You can do it your way with MCAS practice tests

November 25, 2009 at 1:13 pm | In Microsoft, Study hints | Leave a Comment
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Riffing off that classic Frank Sinatra tune, our MCAS products for Office 2007 let you learn your own way, live in the application. Whether it’s Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you can perform real-world tasks using keyboard shortcuts, context menus, the quick access toolbar, or the ribbon. As long as you get the desired result, our robust grading engine will give you the points for effort. If you’re not sure where to start, we provide a step-by-step tutorial to show you a couple of ways.

But these products are not only great study tools for MCAS certification; they are also excellent stand-alone learning labs for Office novices and veterans alike. Very often, our knowledge of software products is restricted by our day-to-day activities. We do what worked yesterday because it will work today, and in this way, we can miss new techniques that would make our workflow more efficient and intuitive. If you’ve already purchased the Office Suite, shouldn’t you get the most out of your investment? What if there is a quicker way to do something? That’s where our MCAS products come into play.

Let’s step through an example. Say that you know a lot about charts and tables in Excel, but you’ve heard the phrases “pivot table” and “pivot chart” tossed about and don’t know what that means. So, you fire up Cert-77-602 – MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 and choose Learning Mode. You could choose the objective Presenting Data Visually, or just search using the keywords “pivot chart.”

When you view one of these items, Microsoft Excel will be launched with a sample document and set of tasks as follows:

Cert-77-602 Item with Tasks

In this item, you are given tasks to insert a pivot chart into a new worksheet and add specified fields to the report. If you’re anything like me, you’ll start exploring the ribbon and Office menu, trying to figure it out yourself. (Hint: It’s found in the Insert tab.) But if you don’t have a clue where to begin, you can click the Grade Item button to learn how to do it. The tutorial contains step-by-step, screenshot-by-screenshot description of how to accomplish these tasks.

If that’s not enough, we go through the painful Web research to provide links to official Microsoft references that provide even more details on the tasks. These references usually contain their own step-by-step guides, conceptual topics and examples.

Once you feel more comfortable, you can click the Retake button and try it out yourself. Not only will you understand what a pivot chart is, but now you know how to use one, having actually used it  in Excel!

As you see, our MCAS products are more than  practice tests; they are  inline learning assistants for your business (and personal) applications. We currently offer MCAS products for Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 as well. So, no more excuses; be more productive in less time!

–Joshua Hester

QA Talk: Care and feeding of the MCAS test engine

October 28, 2008 at 4:03 pm | In Transcender news | Leave a Comment
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Editor’s note: “QA Talk” will be a semi-regular blog feature in which we address common “under the hood” questions about our practice test engine interface, the resolution to common issues, and tips for streamlining your experience.

Today Aima, our QA expert and liaison with the customer support department, fine-tunes your experience with the MCAS (Microsoft Certified Application Specialist) test engine.

So you’ve finally scored that coveted block of uninterrupted study time. You sit in front of your computer and “unwrap” a newly purchased Transcender MCAS practice test. You follow a few prompts to successfully launch the product – only to find that the documents don’t properly load on your screen, or that your practice test items aren’t grading correctly. After muttering some choice words, but before making the dreaded call* to customer service, let me try to offer a few do-it-yourself-and-feel-proud-you-fixed-it-without-spending-all-morning-on-the-phone-with-customer-service tips.

Scenario 1: General problems launching any MCAS practice test (Word, Excel, or PowerPoint 2007). If the documents don’t load properly, or the KaplanIT Learning Center will not launch the test item, you should start by verifying your installation of Microsoft Office:

  • Do you have multiple versions of Microsoft Office installed? If you open Microsoft Word and are prompted with installation steps each time, click through the prompts and select the 2007 version as your default. You can also try saving a random document in Word, and changing the Save default in Word Options to the 2007 version, Word Document (*.docx).
  • Do you have the full version of 2007 Office installed? If so, which version? Student versions of Microsoft Office 2007 may not have all the files required to support the practice test software.
  • Do you have dual monitors? If so, you must display your practice test on the designated main monitor.

Scenario 2: Your documents for the Using Microsoft Word 2007 practice test (77-601) are not displaying properly, but your Excel (77-602) and Power Point (77-603) exams launch successfully. This can happen when the version of Microsoft Word 2007 on your computer does not contain some basic personal information. It’s an easy fix. Continue reading QA Talk: Care and feeding of the MCAS test engine…

A nifty study aid for the 77-602 MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 exam

September 16, 2008 at 10:40 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
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I’ve registered for the Microsoft at Work RSS feeds. I’ve learned a few useful tricks and have gotten product updates, so I actually find them to be beneficial. I look at the RSS feed headers every few weeks and if something looks interesting, I’ll click and read.

I recently saw a tip that I thought would benefit anyone preparing for the MCAS: Using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 exam. This article is from 2007, but its usefulness hasn’t expired. It highlights three Excel features and provides clear and concise steps to use them. If you’re studying for the 77-602 exam (or if you just want to see three cool Excel tricks), click this link and check them out.

EDIT: So I asked Josh (codeguru) to read this post. I was expecting him to be wowed, but instead he taught me an important blog priniciple. He said that I needed to bring something personal to the post, and not just repost a link; this separates the content bloggers from the repost monkeys. (The give and take of constructive feedback is one of my favorite things about this team. I may have given a snarky reply because we have that kind of spirit too, but I did ultimately take his advice.)

So, personal confession time. One of these three tips has to do with Pivot Tables. I think PivotTables separate the casual users from the Power Users. This was the most difficult objective for me when I took the MCAS, and on my score report, this was my lowest score. If I had to study all over again, I would focus more time on this objective so I could reduce the amount of time I spent on the questions regarding PivotTables.

I looked for some resources that I thought would answer both the most basic and difficult questions about PivotTables. This is what I found:

Heck, I might just surprise my boss with a shiny new PivotTable in our next meeting.

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