The relationship of selected academic and work experience background factors to success of new candidates on the 1978 Certified Professional Secretary examination

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship of selected educational background and work experience background factors to success of new candidates on the l978 Certified Professional Secretary examination.

In May, 1978, 2,074 experienced secretaries were approved to take the 1978 CPS examination. For 1,828 of those secretaries, information was obtained from application blanks on file with the Institute for Certifying Secretaries in Kansas City, Missouri, concerning the number of years of education and the number of years of experience for each candidate. Education ranged from two years of high school to master's degree, and work experience ranged from 1 to 40 years. Various statistical techniques were used to study the relationships among these educational and work experience background factors and scores on the six parts of the CPS examination.

Amount of formal education was found to be related to performance on the CPS examination. Amount of education seemed to have the least effect on Part V, Communications and Decision Making, where judgmental decisions were required along with the production of typewritten work.

Amount of work experience was not found to be related to performance on Parts I, II, III, IV, and VI of the CPS examination. This finding reflects the academic orientation of most of the examination. Amount of work experience was, however, found to be related to performance on Part V, Communications and Decision Making.