Excel 2000 Core: Back To Basics
Faithe reviews this Microsoft Office Specialist exam for CertCities.com and finds that she's pleasantly surprised at its various improvements.
by Faithe Wempen
7/23/2003 --
Having taken other 2000-series Microsoft Office Specialist (formerly MOUS) tests in the past, I was pleasantly surprised when I recently took the latest version of Excel 2000 Core exam . Many of the improvements introduced in the XP tests have been rolled into it, and for the most part I found it a good experience. But wording is still tricky on a couple of questions, and can trip up even an advanced user like me.
The Testing Scenario
This exam, like other Office Specialist exams, is hands-on and tests your ability to navigate and function in the application. A replica of an Excel screen appears, along with directions in a lower pane telling what you are to do with it.
The testing software ran briskly and without a hitch for me. It has obviously been improved since the first Office Specialist 2000 tests I took several years back, which were prone to crash frequently. However, at the end there was a problem with the test results printout not printing (the secretary's printer was out of paper), and it took the test administrator about 10 minutes and much hardship to get me a duplicate, so I suspect that the interface from the testing center perspective is not quite as clean.
This tests gives you 45 minutes to complete the 36 questions -- some of them multi-part -- so there is no time to lose. That seems like a lot of questions, doesn't it? After all, the Excel XP exam has only 18 questions in the same amount of time. The difference is that many of the questions on this exam are simpler, and consist of a single activity. This is a very good thing in my opinion, as it helps the test-taker focus better and avoid getting bogged down in question complexity.
Content Coverage
The exam covers seven functional areas:
- Working with cells: entering and editing data, adding and deleting cells, rows, and columns, freezing rows and columns, hiding rows and columns, moving and copying data, using AutoFill.
- Working with files: Saving and opening files, saving in different formats, inserting and placing artwork and other external elements
- Formatting worksheets: applying borders and shading to cells, changing the row height and column width, formatting the worksheet tabs
- Page setup and printing: Printing multiple pages and copies, setting and clearing a print range, printing a selection, changing the page margins and orientation, creating custom headers and footers
- Working with worksheets and workbooks: naming and coloring worksheet tabs, rearranging worksheets, adding and deleting worksheets, using 3D ranges
- Working with formulas and functions: using common math formulas, understanding order of operations, using parentheses correctly, working with MIN, MAX, AVERAGE, SUM, and other common functions, creating an IF function, using absolute and relative references
- Using charts and objects: creating charts, changing the chart type, using legends, using chart titles, formatting chart components, resizing and repositioning charts, placing a chart as a floating object or on a separate sheet
The complete objectives can be found here.
Study Advice
Make sure you study formatting thoroughly, as there are many formatting options and any of them could appear on the test. One good way to practice your formatting skills is to take an object -- let's say a cell, for example -- and do everything you can possibly do to it. Delete and undelete it. Add a border and a fill color. Make it wider and taller. Put text in it. Format that text. Clear its formatting without clearing its text. Undo that, and clear its text without clearing its formatting. Get the idea? Then do the same thing for some other object -- like a piece of clip art, or a chart, or an entire worksheet.
Some questions will require that you perform an action using a certain feature of the program, so you need to be aware of all the different ways of doing something. In particular, make sure you study all the formatting and data entry shortcuts, such as AutoFill, the fill handle, Format Painter, and so on.
You should also know all the different ways of entering functions. Can you name three different ways, off the top of your head? If not, keep studying.
And what about printing? Can you print certain cells without printing others? Can you print in landscape or portrait on a variety of paper sizes? Can you adjust the page margins? Print only a floating chart? Reprint certain rows and columns on every page? If not, you have some more work to do.
And finally, study your functions. You don't have to know every function, of course, but focus on the ones that you could imagine yourself using in daily life, such as SUM, AVERAGE, IF, and so on. And make sure you know how to access the full list of functions, and how to build arguments.
My Experience
I almost got a perfect score on this exam (and I deserved one), but I was robbed by a poorly worded question. Actually the questions are pretty good on this exam overall. About a quarter of the way through it, I was smiling to myself, thinking about the glowing review I was going to write about how well written the questions were. But then a few along that spoiled the party.
The question that tripped me up did so because it wanted me to do something "above the worksheet title." Poor wording! There is no "worksheet title" according to the terminology standard to Microsoft programs. The text on the worksheet's tab is properly called the "worksheet name." There was some text in cell A1 that was large and bold, and personally I would think of that as the worksheet title, but in the context of the question it did not make sense for that to be it. The only thing in an Excel workbook that properly has a "title" is a chart. And sure enough, there was a chart on the sheet too, and some space above it. So you can see my dilemma. I guessed wrong, and blew my otherwise perfect score. (No, I'm not bitter. Well maybe just a little.)
A few smaller editing issues in the questions confused me a bit but I figured them out. For example, in one question, there is a #VALUE error in a cell on the sheet that doesn't have anything to do with the instructions. Most perfectionists would be inclined to fix it on general principles, but I resisted. But this shouldn't be there at all! Don't give the reader an obvious error condition and then not ask them to fix it in the question.
One more complaint, just in case the test-makers happen to be reading this review: Don't use the word "link" in an instruction unless you are specifically wanting an OLE link. Otherwise it's just confusing.
These complaints are very minor, however, in the grand scheme of things. Overall I found most of the test questions to be well constructed and clear, and the test to be a fair assessment of core Excel proficiency and an incredible improvement over the original version. 
Faithe Wempen, M.A.,is a Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor and an instructor in the Computer Technology Department of Indiana University/Purdue University at Indianapolis. She is the author of over 50 books on computer hardware and software, including A+ Jumpstart: PC Hardware and Operating System Basics. She also co-owns the Sycamore Knoll Bed and Breakfast.
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