Microsoft® Office Specialist Study Guide Office 2003 Edition (Epg - Other) (Paperback)

by Online Training Solutions Inc. (Author)
Key Phrases: core exam, creating content, organizing content, Study Guide, Microsoft Office Specialist Word, Expert Exam (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Demonstrate your expertise with Microsoft Office! This easy-to-use study guide helps you practice and prepare for Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certification, covering all the exams on the Microsoft Office 2003 Editions track, including both specialist and expert-level certifications. For each exam, you’ll build the skills and knowledge measured by its objectives through a series of step-by-step exercises and end-of-chapter reviews. Easy-to-follow screen shots and explanations bring key concepts to life and expertly guide you through the material so you can shore up your learning and get ready for the real exam. Includes exam preparation for Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2003 Expert, Excel 2003, Excel 2003 Expert, PowerPoint® 2003, Access 2003, and Outlook® 2003.

About the Author
Since 1990, OTSI has developed, produced, and published the Quick Course® series. These slim, self-paced computer training books were rapidly adopted by educational institutions and training companies and departments as an effective way of bringing new users up to speed with popular business software products. In recent years, they have been responsible for the production of books for Microsoft Press, working on the Step by Step, Troubleshooting, and Inside Out series as well as the Microsoft eLearning Library. They are familiar with MOS and requirements of the audience.

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (July 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735621101
• ISBN-13: 978-0735621107
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,087 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good, but could have much better., December 4, 2004

By	Jimmy Clay (Dallas, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I debated about giving this book three or four stars. It does have several great qualities, but I final decided to just give it three. If I had reviewed this before take the certification tests I might have given it four, but I've just finished taking the tests and I believe the book only deserves three. The book is a great review of all the office products, but I believe it could do more to help us to actually pass the certification tests.

The book does provide an excellent review of all the products, so if you just want to review then I recommend it highly. If you do not already know Microsoft Office, I do not believe this book will be much help to you because I believe the information is too packed, but if you're reviewing or updating your knowledge it should serve you well. It touches on most everything, and the disk has tons of practice files and there is a practice at the end of each section. I rate it high for all that.

But I have just taken different college level classes on all the office 2003 applications. And I wanted a book to help me get certified on them. Believe me the certification tests are not easy and simply making an "A" on your course work, which I did, will not assure you of passing them. The free practice test from MeasureUp was of some help (finding my way in the MeasureUP web site took some doing, but the test did have the look and feel of the real thing) in that it let me see what I could expect; it alone might be worth the price of the book. But after taking the real tests I realize this book did not help me much. I did work through the whole book, and I feel that I know all the programs well but I failed the Excel Expert and the Access test. I did pass the Excel Core and the Word test (the Word test was by far the easiest).

There is one change that I think could have made the book a truly great winner and would helped me a lot. The practices at the end of each section, and there are a lot of them, simply tell you what do, taking you through it step by step. It would have been much better if each practice had presented you with a problem in the same format as the certification tests, giving you a chance to work them yourself, then given the step by step solution.

If you want help passing the test you might want to look at the disk on "shop.certiport.com." I only recently discovered them and have not used them but they look like they might be a lot of help.

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Extremely lacking, frustrating and confusing. Look elsewhere!, July 20, 2005

By	Alicia Johnson "aliminx" (Miami, FL United States) - See all my reviews

There are so few 2003 Office certification Study Books on the market right now, that this turns into the default. Do yourself a huge favor, and look elsewhere.

For the record, I passed both the Word Expert and Powerpoint cert tests using this book. I found nothing really wrong with the Powerpoint section, but did have a few times while studying for Word Expert where I had to ask my boyfriend (a Microsoft Master Office Instructor) to explain things things to me due to the book basically making a mess of the instruction and stumbling all over itself. I am lucky to have someone like him around, but not everyone is...and you shouldn't need someone to explain things to you when the book you're studying was created just for that reason.

I ran into a massive problem yesterday when I went to take my Excel Expert exam. I knew everything the book had taught me. Had the test simply quizzed me on the information in the book, I would have passed with flying colors. Unfortunately, most of the test might as well have been in Chinese for all that I had been taught. The Excel section simply left a lot of material out. Take a look at a book like Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out. How thick is that book? 1104 pages. How many pages of information on Excel 2003 does the Microsoft Office Specialist Study Guide Office 2003 Edition offer? 181 pages. That's including both Core and Expert sections.

There are simply too many important points missing.

It is my belief that reading and learning more than I might need to know for a particular exam is far better than spending a lot less time and effort learning way too little and winding up as a deer in the headlights come test day.

I failed the Excel Expert exam with flying colors. I'd be down on myself over it, but it's hard to expect myself to know something that I wasn't taught and had never seen. I just purchased Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Inside Out, and will be studying out of that before retaking the Excel Expert exam. I will probably also be purchasing the Inside Out Access 2003 book, as well, before finishing up my exam taking for the Master Office Cert.

Don't bother with this book.

As of 8/3/05, I passed the Excel Expert exam with the help of the Inside Out Excel 2003 text. I am now studying Access 2003 Inside Out, and I have no doubts that I'll get through this test without a problem, either. I highly recommend the Inside Out books. You may have to put a little more time into reading and studying, but you'll come away actually understanding the program you're trying to learn, instead of just learning the bare minimum in order to get a piece of paper that will be useless in the workplace when everyone finds out that you really only do know the bare minimum.

My two cents.

45 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One Book For All of Office, December 4, 2004

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Microsoft words it well - In today's job market, it is not unusual for a single job posting to attract several hundred applicants. Whilt that is good news for employers, it can be very discouraging for job seekers. Putting Microsoft Office Specialist on your resume helps you stand out as a job candidate with the necessary computing skills to get the job done.

This book is really three books in one. First it is a good reference to everything you can do with Word, Excel, Access, Outlook and PowerPoint. With each of these subjects, it is a bit turse. That is it quickly tells you what you need to do to accomplish the task. It is not a first time learners book. Second it is a tutorial on the exam itself. While you need to know Word to be able to pass the test, the orientation of the book to just what to study to pass the test is important. The third part is a practice test that is laid out in the same way and is of approximately the same difficulty as passing the actual certification test.