Clerical Exams CLERICAL Following Instructions 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A policy states: 'All incoming phone messages must be logged in the message book within 5 minutes of the call. Include the caller's name, phone number, time of call, and a brief message summary. Messages for managers must also be marked with a red star.' You receive a call at 2:18 PM from John Ellis for the department manager. What must you include in your log entry?
- Caller's name, phone number, time of call, and message summary only
- Caller's name, phone number, time of call, message summary, and a red star (Correct answer)
- Caller's name and message summary with a red star, but time is optional
- Caller's name, phone number, and a red star only — summaries are for non-manager messages
Correct answer: Caller's name, phone number, time of call, message summary, and a red star
The policy requires all four standard fields (name, number, time, summary) for every message, plus a red star specifically for messages directed to managers. Since this call is for the manager, all five elements are required.
Question 2: An office procedure states: 'Photocopies requested by staff must be completed within one hour if the request is 10 pages or fewer. Requests exceeding 10 pages must be completed by end of business the same day. Rush requests, regardless of page count, must be completed within 15 minutes.' A staff member submits a non-rush request for 8 pages at 3:30 PM. Business hours end at 5:00 PM. When must the copies be ready?
- By 5:00 PM (end of business)
- Within 15 minutes, by 3:45 PM
- Within one hour, by 4:30 PM (Correct answer)
- Within one hour, but no later than end of business, so by 4:30 PM
Correct answer: Within one hour, by 4:30 PM
The request is 10 pages or fewer and is not marked as a rush, so the one-hour rule applies. One hour from 3:30 PM is 4:30 PM. The end-of-business rule only applies to requests exceeding 10 pages.
Question 3: A records directive states: 'Confidential documents must be shredded immediately after use. Non-confidential documents may be placed in the recycling bin. Documents with both confidential and non-confidential sections must be treated as fully confidential.' You finish using a report whose cover page is marked CONFIDENTIAL but whose appendix contains only publicly available statistics. What should you do with the entire report?
- Shred the cover page and recycle the appendix separately
- Place the whole report in the recycling bin since most of it is non-confidential
- Shred the entire report immediately (Correct answer)
- File the report for future reference since the data is publicly available
Correct answer: Shred the entire report immediately
The directive explicitly states that documents containing any confidential sections must be treated as fully confidential. The entire report must therefore be shredded immediately, regardless of the appendix's content.
Question 4: An instruction reads: 'When receiving a package, check that (1) the delivery address matches this office, (2) the package is undamaged, and (3) the recipient's name is on the approved staff list. Accept the package only if all three conditions are met. If any condition is not met, refuse the delivery and note the reason.' A courier delivers a package addressed to your office for 'R. Hogan.' The package is intact, but R. Hogan is not on the approved staff list. What should you do?
- Accept the package and ask a supervisor who R. Hogan is
- Refuse the package and note that the recipient is not on the approved staff list (Correct answer)
- Accept the package since the address and condition are both correct
- Refuse the package and ask the courier to return tomorrow
Correct answer: Refuse the package and note that the recipient is not on the approved staff list
All three conditions must be met to accept a package. Although the address matches and the package is undamaged, R. Hogan is not on the approved staff list, so condition three fails. The instruction requires refusing the delivery and recording the reason.
Question 5: A scheduling policy states: 'Conference Room A may be booked for a maximum of 2 hours per reservation. The same department may not book the room more than twice per day. Reservations must be made at least 24 hours in advance except for bookings of 30 minutes or less, which may be made same-day.' The Marketing department has already booked Room A twice today. A Marketing staff member now needs the room for a 20-minute same-day meeting. What should happen?
- The booking can proceed because it is 30 minutes or less and qualifies for same-day booking
- The booking must be refused because Marketing has reached its two-bookings-per-day limit (Correct answer)
- The booking can proceed because 20 minutes is a short meeting and exceptions always apply
- The booking can proceed if a manager approves the exception
Correct answer: The booking must be refused because Marketing has reached its two-bookings-per-day limit
The same-day exception only waives the 24-hour advance notice requirement for short bookings. It does not override the two-bookings-per-day limit per department. Since Marketing has already used both of its allotted bookings, the request must be refused regardless of duration.
Question 6: A filing instruction states: 'Invoices must be filed by vendor name, then by invoice date with the most recent on top. Invoices marked VOID must be placed in a separate VOID folder, not in the vendor files. Invoices with missing dates must be held in a PENDING tray until the date is confirmed.' You have four invoices: one from Apex Corp dated June 3, one from Apex Corp marked VOID, one from Beacon Ltd dated May 18, and one from Apex Corp with no date. Where does each go?
- All three Apex Corp invoices go in the Apex Corp vendor file; Beacon Ltd goes in its own file
- Apex Corp June 3 → Apex vendor file; VOID invoice → VOID folder; no-date invoice → PENDING tray; Beacon Ltd May 18 → Beacon vendor file (Correct answer)
- Apex Corp June 3 and Beacon Ltd May 18 → respective vendor files; the VOID and no-date invoices both go in the VOID folder
- All invoices go in vendor files first; VOID and PENDING issues are resolved at month-end
Correct answer: Apex Corp June 3 → Apex vendor file; VOID invoice → VOID folder; no-date invoice → PENDING tray; Beacon Ltd May 18 → Beacon vendor file
Each invoice falls under a distinct rule: dated invoices go in their vendor file (most recent on top), VOID invoices go in the VOID folder, and undated invoices go in the PENDING tray. Applying each rule separately to each document produces option B.
Clerical Exams CLERICAL Following Instructions 1
A policy states: 'All incoming phone messages must be logged in the message book within 5 minutes of the call.
Include the caller's name, phone number, time of call, and a brief message summary.
Messages for managers must also be marked with a red star.' You receive a call at 2:18 PM from John Ellis for the department manager.
What must you include in your log entry?