Microsoft Office Specialist–First step

As part of my sabbatical I am planning to update my Microsoft Office Specialist certification. Microsoft have changed the way in which this certification can be obtained. Basically there are two stream, Word or Excel. Full details are on the website.

In order to go the Excel route I need to pass two exams for excel, 77-427 and 77-428, one exam for Word (77-418) and choose one from PowerPoint (77-422), Access (77-424), SharePoint (77-419) or OneNote (77-421).

Alternatively it is possible to take two exams in Excel (77-427 and 77-428), two exams in Word (77-425 and 77-426) and one from PowerPoint (77-422), Access (77-424), SharePoint (77-419) or OneNote (77-421).

Note that in the two different scenarios the Word exams are different.

Excel

Since people keep referring to me as the Excel expert I thought I would go the Excel route (although I shy away from the term Expert. There is always someone who knows more than I do and the word reminds me of a has been (ex) and a drip under pressure (spurt)).

Anyway, today saw me sit the first two excel exams. 77-427 and 77-428.

These are managed by Certiport and my nearest testing center is in Grove near Wantage. I duly headed down there this morning to take the exams. The initial setup was easy enough and the exam flowed well enough. However, I am glad that there were two monitors as the format of the exam makes it much easier if the questions are on a different screen. Basically, you are presented with a scenario and a project to complete. The exam presents a number of tasks that must be completed using the actual application. It is recommended that you save your work regularly, in case the system crashes, and the exam should be saved at the end before clicking on Finish as the last saved version is used to mark the exam.

77-427

I started with this exam and worked through it OK, finishing with about 15minutes remaining on the clock. I ensured that I had saved everything and then clicked on Finish.

The screen flashed  a few times and then displayed a message that the exam had failed to load properly, or something similar.

After a few minutes of the invigilator on the phone to Certiport it transpired that my work had been saved but that it had been moved to a separate folder for inspection by a real person, as opposed to being marked by computer.

So I shall have to wait a few days for the result.

77-428

Undeterred I set off on the next exam, after a short break.

This one proved a bit more tricky, mainly because it tested functionality and functions that I was not familiar with. I used up the entire 50 minutes and still was not able to complete one question.

Despite this I passed

So that is one down, hopefully two down, and two to do.