Computer Literacy Level 1 Practical Exam: If Anyone Passed in a Week, Show Yourself (Part 1)

• If you did, you weren't a beginner...

To all the ladies preparing for the Computer Literacy Level 1 practical exam, I want you to know first that it's hard to go in with a light heart thinking, "Level 1? I'll just breeze through it."

(And while I'm not at the level of asking "What is a computer?", I was at the level of "What is Excel?" and I had literally never heard of Access in my life.)

In my case, I passed the written exam in a week, so I started with the mindset of "I'll just crush the practical exam." With that mindset, I spent two months suffering through mental breakdowns before finally taking the test, and now I'm waiting for the results.

It's funny for me to write this when I haven't even passed yet, but I wanted to write down things I wish I had known before the exam, hoping it helps all the ladies out there.

PART 0. What is Computer Literacy? PART 1. Study Method (1) PART 1-1. Study Method (2) - Methods I understood easily PART 2. Things to know before going to the test center PART 3. Mindset

I will divide the post like this.

PART 0. Computer Literacy, why are you making it so hard for me?

The practical exam is divided into Excel and Access. 4 problems for Excel / 4 problems for Access. However, there are many sub-questions within one Excel problem.

As an example (you can download test papers from Sinagong), there are 3 major questions within Problem 1, and multiple conditions within those 3 questions...

Problem 1. Basic Tasks

Problem 2. Calculation Tasks

Problem 3. Analysis Tasks <<<<<< This one is 10 points as a whole... if you get one thing wrong, you lose 10 points, so you have to focus! But it's a chart, so it'll be easy!!!!!

Problem 4. Other Tasks

This is how it totals 4 problems.

In Excel, everyone says to skip 4-3-2. That means skipping sub-question ② within question 3 of Problem 4! Don't even listen to it during Step 1. Just throw it away.

And I also skipped the for-next function that occasionally appears in question 5 of Problem 2. Access also has 4 problems with many sub-questions. There weren't really any problems to skip in Access, so I studied everything.

PART 1. Let's start the study method!!!!!!!

My original goal was to study for a month and get it immediately, so instead of watching free lectures here and there, I decided to just buy one famous lecture series. That's how I started Yu Dong-gyun's Level 1 Practical Short-term Course.

But it's not just that it's hard; I just didn't want to do it. At first, I felt like throwing up just looking at the computer.

While watching Step 1, I kept thinking, "What is he talking about?" I didn't understand a word, so I just followed along problem by problem and skipped the ones I didn't want to do.

Honestly, I couldn't do more than two hours a day. Maybe it's because I have ADHD, but it was so painful and difficult.

But you guys... study a lot in one day and plan to finish it in a short period. The more it's delayed, the harder it gets mentally, and since results come out 2 weeks later, time flies way faster than you think. So in March, I only did one hour of Step 1 a day... skipped some days... and spent a month playing around.

In April, I really wanted to get it, so I jumped straight into Step 3. I forgot everything from Step 1, but people said to just go to Step 3, so I did.

• 1st round of Step 3: I went slowly like a baby learning to walk with the teacher. But even then, I couldn't get my act together and only studied 1-2 hours a day.

My mental state was a mess, and my study level stayed the same.

From April 10th, I started increasing study time to about 3 hours (lol) and I just wanted to throw my mouse at the computer.

If you look at my notes, every day was so hard. I had to work and study, and I kept wondering why I was doing this. It was miserable.

I finished the 1st round somehow. But I felt like I'd fail both Excel and Access at this rate, so I started the 2nd round with the mindset of focusing only on Excel first.

<Excel Section>

2nd round: I still don't know anything.

I didn't know when to use absolute references or not, I knew nothing, but during the 2nd round, I studied Pivot Tables perfectly—they are the easiest. So for the 2nd round, I still needed the teacher, but I aimed to master Analysis Tasks 1 and 2! Also, if you follow the teacher for the macro connection problems in Other Tasks (make sure to understand before moving on), macros will become easy.

Be satisfied with this much for the 2nd round (but you must try solving other problems with the teacher too! Even if you don't understand, just follow along).

<Access Section>

2nd round: I still don't know anything.

But I became able to solve Problem 1! Hehe. And for questions 2 and 3 in Problem 2, and questions 2 and 3 in Problem 3, I just followed the teacher and couldn't solve them because I didn't understand.

Problems like this! But for queries, I tried solving everything except the ones using subqueries (with the teacher).

In the 3rd round, solve Excel and Access separately again, and then...

Excel: Except for Problem 2, and Access: except for those macros, functions, and subqueries, you'll see yourself thinking, "Oh crap, I'm solving this with my own hands!" Trust me.

(But Crosstab queries were so hard for me, so I really sat down to understand them, and after that, they were easy! I'll explain my study method more in the next part!)

Everyone says to go take the exam after 3 rounds, but I still didn't get it, so I did a 4th round. From now on, I alternate between one Excel and one Access.

Then, no lie, you'll think, "Wow, I can solve this without the teacher." You'll mostly be able to solve them, but for anything confusing, definitely watch the lecture again!

After finishing the 4th round... to be continued in the next part.

Thank you for reading, everyone. Good luck to you all! 🩷🩷🍀🍀🍀☘️☘️

(I wrote this in a hurry so the spacing might be off, sorry!)