Ever take a Microsoft Word "test" during an interview?

[Disney845]

I am interviewing for a new job. I have had a preliminary phone "quality review?" (they called it something like that) interview, a very short person to person interview, and they have now set up an interview which the woman told me would last between 2-3 hours and would include a computer test on Word.

My question is...has anyone had a test like this before for an interview, and if so what is it like? I mean really what kind of test could it be? Will they ask me how to change the font? Or add bullets?

To be perfectly honest I don't even see what a test on Word would even have to do with the job. The job has nothing to do with computer programs/secretarial skills/report writing. I mean yes I would be using a computer, but who doesn't use a computer these day!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

You would be surprised at how many people can't use the basic functions in MSWord.

I worked a job once where I had to test people's proficiency on basic Microsoft programs. The typical test asks you to do things like
1) open a file named ________.
2) show another way to open a file.
3) copy this and paste it in the file named ___________.

More advanced functions of Word may have you complete a mail merge or something like that. If you have installed the full version of Word on your home computer, you can run thru the tutorial to prepare for the test....but it's like you say...most people do have some basic knowledge of the program.

 

[Planogirl]

I've taken different Word quizzes a few times and they're not too bad. The ones I've taken, you simply point and click and you get more than one chance to get it right. Definitely play around a bit on your own Word if you have one and you should do fine.

 

[bunnyfoo]

Yup, I did one recently. Some of the questions were easy (ie. To save a file under a different name, what key combination or where would you click in Word to do this) ... and then some of them were hard (ie. a question about line numbers in a legal document). But the test was just to get a general sense of what I knew about Word -- to see if I was an advanced, intermediate or basic user. They also had me do similar tests for Excel and Powerpoint. I did the test before the interview started, and I was told my score and what the average score of others who had taken the test was.

 

[Disney845]

Thanks for the answers. I played around with word a bit to become more familiar with the functions I rarely used. I had the interview yesterday and the test consisted of 20 questions in 20 minutes. I had 2 chances for each question and I had to get a 50% or better to move on to the next interview step. They didn't tell me exactly what I got on the test, but I did move on to the next step, a written test portion! Many of the word questions were simple (cut/paste/open new doc./etc.) although a few were more difficult, dealing with formating and so forth.

By the way....I got the job!