Certifications can be a great way to demonstrate knowledge, and the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification for Office 2016 is a great way to demonstrate knowledge of Microsoft Office. The MOS Certification consists of a collection of exams covering the individual Office products. Passing a single exam provides a stand alone certification for one software title, and passing multiple exams can demonstrate a comprehensive knowledge of the entire Microsoft Office suite.

When the Microsoft Office Specialist was originally created it was called the Microsoft Office User Specialist, or MOUS (“mouse”) certification, and its exams were designed to test proficiency in Office 95 and 97. The certification targeted information workers who were the end users of the software, and its name was meant to differentiate it from those certifications meant for the administrators who had to deploy and support the software on the network (Microsoft had and still has a different series of IT professional exams for them). The current Office exam objectives are still aimed at those same information workers, though Microsoft has since dropped “User” from the certification name and shortened it to just Microsoft Office Specialist, or MOS.

The Microsoft Office Specialist Certification for Office 2016 has seven exams that test knowledge of five different software titles from the Microsoft Office Suite. There is a core skills exam for each of the five primary Office applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access and Outlook.  Pass any one of those exams to earn the Microsoft Office Specialist Certification for that software title: passing Exam 77-729, for example, would earn the MOS: Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2016 certification. In addition to these five core exams, Word and Excel each also have an Expert exam. Pass one of those to earn either the MOS: Microsoft Office Word 2016 Expert or the MOS: Microsoft Office Excel 2016 Expert certification.

Finally, the Microsoft Office Specialist Master Certification is for someone who wishes to combine exams to demonstrate broad expertise across multiple Office software titles. It requires passing a total of four exams: the three Core Exams for Word, Excel and PowerPoint and also one Elective of either the core Outlook or core Access exam.

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Following are the five core exams:

 

The two Expert Exams cover more advanced topics in Word and Excel.

Microsoft Office Specialist exams are simulation-based, so they require test takers to actually use the software to perform the required tasks rather than just answer multiple choice questions about the software. This generally takes the form of a series of tasks that result in completion of a sample project.

For exam preparation, there is no substitute for using the software. The exam objectives for each test are listed at Microsoft’s website, and prospective test takers should make sure they are proficient in all of them. Microsoft Press offers a series of books designed specifically for MOS Exam Preparation. A Marlinspike Consulting training course on Microsoft Office 2016 can also be a great way to learn the required skills. Finally, certification demonstrates what you know, but because preparing to pass a certification exam often means learning some new features, passing certification tests can make you even more effective at using software than you already are.

MOS Word 2016 Study Guide

MOS Exams are administered by Certiport at their network of testing centers and to take one you will need to register directly with the testing center where the exam will be delivered. You can find a list of these testing centers at the Certiport website. Good luck.

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