Advanced formulas, quality control and database analysis…

United Nations agency · Written recruitment test

Technical test (MCQ) · Officer level

Information Management Officer

Duty station: Al Hudaydah governorate (Yemen)
Time allowed: 30 min
Marks: 25 questions
Pass mark: 70 %
Profile: Officer, 2 to 5 years of experience

Instructions

The test has 25 questions and lasts 30 minutes. The timer starts when the test is opened and the test closes automatically when the time is up.
Each question has a single correct answer out of the four proposed. Some questions require a calculation or a judgement: read each question to the end.
A wrong or missing answer scores zero, with no negative marking. A calculator is allowed.
Any outside help (another person, shared document, artificial intelligence) is forbidden. The pass mark is 70% (18 correct answers out of 25).

Original practice test, built on the format of written tests used by United Nations agencies and international NGOs. The context and figures are fictitious.

Other tests for this profession

Panel interview question for this profession

Tell us about a monitoring tool or dashboard that you built or improved. What problem did it solve, and how did you check that it produced accurate figures?

Competency assessed : Building reliable, automated monitoring tools

What the panel expects : A concrete problem (delays, errors, double counting), explained technical choices (data structure, formulas, Power Query, validation), reliability checks, attention to users and to data protection, and a measured gain.

Possible follow-up questions

How did you test the tool before rolling it out?
How were users trained, and who updates it today?
What personal data did it contain, and how did you protect it?

Strong answer

In Niger, our monthly report for 9 projects was consolidated by hand from different files: it took 4 days and we found errors after it had been sent to the donor. I created a common data entry template with drop-down lists and locked totals, then a workbook that imported the files through Power Query, flagged duplicates and inconsistencies, and fed a pivot table and charts. To check it, I recalculated two past months by hand: I found 3 discrepancies, including double counting of 1,150 people in the old report, which I corrected with the MEAL manager. Names and phone numbers stayed in a separate file with restricted access. I trained 12 people and wrote a two-page user guide. Consolidation now takes half a day, and errors found after submission fell from 5 to 0 in six months.

Weak answer

"I am very good at Excel, I know all the formulas and I make very attractive dashboards." This answer talks about tools and appearance, not about a problem solved, reliability checks or results.

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Advanced formulas, quality control and database analysis

Instructions

Result

Common mistakes that cost marks