MOS

[Magic Johnson]

Stands for Microsoft Office Specialist. Just gained my MOS in Word 2003. 800/1000. Not too bad I guess. Weirdly worded questions though! Crazy Americans.

As there's no I.T jobs in Dundee (unless you're seriously experienced) looks like Office work is the way I'll have to head until something near the bottom of the I.T ladder pops up, so hopefully this will stand me in good stead.

I attempted the Expert version of the exam in practice mode and my brain almost melted.

Anyway I recommend sitting this exam if any of you can, it's something to stick on your C.V that employers are always looking for, and it's definitely not too hard!

 

[Cookie]

I've never even heard of it

 

[Magic Johnson]

Me neither until a couple of weeks ago! It does prove knowledge though. What more do you want if you emply people for Office work!

Haha...wait do you employ people for office work?

 

[KDF]

Never heard of it.. and if I haven't heard of it im not sure employers will either.

 

[Magic Johnson]

Why not? It's not some mickey-mouse exam. It's Microsoft certified stating that I'm a specialist in one of their most popular applications.

 

[Gally]

What kind of questions does it ask?

 

[McBunny]

how do you write cat in word

how do you make it bold

and the biggie how do you print a document

 

[Magic Johnson]

Haha! I wish!

It's like formatting and things. Google it. If I had the bit of paper it had 5 sections. Collaborating, Formatting, and three others.

It's a simulation, not questions. It gives you several tasks within each question to complete.

 

[Cookie]

Sounds like something you'd need if you were doing purely MS Office support.. not exactly well paid work anyway

I suppose handy if you're training people how to use it too

 

[Magic Johnson]

Yeah it'd be handy then, I guess. It doesn't prove much but at least it shows I know how to use Word. If I'm typing out letters and stuff even if it's as basic as that you would favour the person with the Specialist certificate in Word, non?

 

[Michael172]

Should have gone down the CCNA route

 

[Longy]

Well done, but maybe you should have done the MCDST if you wanna start at the bottom of the IT ladder?

Working in IT you should know your office products anyway

 

[KDF]

Should have gone down the CCNA route

Lol fo' sure..

 

[Magic Johnson]

Thanks!

I was going to, but it costs £45 each to take the two exams. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time/couldn't be bothered to study and therefore was no way going to risk £90 for two tests I may not have passed. Once I get any job (in an office probably) I'm going to definitely start studying for it. Hell I've got the books so all I really need to do is pay said £90.

Yeah I'm a whiz with all Office products (apart from Excel lol). I can troubleshoot most of my own problems tbh.

 

[KDF]

Why not? It's not some mickey-mouse exam. It's Microsoft certified stating that I'm a specialist in one of their most popular applications.

I'm not slating the cert, just I haven't heard of it..

How long was the course if you don't mind me asking ?

 

[KDF]

Yeah I'm a whiz with all Office products (apart from Excel lol). I can troubleshoot most of my own problems tbh.

I'm confused ? Excel is part of office ? how can you be a 'specialist' at office if you can't do excel ?

 

[Magic Johnson]

No man I know you're not slating it, sorry if that reply came across as a bit defensive.

The course was a year. The exam was an added extra offered to me and another person on in the class as we were a good bit ahead of everyone else. Think it costs something like £40 odd quid to sit but I got it as a freebie.

Yeah Excel is a part of Office. There are 5 exams in MOS, one for each application within Office. I have the MOS in Word.

 

[KDF]

Ah ok.. makes more sense.

Do you intend on doing the other exams then ? if you're looking to get into I.T. i suppose its not a bad place to start, might want to think about MCDST though as an entry level cert.

Then get a support job and get the employer to pay for the rest..

 

[Magic Johnson]

Lol, I'm normally crap at explaining things to!

I tried Excel but failed miserably on the practice so didn't give it a shot. I'm great at PowerPoint but didn't want to do it as I know I would get asked by my boss to do presentations and I cannot speak in public at all so that's total fail.

Access I'm quite good at, never got a chance to sit a practice though and Publisher isn't really used in an office environment.

Yeah I intend on doing MCDST at some point over the next year if I can't get a level 1 job in a support help desk then I guess I'll have to. It's really hard for entry level, it's advertised as some sort of newbie exam to help computer illiterate begin a new career. It's anything but, imo.

 

[Saundo]

never heard of it either, no harm having it on your cv though

 

[Macester]

i have done the ECDL cert which is pretty much office based with some basic computer questions. I think most IT teachers nowadays have to be put through it, piece of piss tbh. Not heard of MOS but any cert is going to look better on your cv!

 

[ChrisR]

Should have gone down the CCNA route

Of course, someone who wants to do MS support should go do a Cisco networking based course

Like I say to people all the time, train to what you want to do

 

[@Spoonie]

Stands for Microsoft Office Specialist. Just gained my MOS in Word 2003.

Do you realise 2003 just went out of mainstream support?

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2530

 

[AK]

Never heard of this..

Could be good for the CV tho!

Did you sit it at home? How much was it?

 

[@Spoonie]

Never heard of this..

Could be good for the CV tho!

Did you sit it at home? How much was it?

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mbc.aspx

MCAS has replaced MOS

 

[Magic Johnson]

Do you realise 2003 just went out of mainstream support?

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/?p1=2530

So has XP, doesn't mean everyone who uses it is going to drop it.

Also, MCAS hasn't replaced MOS according to that link...

 

[ChrisR]

So has XP, doesn't mean everyone who uses it is going to drop it.

Also, MCAS hasn't replaced MOS according to that link...

True, a lot of corporates will still be running Office XP or 2003, 2007 was such a big change in interface it'd cause loads of hassle for some places

Once the next iteration is out I reckon a lot of people will start moving over to it as I know a lot of places never like to be more than 1 version behind (I know XP would make it 2 versions but it was so similar to XP in most ways ).