips • CIW Professional Articles • Master CIW Designer Articles • Master CIW WebSite Mgr Articles • Discussion Board • Editor's Comments Rate Exam DifficultyVery EasyEasyAverageHardVery Hard

CIW’s exam 1D0-520, “CIW v5 Site Designer” is an elective requirement for the CIW Professional certification, one of the requirements for the Master CIW Web Site Manager certification, and one of the requirements for the Master CIW Designer certification.

It is designed for candidates who “implement and maintain hypertext-based Web sites using authoring and scripting languages, create Web content, use Web management tools and digital media tools, and apply human-factor principles to design.” These candidates typically fulfill these roles: Web authors, marketing and communications professionals, PR professionals, Webmasters, graphic designers, desktop publishers, technical writers and library scientists.
The prerequisites for this exam are: 1) to fill out the on-line CIW Certification Agreement; and 2) to hold the CIW Associate certification.

This exam, which is offered in English, Japanese and Korean, is easy to moderately difficult and costs $125 USD. You can take the exam at any Prometric or Pearson VUE.

The passing score for this form-based multiple choice exam is 45 correct answers out of 60, or at least 75%. There are 70 questions on the exam (60 of which are scored) and the exam has a duration of 75 minutes.

The topics covered by this exam include:

• Identify and manage elements of the Web site development process
• Meet customer expectations with Web site project and design
• Identify ethical and legal issues relevant to Web development and design
• Use Web design principles to evaluate and develop a site's aesthetic qualities and its ability to enhance viewer experience
• Use Web design principles to enable navigation, usability and accessibility
• Use basic HTML and XHTML (X/HTML) to develop a series of Web pages
• Use X/HTML and extended technologies to enhance Web page structure, format, and usability
• Create image files, and use images in X/HTML pages and site design
• Create Web sites using GUI site development applications
• Publish and maintain a production Web site
• Use multimedia and plug-in technologies to enhance a Web site
• Use client-side and server-side programming to enhance Web site functionality
• Connect Web pages to a database