How to Get Success in Practical Examination?

After getting success in written exam, now you must be thinking about how to get success in practical examination. This is the question I’m asked most often these days.

So, in this context, I hope, some tips about practical examination will be useful!

Computer Operator Exam is conducted with three stages in two phases. In the first phase, the written exam is given for 50 marks. Questions are objective type and candidates choose the correct answers from among the four available options.

From among the candidates, almost three times (there is different criteria depended upon the number of vacant seats) the number is selected for second phase exam. Those who get success through written exam are offered the second phase exam which consists of practical and interview.

How are the successful candidates selected

After the practical and interview, the marks obtained in written exam, practical exam and interview are added to calculate total score. Then the name list is published from the topmost list for a number of seats that was announced.

Because, to be successful, you need to score highest in all the exams – written exam, practical exam and interview. There are almost three times more candidates selected than is vacant seats; the competition is even stiffer.

Marks on Written Exam Counts

Though the exam is conducted in two different phases, the marks in written play a vital role, because the successful candidate is selected by aggregate marks. If you have a greater difference in score than others in written exam, you have a bit more comfortable space.

Because you performed best on the practical exam does not guarantee your success, if you were weaker in written exam. So, for those who scored low in written exam but got their name published should prepare even better and focus more on scoring highest possible marks in practical exam.

Nepali Typing’s Been More Important

There used to be 5 marks Nepali typing and 5 marks English typing, but after the recent update in the syllabus, the weight of Devanagari typing is increased. Now there are 15 marks and you can’t ignore it any more!

Those who are not yet fluent in Nepali typing must improve. Start practicing right now.

Typing is skill so nobody can teach you how to be a better typist, but still, for your quick guidance, I’d like to offer a few tips:

• Use correct fingers for typing. You can learn which finger should be used to press which keys.
• Don’t look on the keyboard and on the screen while you are typing. Look only on the paper and don’t try to correct while you are typing.
• If possible, turn off the monitor when you practice to type. This will help you to concentrate only on the paper.
• Try to improve words per minute (WPM) rather than the typing speed.
• Learn to type correctly rather than fastest. Wrong words are subtracted directly from total words typed, and wrong words can greatly reduce WPM.
• Practice for 15 minutes and take a rest for about 5 to 10 minutes before you begin another phase practice. Practicing for about one or two hours every day will help you improve the typing skills as expected.
• Make sure that your WPM is above 40 for Nepali and 50 for English. WMP will be reduced by about 5 WPM in the exam – exam pressure.

MS Word May Consume All Your Time

Be careful! You have only 30 minutes to solve the practical questions. 15 minutes time is already spent for Devanagari and English typing.

Most of the candidates are better in MS Word and the questions from it are more friendly to them. Bad performance in Practical Exam can be because you consumed too much time in MS Word questions. Trying to make it perfect, but ultimately, you’ll  find that you don’t have sufficient time left for other questions.

Pay special attention to what part of question contains marks and make sure you’ve completed it. Don’t try to make the document look professional when you’ve not completed all the questions. You can come back to it at the end if you’re left with time.

Excel Formula Should Not Stop You

Sometimes, there may be unfamiliar formula required to complete the Excel questions. If there is a question and you don’t know the formula for it, just enter whatever you know and go on solving other question. Remember, each question contains marks. Failure to solve one question should not stop you from solving all other questions. The formula contains one marks, but there are many other questions that depend on that formula. If the particular formula is not correct, you won’t see the correct value on succeeding questions too, but if you’ve done correct for other questions, this will award you the marks for other questions.

PowerPoint Animations May Attract You

Another problem with many candidates is with PowerPoint Animations. They try to make it look best and animate perfect. Don’t forget, you’re in the exam hall and all you should do is to pull maximum possible marks. Don’t waste your time on something that does not contain heavy marks.

If the question specifies a particular animation, choose it, otherwise choose any that comes first on your mouse tip. Don’t go on choosing and testing the best animation option available.

Database and HTML are Low Focused

There are only 3 marks for Access database and 3 marks for HTML. So there’s not much space for the question to make you engaged.

From Access, the possible questions are created database, tables, create a relationship, create forms and subforms, create a query based on two tables, create a query with calculated fields, create simple reports and so on…

So don’t go very deep to learn the advanced topics of Access.

From HTML, you should learn the HTML document structure, tags to create headings, paragraph, horizontal rule, marquee, simple formatting such as bold, italics, underline, superscript, subscript, inserting image, create a hyperlink, insert tables, create frameset and so on.

Time Management Is The Key to Success

Learning everything and knowing them perfect is not all you should have. What plays the most role in a practical examination is time management. There are lots of instances where a candidate could solve all the questions correctly, but he/she failed because did not get time to solve them all!

So, when you are preparing, keep a watch in front. Care, how much time you spent on each question and make sure you’ll have at least 5 minutes time to give questions a second look.

You can find some model question papers for Computer Operator Practical Examination on this site. Don’t forget to download them. Yes, I know they are a bit higher in skill requirement than the questions asked in the exam, but if you can solve all those questions correctly in time, I believe, you can perform best in the practical exam.

If you can manage the allocated time properly and possess the basic skills in Typing, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and HTML, nobody can stop you from being a Computer Operator this year!

My best wishes are with you!