News
Certiport Names U.S. Champions in Global Microsoft Office Competition
More than 25,000 students in 41 countries competed to see just who's best at Word and Excel.
Two high school students were recently named the top U.S. finalists in the
2005 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office. Sponsor Certiport made the announcement
last Wednesday, recognizing students Amy Jeffries, 18, and Jessica Warren, 17,
for their outstanding performance on the Microsoft Office Specialist Word and
Excel certification exams, respectively.
More than 25,000 students from 41 countries and all 50 states participated
in the competition by taking either a Microsoft Office Specialist Word or Excel
certification exam at one of Certiport’s test centers worldwide.
"This worldwide competition provides an annual opportunity for aspiring
champions to prove their skills on the level playing field of globally recognized
standards of office productivity," said David Saedi, president and CEO
of Certiport. "The outcome of this contest will undoubtedly show that tens
of thousands of students worldwide are stepping up to the challenge to prove
their skills with Microsoft Office … Acquiring these validated desktop
computing skills is vital to improving job performance and achieving career
success."
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| Jessica Warren, Certiport Worldwide
Competition finalist in Excel |
In Jessica’s case, she’s personally had experience in putting her
Office skills to use. In addition to school work, the student from Reed High
School from Sparks, Nev., related how even her boss and supervisors have asked
for her help in solving computer problems.
But she and Amy, a student from Foster High School in Richmond, Texas, didn’t
just take the exams cold. Like athletes, they put in hours of training to get
mentally fit. On how she, and some of her classmates, prepared for the competition,
Jessica said, “Practice. It’s simple as that. We constantly were
doing exercises and our teacher would correct us and help us with the mistakes
we made and made sure we got the concepts.” The key to Amy’s Office
workouts were the practice exams, because “they prepared me for what to
expect on the actual test. By test day I was very confident.”
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| Amy Jeffries, Certiport Worldwide
Competition finalist in Word |
The two will join all the other country champions for a final showdown at the
2005 Worldwide Competition on Microsoft Office, to be held in Orlando, Fla.,
Aug. 12-15. Besides competing to become either the Word or Excel champion of
the world by taking an exam specifically designed for the competition finals,
the contestants will be able to enjoy Disney World and various cultural, social
and technology learning activities. In the end, the two worldwide champions
in Word and Excel will each take home a Microsoft-sponsored “technology
kit” containing $4,000-worth of digital productivity tools.
"The Microsoft Office System sparks new student ideas and enhances creativity
and learning," said Al Valvano, group product manager of Microsoft Learning.
"It's the standard to which secondary and university instructors around
the world are teaching Microsoft Technology. The 2005 Worldwide Competition
on Microsoft Office presented by Certiport recognizes the achievements of the
thousands of students worldwide who are becoming more effective with Microsoft
Office Specialist certification."
To date, more than 2 million Microsoft Office Specialist certifications have
been issued worldwide in 17 languages.
For more information on the competition, go to http://www.certiport.com/competition.