What would a school secretary test entail in an interview?

[thequietone]

Ive been asked for an interview for the above position. It's my first full time job since 2005, and I am SO excited about the opportunity.
They've mentioned there will be a 45 minute test after the interview itself - is there anyone out there who could suggest what this might include? I was thinking along the lines of a typing test for accuracy, but that won't take that long, surely?

Many thanks in advance for any suggestions - I am trying to be as prepared and well informed as possible.

In Tray exercise - maybe a letter, form and flyer, proof reading(such as a newsletter), time management and using online diary ?

Almost certainly an "in tray exercise" - the responsibilities of a school secretary are varied and they will want to test your prioritisation skills as well as your accuracy etc.

If I was setting a test like this:

It would be a list of things, in no particular order, with instructions that may be along the lines of "we don't expect you to do all of this, we'd like to see how far you get".

One of the things in the list would be something that you should be able to recognise is critically urgent and needs dealing with first.

One of the things would be tasks which could be done in a number of ways depending how much accuracy/attention to detail is needed. There would be subtle clues in the wording of the task to advise you what level of detail to go for.

There might be one big task which could take you the whole 45 minutes to do - this would be a trap.

There might be several trivial tasks, but some of them might be easy to achieve for some quick wins.

There would certainly be some typing, and possibly a spreadsheet task.

Thank you everyone. I'm so desperately nervous I feel sick. I used to be a high flying confident career girl, so after all these years out of the game, my self confidence has been shot to bits.

The job is so perfect for me, personally and professionally, I really don't want to mess it up. My Excel is a bit scratchy, but all the rest should be fine if I don't panic in order to prove myself. I wonder if someone will be sitting in with me, or all the candidates together in a room a la school exam time!

Gulp...

They will most likely leave you alone without anyone sitting with you. If they do put someone in they will be getting on with work quietly rather than watching you.

I would very much doubt they will have all candidates together - They will probably have set up the day such that they are interviewing candidate 1 while candidate 2 does the test, then interview candidate 2 while candidate 3 does the test, etc etc.

Quick bit of feedback...I got the job! Thank you SO SO much for all your advice. The test was reasonable straightforward. Here we go...back into full time work!

Thanks once again
x

Yay! Congratulations

Well done!