The Secret to Passing the Microsoft Office Specialist Exams

If you are trying to get ahead in you career today, you will know that the computer skills you have under your belt are what will make the difference between you moving up the ladder or down. When it comes to trying to prove your computer competency in using office applications there is no other certification path that stands out like the Microsoft Office Specialist program. With over 3 million exams now undertaken and well over 2 million Microsoft Office Specialist Certificates issued, this certification has become the one to get to prove your skills in using Microsoft Office.

One thing I have found though is that many people fail these exams first time around and there really is no reason for it. The way the Microsoft Office Specialist exam works is that you will be taken into a room and sat at a computer. On this computer you will be asked by the computer to carry out a series of tasks. Each set of tasks is designed to represent tasks you would be expected to do on a day-to-day basis.

These exams really are a good representation of what people would be expected to do on a day-to-day basis. I should say I am a little bias since I am a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and my company is a Microsoft Office Specialist Authorised Testing Centre but having trained about 4,000 to 5,000 students through my training centre in Townsville, Australia the certification exams really do represent the skills you would be expected to perform in your workplace.

There are in fact seven exams in the Microsoft Office Specialist Program and they are the Microsoft Word Core and Expert Exams, Microsoft Excel Core and Expert Exams, Microsoft Outlook Core Exam, Microsoft PowerPoint Core Exam and the Microsoft Access Core Exam. If you were a Secretary or Personal Assistant, I would expect at a minimum you would have passed the Microsoft Word Core Exam and the Microsoft Excel Core Exam. If you hold the position of a salesman, I would expect you to have the same certifications as the Personal Assistant or secretary plus the Microsoft PowerPoint Core certification and maybe the Microsoft Excel Expert Certification and Microsoft Access Core Certification.

Ok, so how do we prepare for these exams.

First of all, you need to choose how you want to study for these exams. In terms of passing these exams it doesn't matter whether you want to do a course at a training centre, buy a self paced training program or doing the training on the Internet. Use the form of training that you feel most comfortable with. Me personally, I prefer to use self-paced training where as many of my students prefer classroom based training. Each training method has its own advantages and disadvantages. One thing to note, if you are going to go to a training centre, make sure at the very least they are a Microsoft Office Specialist Testing Centre and that they will give you a training manual and exercise disk to take home with you to keep. If the training centre doesn't give you a manual then don't waste your time with the course even if they might be the cheapest. In computer training, cheapest definitely does not mean the best.

Step 1. Once you have done the course or studied the Self-Paced material make sure you redo all the material within 7-days!

One mistake many people make, is thinking that they can do a two-day computer training course then walk away as an expect. If that's what you think, than it is totally fanciful. Computer Training is like a sport, if you want to be a professional then you must train as a professional. The first step you need to do in any training regime is to go back through all the material you did in the computer training course in the first 7 days after you the finish of the course.

Studies have shown over the years, that each 7 days you don't review your material, you will loose 50% of the material. Each week you don't review the material you loose another 50% which means in 6 weeks or so, you will remember nothing from your course. All in all you may as well, not have done the course in the first place.

Step 2. Write a brief statement in your own words, the key terms used during your course.

The next thing you must DO! Is to write a brief statement in your own words about all the key terms you learnt during the course or in your self-paced material. One of the challenges you will have in the exam is deciphering what they are asking you to do. Sometimes, I have found the language is very difficult to understand because it is written in American English (no offence intended to my American colleagues). In one of my Microsoft Outlook Core Exams, I was certain I was going to fail the exam. The only reason I passed was by identifying the key terms in the text that related to the application and by knowing those I worked out in each question what exactly they were asking me to do.

Step 3. Practice, Practice, Practice - Get lots of Practice Exercises

The next thing you must do is to get as much practice as possible. Most training schools will have structured their material so that at the end of each topic you will have some questions to answer and also some sort of homework exercise to do that will put all the tasks together into one exercise. The key here is to practice as much as possible. Check out the internet for places where you can get lots of practical exercises or make up some of your own.

Step 4 - Do a Pre-Assessment Exam to see if you are ready.

One thing I have learnt from doing these professional exams is that they are absolutely nothing like the exams you would have undertaken at school, college or at University. My recommendation that I would make to anyone sitting computer certification exams is to purchase a pre-assessment exam for the exam you want to take. What the pre-assessment exams do is to test your skills prior to sitting the real exams. Most of the pre-assessment exams I have seen are pretty good and pretty close to the real exams. I personally recommend either the pre-assessment exams from Certiport, Transcender or Self-Test Software.

When you do the pre-assessment exam, you should score 80% or above on the first go. If you don't, do not do what I have seen many people do, and that is to just keep doing the exam till you get all the questions right. What will happen if you do this is you will build up a memory of the questions and you end up knowing the requirements of the question without truly being able to interpret what the question is asking you to do.

Once you have done the exam once; DO NOT under any circumstances re-do that exam for 7 days. This will help stop the memory build up, of the questions.

What you MUST do once you have completed the pre-assessment exam and got a result is to look at the results of the test and find out which questions you got wrong and go back and study those areas more thoroughly. Then, after you have reviewed the material and waited 7 days, then try the pre-assessment test again.

You should in the second attempt score 90% or better. If you do achieve this then you are ready to sit the real exam. If you don't, then you need to follow the same process again for the next 7-days.

