How to Pass Elance Office Skills Test 2012 - Free Questions and Answers

Everyone needs to have Office Skills; whether you are self-employed, work-at-home mum or a business person. Office skills involves skills that you apply in the office like typing , being able to use a spreadsheet, PowerPoint, writing reports, doing basic accounting work, dealing with people, interacting with people, filing documents and answering calls. The list is endless

So long as you own a mobile phone, you have an email account which you use to send messages to others, then you are a candidate of having the most needed office skills whether you work in an office or not. There is a broader meaning of Office Skills and how it can be applied in different scenarios in every body's life.

For this reason, I would advise you to think out of the box; that office skills is only meant for people working in the office.

Nevertheless, all Elance users need to primarily think of taking this test because it will help you do your own clerical jobs, maintain your email messages, interact with different clients and of course be able to know how to address them. This would go a long way to determining whether you get more contracts or not because people like to be respected and appreciated. So, if you know how to treat others, you will be on the safe side of being professionally fit.

Before I forget; if you have not yet done Odesk Office Skills Test, then when you do, you will find that these two tests are almost set similarly but with minimal differences.

Elance Office Skills Test Requirements

• The same test can be retaken once every 14 days. You are usually given the date and the time you can retake the test.You can retake the test as many times as you like
• Your score is displayed after the test is completed and it also displayed on your profile, though you can choose to hide it.
• The duration of the test is 40 minutes given to complete 40 questions

Elance Office Skills Syllabus

• Basic Office Skills
• Basic Computer Skills
• Office Terminology
• Interpersonal Office Skills 
• Office Procedures

Free Elance Office Skills Questions and Answers

Question 1

Traditionally, approximately how many pages should a business CV or resume have?

a.       1-3 preferably 2

b.      1-5 but usually -3

c.       Just 1

d.      Exactly 2 and a half, and never more or less

e.       All of the above

Question 2

What is an office ‘memo circular?

a.     simple message delivered by email or hard copy sent to all office staff updating everyone on new office procedures

b.      circular shaped memo

c.       letter of intro by potential new client

d.      complaint letter to CEO circulated and signed by entire company staff

Question 3

What does ‘the bottom line’ commonly refer to in an office environment?

a.       The line that appears at the bottom of a paper with the company letterhead.

b.      The lowest officer floor in a building

c.       The same as the dotted line

d.      The basic controlling factor, notably the financial cost, regarding whether a task or project can be accomplished or not

Question 4

When you are introducing a woman and are unsure of her marital status, which title should you use?

a.       Ms

b.      Miss

c.       Mrs.

d.      Madam

e.       None of the above

Question 5

According to standard filing conventions, in which order will the following three documents be filed.

a.       Dr. Jones’s Office, Doctor at sea, Doctor come quickly

b.      Dr. Jones’s Office, Doctor at sea, Doctor come quickly

c.       Doctor at sea, Doctor come quickly, Dr. Jones’s Office

d.      Doctor come quickly, Dr. Jones’s Office, Doctor at sea

e.       Dr. Jones’s Office, Doctor come quickly, Doctor at sea

Question 6

What does Administrator generally handle in an office environment?

a.       Paperwork and account.

b.      Specifically, the hiring of new management and middle management

c.      The efficient day-to-day running of the office with regard to company files, communication, management of jobs such as overseeing hiring and firing and human resources etc.

d.      Ensuring that the infrastructure of the building is regularly cheeked and modernized

Question 7

In my office or business, what does the “opportunity success rate’ refer to?

a.       The success of a business in dollar value minus he dollar value of previous attempts to make it a success

b.      The number of won opportunities as a percentage of the number of almost won opportunities

c.       The number of lost opportunities as a percentage of the number of almost won opportunities

d.      The opportunity costs divided by the so-called sunk costs

Question 8

 What does ‘Class A office space’ commonly refer to?

a.       Office space on former sites of class A drug offenses.

b.      The lowest quality office buildings in a given area.

c.       The highest quality office space available in a given area.

d.      The highest quality office space for the least price.

Question 9

What common injury can result from too much concentrated typing over too little amount of time

a.       Leg injury

b.      Broken neck

c.       Blue hands

d.      Repetitive strain injury

e.       All of the above

Question 10

When replying to an e-mail who you place in the cc: line and who in the bcc: line?

a.       A person you wish to openly inform goes in the cc: line, and the same person in the bcc: line.

b.      A person you wish to openly inform goes in the bcc: line, and the same person in the cc: line

c.      A person you wish to openly inform goes in the cc: line, and the person you wish to read the e-mail but without the knowledge of either the recipient or the person in the cc: line, goes in the bcc: line.

d.      A person you wish to openly inform goes in the cc: line, and the person you wish to read he e-mail without the knowledge of the recipient, but with the knowledge of the person in the cc : line, goes in the bcc: line.

