Microsoft Office Specialist

rjs_essex

I know many people think this is a nonsensical exam, especially if you are in the technical IT world but my place of work is a Microsoft IT Academy so I bought some exam vouchers from my departmental budget to do the MOS exams when I get a spare few minutes during the day...

I took the first one today, the 77-883 (PowerPoint), and I have to say it was very very easy!

I passed the 70-642 yesterday so this one was a walk in the park today... I actually rather enjoyed it! How sad! Anyway, I will polish off the Outlook, Word Expert and Excel Expert in the coming weeks (Whilst studying properly for the 70-640) and complete the MOS Master.

Richard

whatthehell

Congratz on pass. I assume not much studying was needed? If so, what did you use to review?

TheShadow

Powerpoint and outlook are easy. The time limits on word expert and excel expert will challenge you a bit unless they have dumbed them down in the last couple of years. There is a marked difference between the basic and expert exams. Access although they don't have an expert version for it also plays on time constraints. I did all five to get the master cert to do some contract training.

Devilsbane

I found the word exam to be easy. While not job critical or resume buiilding material, I learned a lot of cool stuff while studying. So I would say it was worth it.

rjs_essex

whatthehell wrote: »

Congratz on pass. I assume not much studying was needed? If so, what did you use to review?

I didn't study at all - In fact, I don't even use PowerPoint! I support staff who up until about a month ago used PowerPoint 2003 and that's it... To be honest, knowledge of the layout and function of Outlook, Word and Excel is what helped me with this.

Richard

rjs_essex

TheShadow wrote: »

Powerpoint and outlook are easy. The time limits on word expert and excel expert will challenge you a bit unless they have dumbed them down in the last couple of years. There is a marked difference between the basic and expert exams. Access although they don't have an expert version for it also plays on time constraints. I did all five to get the master cert to do some contract training.

I think I'll do Outlook next - Think I should find that one even easier seen as I use Outlook extremely heavily on a daily basis!

Richard

rjs_essex

Devilsbane wrote: »

I found the word exam to be easy. While not job critical or resume buiilding material, I learned a lot of cool stuff while studying. So I would say it was worth it.

Was that the 'Expert' exam or the standard specialist exam that you did?

Richard

Devilsbane

rjs_essex wrote: »

Was that the 'Expert' exam or the standard specialist exam that you did?

Richard

Nope, just standard on 2007. The Expert exam wasn't out yet at the time, this was awhile ago and I had just started using 2007 at home and still had no idea where anything was.

N2IT

I found Excel and Outlook to be the easiest. I have been using Excel for over 10 years, so that's why Excel was fairly easy for me.

To be honest the one I struggled with the most was PowerPoint lol

Chivalry1

These were my first certifications. At the time I found "Expert" Microsoft Excel and Access the challengers. Overall, I definitely benefited from obtaining the certs. At the time.. I taught training on all Office applications to various companies and the certifications was a requirement for the job.

NinjaBoy

I did and gain the MOS Master for 2007 (before the expert exams came into force) and to be honest most were a piece a cake - one or two took me up to the time limit and had my head scratching.

Decided to do the 2010 route, the standard exams were roughly the same difficulty as the 2007 standard, but the expert exam - I failed miserable.

Granted I didn't study for it, but lesson learnt. Just because I'm technical doesn't mean that I can just sit and pass an expert office exam...

-Ken

N2IT

NinjaBoy wrote: »

I did and gain the MOS Master for 2007 (before the expert exams came into force) and to be honest most were a piece a cake - one or two took me up to the time limit and had my head scratching.

Decided to do the 2010 route, the standard exams were roughly the same difficulty as the 2007 standard, but the expert exam - I failed miserable.

Granted I didn't study for it, but lesson learnt. Just because I'm technical doesn't mean that I can just sit and pass an expert office exam...

-Ken

I spend 90%+ of my day in Excel and I would probably fail without studying.

I consistently use Vlookups, pivot tables/charts, match and index, if statements and macros. Everything but VBA coding.

rjs_essex

Took and passed the 77-884 exam today (Microsoft Office Specialist: Outlook 2010) with a score of 867... Should have got higher really but I guess there will always be one or two options that you just can't seem to find when doing exams like these...

Next up is the Excel and Word Expert exams to gain the Master title. Bit more dubious about these ones but I'll let you know how I get on...

Going to plough my way through a few chapters of the MS Press 70-640 book this weekend and then tackle the MOS exams next week hopefully.

Richard

TheShadow

Congratulations and good luck with 640.

JugglingReferee

A local "second career" type of place has MOS/MOE courses that are government subsidized. I believe an exam is $45. Given that we all are likely quite versed in W and E, I could jump to the W and E expert exams for $90 and be an MOE. Then soon after an MOM for just $180. All that is left is the cost of a book to ensure that I'm not missing anything.

That's totally worth it!