As you may have read on the Community Business College Twitter page, we
had another examinee pass the Microsoft
Office Specialist Excel Expert exam. The goal of the certification is to
provide people a chance to show others (e.g. current bosses, prospective
employers, patronizing computer-savvy high school children) that they know
their stuff. It’s been a way for employees to differentiate
themselves in
competitive job markets and broaden employment opportunities by displaying
advanced skills.
Why Excel Certification?
The Microsoft Excel certification is part of the set of
Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)
certifications that is offered by Microsoft. Community Business College
instructors have certifications but they’re not just designed for the academic
community.
Microsoft Office Specialist certification can also lead to
increased job satisfaction. Research (conducted by Microsoft, of course)
indicates that certified individuals have increased competence, productivity,
and credibility.
For employers who are looking for specialized computer
skills, Microsoft
Office Specialist certification provides skill-verification tools that help
assess a person's skills in using the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program. It’s
also nice to have an official-looking certificate with the Microsoft logo to
hang on your wall. The boss might tell you that you don’t know what you’re
doing, but you can point to it and say that Bill Gates’ Microsoft says you know
what you’re doing.
Excel has come a long way…
The days of VisiCalc
are gone, of course. For the uninitiated in personal computing lore, VisiCalc
was the first spreadsheet program for home computers. It was also the first
“Killer App” - a good reason to pay a thousand bucks (or more) for a box that
nobody else in the house seemed to think had much potential. There was really no practical need for a home
computer – word processors could do your word processing and typewriters were
getting pretty sophisticated. Games could be done cheaper on game consoles and
sometime the graphics were a LOT better. The Internet was still just a
twinkling in DARPA’s electronic eye.
Surprisingly, it wasn’t word processing but spreadsheet
software that made the whole home computer revolution possible. There was
nothing else that could do spreadsheets like a personal computer. And so the
worksheet became the face that launched a thousand-thousand PCs.
Since those days filled with simplistic dreams of what
spreadsheets were for, though, they have come a long way. From PacMan
games programmed in Excel to “extreme
couponer” organizers to “million-dollar
idea” business plan templates, Excel has shown its versatility. The program
has become so specialized that it’s official certification exams have been
broken into two tiers.
“Core” Excel Versus “Expert” Excel
The Microsoft Office Specialist exams come in two versions –
Core and Expert. Core covers the basics of spreadsheet layouts and is designed
for regular users to get certification. The expert exam gets more advanced,
obviously.
For most people who come to Community Business College, the core
exam is what they’re looking for. Learning
Microsoft Excel is not difficult but as someone once said, “it takes a few
minutes to learn but a lifetime to master.” When first
learning Excel, it’s also a good time to put your hours of game time to
good use, especially if you’ve played Battleship. Battleship, by the way, is an
excellent way to understand the coordinate reference system Excel uses. At
Community Business College, we’ve seen Excel students who have played
Battleship and those who haven’t (yes, it’s true, some people have never played
Battleship). Those with the “Battleship background” pick up on how Excel
functions a lot faster than those who don’t.
The core exam is the exam that covers the fundamental and
most common uses of Excel, such as:
- Formatting
Cells and Worksheets
- Creating
Cell Data
- Cell
Functions
- Changing
Worksheets in a Workbook
(By the way, Community Business College
offers some free materials if you’re interested in taking the exam, just ask us for a copy of the
Microsoft Excel study guide).
If, however, people want to prove they are true Excel
aficionados, test takers will tackle the expert level. Expert exam
certifications demonstrate proficiency in the more advanced Excel features and
uses.
The other advantage of buying a Microsoft
Excel expert voucher (they cost
the same as the core voucher), is once you pass the expert level exam, you
are on your way to becoming a Microsoft
Office Specialist Master. The master certification is an extra
certification received after passing all of the following Microsoft Office
exams: Excel and
the Microsoft Word
expert exam and the MOS: PowerPoint
exam and MOS:
Outlook exam (either the Access, OneNote,
or SharePoint exams can be substituted for the Outlook
exam).
We’re glad we had another candidate pass the Microsoft
Excel expert exam and is on his way to becoming a Microsoft Office
Specialist Master. By the way, the way he passed it was he purchased the MOS
exam voucher with retake. We strongly encourage test takers to do this
because, although the voucher
with retake is initially a bit more expensive than just the single
voucher, it can save money in the long run because it gives you two shots
at passing the exam without having to pay full price for each exam. This can
save you money in the end, especially for examinees who have never taken one of
these interactive exams before.