Question 11

You are asked to call up senior executives of your company located in different continents to inform them about the proposed dates for an international sales meeting. What is the best time to call them up?

a.       During the call recipients’ office hours

b.      After your office hours

c.       During your office hours

d.      Between 9.00 A.M. and 5.00 P.M.

e.       Any of the above

Question 12

You send a package through FEDEX to a client in Korea. The client calls up after a few days and says that he has not received it. What is the best way to immediately let the client know the status of a courier?

a.     Give the client the airway bill number and ask him to call up FEDEX about the status of the courier.

b.      Give the client the local number of FEDEX in Korea

c.       Call FEDEX and ask them to speak directly to the customer.

d.    Track the packet on the FEDEX website and send the client a copy of the current status of packet

Question 13

What is ‘outsourcing’?

a.     Working outside the office, often from home.

b.     Freelancing work to workers outside the office building, often to foreign workers for cheaper labor costs.

c.     A form of half working from home, half at the office.

d.   Leaving work early

Question 14

Energy saving practices in office without adversely affecting company productivity

a.       Use only 1 bathroom light during office hours

b.      Turn off lights and computer at end of the day

c.       Turn off computer between sending email

d.      Use lower wall light bulbs especially in emergency exit

e.       a & b

Question 15

What does the ‘glass ceiling’ refer to in a business context?

a. The internal ceiling above the boardroom, whether it is on the top floor or one

b. The roof of the company building frequently constructed from glass to optimize the company's public status for the surrounding area

c. The upper level of senior management or company executive positions which is traditionally hard to  break through for example for women and/or minorities

d. The imaginary level above the CEO at which the company profits skyrocket

Question 16

What does the CTRL+V shortcut accomplish in Word 2007?

a.       It makes the selected text appear in bold

b.      It pastes the text that has already been copied

c.       It converts the selected text into the next larger size of the same font.

d.      It applies italic formatting to the selected text

e.       All of the above

Question 17

Which of the following is the correct response when you are dealing with a client, and your boss enters the room?

a.       Smile, stand up and politely introduce the client

b.      Stand up and salute, standing to attention.

c.       Keep sitting down, but look up without smiling.

d.      Keep discussing business until your boss politely interrupts.

e.       A and d

Question 18

What is the difference between Microsoft Access and Microsoft Excel? 

a. Access is mainly for spreadsheets and Excel is for databases

b. Access is mainly for databases and Excel is for spreadsheets

c. Access is mainly for databases and Excel is for word processing

d. Access is mainly for word processing and Excel is for spreadsheets, including digital photograph editing 

Question 19

Person in charge of administering an office commonly called

a. Office Assistant

b. Full time manager

c. Office manager

d. CEO

e. None of the above

Question 20

Which of the following activities could possibly infect your computer with virus?

a. Installing pirated Software from a CD

b. Downloading games and songs from the internet

c. Booting your computer with a ‘write protected floppy disk’

d. All of the above

 Question 21

What is a ‘mouse potato’ (a comic phrase in an office environment)?

a.       The equivalent of a couch potato, but in terms of using a computer – i.e. someone who spends all their time at a computer.

b.      A virus or other harmful computer bug. Such as a ‘Trojan horse’

c.       An office ornament that workers place on their desks to keep them motivated during office hours

d.      b and c

Question 22

What is ‘commodity value,’ an important business term of relevance to most office environments?

a.       The value of all the office hardware, including computers and furniture.

b.      An economics term meaning the intrinsic value under optimal, often free market conditions, of the product the company sells or manufactures.

c.       The value of common decency between employees of a given office

d.      The cost in petty cash of all company expense dinners in a given month

Question 23

You realize that the computer in your office is getting a lot of spam and unwanted e-mails. What should be your first action to stop these emails?

a.       E-mail the Regulatory Authority in charge of stopping spam in order to complain

b.      E-mail the source of the emails asking them to stop them

c.       Call over a computer expert to solve the problem

d.      Look for a Remove From Mailing List link in the email

Question 24

Which of the following are the most important components of good interpersonal office skills?

a.       Effectively translating and conveying information

b.      Being able to accurately interpret other people’s emotions

c.       Calmly arriving at resolutions to conflict

d.      Avoiding gossip and being polite

e.       All of the above

Question 25

What is the appropriate response to discovering the printer is out of ink?

a.       Force the printer to deliver

b.      Walk away and tell a fellow office worker, hoping he or she take responsibility

c.       Leave it to the next person

d.      Replace the ink if the cartridge is available otherwise follow the office procedure for replacing or ordering the cartridges.

