Meet New Zealand's top three Microsoft secondary school champions!
Vivek Doddi in Year 11, Zara Colaco in Year 12 and Te Ruia Seymour in Year 10 have gained the top three spots in the national Microsoft Office Specialist Championships after sitting online tests that challenged their knowledge and use of Microsoft applications.
The nationwide competition attracts students from all round the country, and once again, Avondale College students showed their proficiency in the specialist IT exam, gaining top results for the eighth year running!
Vivek came first overall, Zara in second place and Te Ruia in third, after gaining points for correctly answering the most questions answers in the time allowed. All three gain cash prizes for coming first in their individual applications, and as the overall national champion, Vivek also won a prize of $500.
The students had prepared for the championship by doing training and practice tests in the Innovation Academy sessions which run before school each day.
Their achievements are significant, says Jonathan Jansen, Managing Director of NZIQ who hosts the New Zealand championship.
"The average Microsoft Office user can perform on average of about one advanced task every four minuteso become Microsoft Office Certified you need to be able to double that efficiency to one task every two minutes, Our top performers this year were competing at a speed of about one advanced task every 15 seconds, completing hundreds of business-focused tasks across 45 minutes. To put it in perspective, that's around 16 times the speed of the average user. It's a level of mastery you only see at a world-class level."