The USA Computer Proficiency Exam

Important Note: The Computer Proficiency Exam (CPE) is only necessary for those students pursuing a Bachelor's degree and are under catalogs beginning Fall 2005. For students who are pursuing a major leading to teacher certification: passing EDM 310 Microcomputing Systems in Education will also satisfy this requirement. A passing score on the CPE will satisfy the prerequisite for CIS 250 Advanced Computer Applications.

The Computer Proficiency Exam is designed to assess computer proficiency in the following areas:

General Computer & Office Application Concepts
Internet/WWW/E-mail terminology and skills
Microsoft Word 2003
Microsoft Excel 2003

How the Exam is Administered

The exam is administered by School of Computer & Information Sciences faculty in the CIS computer labs. A simulated testing environment from Prentice Hall's Train & Assess IT system is used for the exam. The exam is limited to one hour to complete 60 questions. Questions consist of multiple choice and performance-based questions. Performance-based questions require the student to perform a series of actions in the simulated environment to demonstrate they possess the specific skills being assessed. Upon completion of the exam, students are presented with their score. No outside materials or assistance from the applications' Help files are allowed. A score of "70" or higher is considered "passing."

Note: Only two (2) attempts are allowed for the CPE, and you may only take the CPE once each semester.

Specific Concepts to Review

General Computer, Internet, WWW, E-mail & Office Application Concepts

File management functions and terminology
General terminology relating to operating system concepts, Internet, WWW, and e-mail (i.e. objects, screen elements, etc.)
Accessing context sensitive menus
Open, Close, and Save files
Print documents or selected areas of text
Insertion of graphical and text elements into a document

Word 2003

Create and save documents
Import from an existing file
Control the format of a document (i.e. alignment, headers and footers, bullet lists, visual display of text)
Add visual objects such as charts and diagrams
Create and edit tables

Excel 2003

Add, modify, or remove worksheets from a workbook
Add data from the Clipboard to a worksheet
Add or delete rows/columns
Format cell contents
Manually create formulas for simple mathematical expressions
Use built-in functions to perform mathematical expressions
Create visual elements such as charts to represent data

Where the Exam is Administered

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Computer Lab location:	CSCB 115 - located in building 16
	FCE 19 - located in building 14

What to Bring to the Exam

Bring your Jag ID (if available) or some other form of photo identification.

Still Have Questions?

Contact the CIS Department at (251) 460-6390