Question 26

What is a ‘golden handshake’?

a.       The welcome to the building of a new CEO

b.      The last day in the office before the holidays.

c.       The common usage for a generous employment severance package when an executive loses his or her job through restructuring, redundancy or a scheduled retirement.

d.      The common usage for a series of re-hirings of past employees

Question 27

With regard to emails, when is bcc: used?

a.       When you want to send the same mail to several people and do not want To: and cc: recipients of the mail to know the bcc: recipients of the same mail

b.      When you want to send the same mail to several people and do not want the bcc: recipients of the mail to know who else the mail was sent to.

c.       When you want to send the same mail to several people and want to receive acknowledgements from each recipients

d.      When you want to send the same mail to several people, but the mail does not support attachments

Question 28

What is the best practice for ensuring that sensitive material to be destroyed does not leak out of the company building?

a.       Always encrypt on computer disk, and shred any hard copies

b.      Shred hard copies, save onto the file

c.       Burn hard copies, save only once to the file

d.      E-mail documents at colleagues, and then close the s-mail browser

Question 29

What is flexi-time?

a.       core period of the day when employee must be at work

b.      feeling when time slows dons or speeds up at certain time of the day in office environment

c.       flexible use of personal office hours e.g. working an hour earlier one day in order to leave an hour earlier another day

d.      occasional moving hands on the office clock so everyone can go home early now and then, bringing an alarm clock to work that rings at the end of the day and lunchtimes

Question 30

 ‘There are 20 new PC’s in the accounts department’

Should there be an apostrophe in PC’s?

a.       No

b.      Yes

c.       Not sure

d.      No idea

e.       None of the above

Question 31

What is very important to remember to do when entering an office business meeting at any level, especially when clients are there?

a.       Bow slight before your superiors or company executives

b.      Take the coats from clients and drape them over your arm during the meeting

c.       Turn OFF all cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices

d.      Turn ON all cell phones, pagers and other electronic devices

e.        a and c

Question 32

Which of the following file formats relate to a graphic file or scanned image file?

a.       JPEG

b.       VBP

c.       HTML

d.       GIF

e.       a and d

Question 33

What is considered bad manners when greeting business visitor to yr office?

a

a.       Remaining seated while visitor introduces himself

b.      Not shaking hands but simply saying hello

c.       Shaking hands from the shoulder rather than the elbow

d.      Shaking hand with gloves on or forgetting to smile

e.       All of the above

Question 34

What is the benefit of e-mailing documents rather than always providing hard copies to individuals?

a.       There is no benefit except that people can delete them more easily.

b.      The documents can potentially be edited online and re-circulated.

c.       The documents can be electronically forwarded, which saves stationery that may otherwise be used.

d.      B and c

Question 35

Which of the following are not recommended when trying to improve working with others in an office environment?

a.       Talking when others are talking and listening only occasionally

b.      Being as consciously helpful as possible, and offering practical solutions

c.       Changing the printer ink or cartridge when it runs out

d.      None of the above

Question 36

What two kind of printers are commonly in use in most offices

a.       Industrial and private

b.      HP and Brother

c.       LaserJet and inkjet

d.      Black and white color

e.       None of the above

Question 37

Which of the following are proven methods of improving office skills?

a.       Smiling and being appreciative of others, especially the clients

b.      Actively listening to, even humoring people at times

c.       Looking to resolve conflicts and bringing people together

d.      Conveying what is expected in return as an appropriate response, and avoiding ambiguity

e.       All of the above

Question 38

Which of the following are commonly used computer web browsers?

a.       Mozilla, Guardian, Website, The times of London, MSN

b.      Expedia, Opodo, Student Universe, Godzilla

c.       Chrome, Explorer, Firefox

d.      Google, MSN, Yahoo, Ask

Question 39

What is the normal length of notice period for quitting job in most professional offices?

a.       Either 2 weeks or 1 month

b.      2-3 months

c.       1 week

d.      Up to 3 months or longer

e.       None of the above

Question 40

When a client visits the office and arrives early, what does office etiquette require you to do to handle the situation?

a.       If you are free, allow the meeting to start early

b.       Take their coat, offer them something to drink, and tell them you won’t be a moment

c.       Try and meet then as soon as possible

d.       All of the above.