It’s time for schools to start preparing for the 2011 online Computing Skills test, to be conducted between 8am and 5pm on Wednesday 9, Thursday 10 and Friday 11 November.

Schools can schedule test sessions for their students at any convenient times on these days, and all students, except those studying one or more courses based on Life Skills outcomes and content, must complete the test to be eligible for their School Certificate.

Principals must nominate a Computing Skills test coordinator to liaise with the Board about the administration of the online test. The coordinator’s contact details need to be entered via the Online Testing (Computing Skills test) administration area in Schools Online by Friday 27 May. Comprehensive support tools are also available here, including, from 1 June, a practice test for schools to download.

All Year 10 students should be given an opportunity to complete the practice test to become familiar with the format. As well as being available through Schools Online, the practice test will be delivered to all centrally managed Department of Education and Communities netbooks.

The practice test also allows schools to ensure there are no problems running the test on their computer systems. It is recommended that all schools, even those where the Computing Skills test operated without difficulty in 2010, run the practice test before the School Certificate test period. This will ensure any changes to the school’s operating systems or new software installations have not changed the way the system deals with the test application.

For more information, including frequently asked questions, visit the School Certificate Computing Skills test page.

If you have any questions, please contact the Board's Student Records: telephone (02) 9367 8130, 9367 8329, 9367 8107, email csthelp@bos.nsw.edu.au.