After the third time using the same Pre-Assessment exam, I recommend people try a different pre-assessment exam before being 100% sure they will pass the exam. The more you use the same exam, the bigger risk you face in retaining that memory of questions.

Most pre-assessment exams usually come with 2 or 3 different exams to try. If after three attempts of each pre-assessment exam and you still find that you can't pass at 80% or better, I would strongly recommend finding a mentor and also checking to make sure the training material you have purchased is covering the required material.

Step 5 - Pass the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Exam!

Obviously once you have done this much training and practice and you have passed your pre-assessment exams you are now ready to sit the real exam. One thing to remember, Microsoft Office Specialist Exams are commercial exams and because of this, if you fail the exam, you have to pay to resit the exam. The cost to resit these exams can vary from as low as $80 US to $135 US, in many cases the prices are set by the Microsoft Office Specialist Testing Centre.

The good news is that if you have followed the steps I have outlined, I will be very surprised if you didn't pass on your first attempt.

Step 6 - You Are Finally A Microsoft Office Specialist

The Author Chris Le Roy is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and trains over 2000 students per year to become Microsoft Office Specialists. His company One-on-One Personal Computer Training has a range of training kits to help you prepare for the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification Exam. Chris also has a range of pre-assessment exams available for sale as well at his website at http://www.1-on-1.biz

A Brief History of MCSE Certification

The MSCE certification has been around ever since certification for systems engineers was an option. However, it has changed over the years and today MSCE certification is incredibly important in the computing field. Especially for those individuals who want to be paid well for their expertise in Microsoft systems. Individuals who are certified show that they know how to do the job and employers feel more comfortable with certified individuals working on their systems. Of course, those who have a lot of experience working with Microsoft systems may outweigh a newly certified individual simply because experience carries a whole lot of weight. Those individuals who are experienced Microsoft systems engineers and who are also MCSE certified will find they have the most job opportunities.

As computers went from cutting edge technology to the way a business functions on a daily basis a lot of things became necessary. One of these was a way to differentiate between the systems engineers who claimed they knew how to manage systems and those who were really qualified to do so. As a result Microsoft developed a certification system that is made up of exams that test on the most important information systems engineers should know about the Microsoft platforms and servers. Individuals take a course, or go through MCSE boot camp, and then they are ready to take the test to become MCSE certified. The benefit of MCSE boot camps is they are quick, although heavily condensed, and area a great way for experienced Microsoft systems engineers to receive their certification. Microsoft MCSE boot camp training has not been around since the inception of the certification process, but it has become very popular since it fits into people?s schedules so well.

Individuals who take the MCSE certification course will prove to prospective employers that they are experts on this particular platform and can implement, design, and do whatever is necessary for the business to succeed. Those who do this type of work no matter how great they are and how much they can do with Microsoft systems must become certified to prove to the world they know what they are doing. The MCSE certification proves they are knowledgeable and capable of doing what needs to be done for the business to succeed. In the overall scheme of things the certification system is rather new, but it has been around enough years to be necessary for systems engineers to have so they can get a good job.

Caitlina Fuller is a freelance writer. Individuals take a course, or go through MCSE boot camp, and then they are ready to take the test to become MCSE certified. The benefit of MCSE boot camps is they are quick, although heavily condensed, and area a great way for experienced Microsoft systems engineers to receive their certification. Microsoft MCSE boot camp training has not been around since the inception of the certification process, but it has become very popular since it fits into people?s schedules so well.

Microsoft Certification Exam

Today when you start carrying out some research in relation to the types of Microsoft certification exams now available you will be amazed at just how many there are. In fact Microsoft now offer certification programs which provide you with a qualification at the end for those who are just beginning to learn about the various different platforms they have available, to those who are well experienced professionals.

When it comes to which Microsoft certification training a person should under take in order to gain their qualification they have a number of different areas that they can select from. They can select anyone of the following:-

1. Networking
2. Administration of Microsoft Systems
3. Management of Microsoft Databases
4. Learning about Programming
5. Web Development

But with all their exams Microsoft will ensure that each person who does the training has obtained the necessary skills and is able to implement successful solutions for a business in relation to their Microsoft technology that they have and use.

However although the process of taking any Microsoft certification exam can be quite intimidating whether it be the MCP or MCAD or MCSE the steps you need to follow are straightforward and the same for them all. Below we take a look at just what these steps are.

1. Firstly you need to register and then pay for your exam which can be done through the school, college, university or online school that you are attending or using.

2. Once you have registered you will be informed of the date of your exam. Upon arrival at the test center you will then need to provide two forms of identification (driving licence, passport etc.)

3. However if you are a little worried that you are not sure what the exam is about or what it looks like there are many places online today where you can take mock ones. This will help you to become familiar with the exact format of the exams you will be taking.

4. At the test center you will sit and then take your exam. Upon completion of the Microsoft certification exam you just now need to sit and wait to receive your results which are provided to you immediately after the exam has been completed. For those that do pass the examination first time they will then receive confirmation from Microsoft around 2 to 4 weeks after the exam was taken.

It is important to note that when it comes Microsoft Certification Exams this company takes security very seriously in respect of when the exams are being sat. So be warned that they provide no lee way especially if it is likely to compromise the test. Upon entering the exam room a person is required to sign a log book and although breaks are provided during the exam time the clock does not actually stop whilst a person takes a break. It is only when the exam is finished will you then be required to sign the log book once more.

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Microsoft Certification Exam