Exam format and registration process

- [Narrator] Let's talk about the exam format and the time allotment. The time allotment for the Microsoft Office Specialist exams are 50 minutes. Now you should be able to complete the actual live exam in 40 minutes or less, and that will give you 10 minutes to go back and review all the tasks that you completed to make sure you did them correctly or to revisit the tasks that you skipped. Because Microsoft believes that using multiple projects throughout the exam will allow you to better show your knowledge and skills of Excel 2016, you'll be working with eight or nine projects, each having four or five tasks.

The projects that you'll work on are real-world examples of documents similar to those that you're probably working on now. On the 2016 exams, you're tested on your knowledge of the objectives several times throughout the exam instead of just once, so you'll need to have a good understanding of program functionality in order to complete the tasks on the exams. The Excel 2016 MOS exam is a pass/fail exam. To pass, you must have a minimum score of 700, and that's a 700 points out of a possible 1,000.

If you don't pass the first time, you're able to retake the exam within 24 hours. When you pass the exam, you'll receive a special certificate from Microsoft along with a letter welcoming you to the MOS community. Frame that certificate. Hang it on your wall. Or put it on your fridge to show the world you know your stuff. Next, I want to give you information about purchasing your vouchers. First, you'll need to register at certiport.com. Then you'll be able to purchase your vouchers for the exam, schedule your exam, and you'll have access to additional resources.

When you're ready to purchase your vouchers for your exam, you can purchase a voucher for a single exam or a voucher that has a re-take. Then if you don't pass the exam the first time, you can use that re-take voucher and not have to pay an additional fee to take the exam again as long as you do it within 30 days. Let's go ahead and go to the Certiport homepage so I can walk through the site with you. In the upper right-hand corner, this is where you can register as a new test candidate. Once you register, you'll have access to a lot of great information.

Here is a menu that's dedicated just to test candidates where you can locate a testing center. You can access additional learning products. You can go in and view your test candidate account which will give you access to your transcript. And you can view the exam policies. You'll want to make sure and review those policies before you take the exam. You can also purchase your vouchers right here under the Products menu, Microsoft Office Specialist. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and click on the Shop link.

The exam vouchers for a single exam are currently $96. The exam vouchers that have a re-take attached are currently $115. My final words of wisdom to you are practice taking the timed tests and see how quickly you can accurately complete each task. Those challenge exercises at the end of each chapter will be very helpful to you. Then when you're ready, schedule your exam and be sure to show up early. Also, a photo ID is required, so be sure to bring it with you or you won't be allowed to sit for the exam.