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Ask the ATC Administrator

If you have a question about the MOUS exams, then feel free to email our resident MOUS Testing Center Administrator. He will answer any question you have (except revealing what's in the exam!) and the responses will be both emailed to you and posted here.

To email the ATC Administrator, use the form below. He will respond as soon as he can.. but sometimes he can get a bit busy (what with administering exams and all), so please be patient!

Please do not ask for information regarding your closest testing center. If you want to locate a testing center, please go to www.mous.net and click on 'Locate a Testing Center'. Thanks!

Previous Questions and Answers

Do you need to have a fast typing speed to pass the Word exams, or is your ability to perform the task more important? Although the exams are supposed to test your ability to perform tasks, they are time-limited as well. Because of this, it is a major advantage to be able to type quickly so you can move onto the next question. However, the exams test your skills in the application - typing words and phrases is just a small part of that.

Do you know how many Office 97 Masters there are in the UK and the rest of the world? According to Nivo's Certificate Specialist, there are 243 in the UK and 3268 worldwide at the time of writing (May 2000).

Do you know when the Access 2000 exam is going to be released? All of the Office 2000 exams have now been released.

In the '97 versions of the MOUS exams, it is the end result that determines your mark. Is this the case for the 2000 exams, or is the path you take to achieve your result determine your mark? The information available from Nivo / Microsoft says that the end result is the only thing that is looked at in any MOUS exam. The only two things that have changed for Office 2000 are the fact that it now has adaptive testing built in and that partial credit is awarded for partially correct answers.

What does the MOUS Office 2000 brochure mean when it says '...In addition to measuring your skills, each exam also gauges your productivity'? I'm not too sure - my guess is that the exam time limit is supposed to help you realise how well your productivity is. If anyone knows better, please let me know!!

How many questions are in each exam? There are usually between 30-60 tasks to complete per exam. They are all worth the same marks. Here's a table with the exact number of questions per exam:

Access Expert 48
Excel Expert 36
Excel Proficient 41
PowerPoint Expert 50
Word Expert 41
Word Proficient 57

Where can I find practice tests? Currently, there is only one official provider of practice tests - Self Test Software. You can download the demo versions of these tests from www.mous.net - click on the 'Practice Tests' hyperlink to the left of the page. PinPoint also have practice tests, but these are now supplied with books only.

Do I need to take the Proficient exams before taking Expert? No, you can just sit the Expert exam without doing Proficient. If you're already Proficient and want to become Expert, that's OK too.

Why do some exams (Access and PowerPoint) have only Expert level? A lot of people (including myself) believe that Nivo made these two exams different to the others because PowerPoint is so easy that they couldn't make a Proficient level for it, and Access is so hard that they decided to make it easier on people, and just get it over and done with! (This is not confirmed, of course.)

What exams will I need to pass in order to become a Master in Office 2000? At the time of writing, to become a MOUS Master in Office 2000 you will need to pass the Expert levels of Word and Excel, and the Core level exams in Access, PowerPoint and Outlook. (FrontPage is not a requirement.)

Is there any way I can find out which questions/sections I answered incorrectly? With the old-format Office 97 exams, and also with the Office 2000 tests, it was printed on your score report which sections you missed out. However, the powers that be took this feature off, now referring you to mous.net to check the guidelines yourself.

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