Work Smarter:

1
Work Smarter

• Use Help in the applications while you do
  pretests.
• Repeat the pretests if you make less than 80.

Kent Van Cleave, Ph.D.
2
Work smarter, not harder.

• One of the nice features of Windows computers is
  that you can run several applications at once.
  This is called multitasking.
• Use Alt?Tab or the taskbar to switch between
  applications.
• Taskbar

3
Work smarter in TAIT

• You are taking a pretest, and you arent sure
  exactly how to do a skill, so you would like to
  try it before you do it in the test. Here is how
  you do it
• Open the application you are testing in before
  you start the test open a file or create
  something to work with. (You can open it while
  in the test, too.)
• Launch the chapter test when you get stuck, use
  Help to ask a question or just try out the skill
  in the file you have open.
• The slides that follow illustrate this using an
  Excel task.

4
While taking the Excel exam, you are asked to
freeze cells.
5
You switch to Excel, create some headers and
data, and put the pointer where you want the
freeze
6
Then you open Help and type in the word
Freeze. Select the relevant topic. Help shows you
how.
7
You perform the operation and see the results.
8
Then switch to TAIT and perform the
operation (Note the screen is arranged so I can
still see help!)
9
and check that one off of your list! (Note You
cant do this during the graded exam.)
10
Working smarter, not harder

• An important advantage of working this way is
  that it gets you into the actual application,
  improving the transfer of what you learn.
• We recommend you try ALL the skills in the actual
  applications as you learn them in the tutorials.
• This approach also works towards our main goal in
  the course It helps you learn how to teach
  yourself new application skills.

11
Reuse the Pretests

• If you dont make the score you want on the
  pretest
• work through the tutorials,
• then retake the pretest instead of the posttest.
• This lets you revisit the tutorials for the items
  you miss on the retake.
• Dont forget, you are required to make at least
  80 o n each chapter test.