NASSCOM Assessment of Competence-Technology(NAC-Tech)

Posted by Unknown | Labels: | Posted On Tuesday, May 17, 2011 at 5/17/2011 02:38:00 AM

NAC-Tech Sample Papers: 




          The test suite recommended for NAC, assesses various skill sets and abilities of a candidate.
These skill sets are Speaking, Listening, Writing, Keyboard usage, Learning Ability and Analytical
and Quantitative Reasoning.

1. SPEAKING
This Spoken English Test is for duration of 25 minutes. This test measures the candidates’ abilityto communicate in English that is comprehensible by others. Candidate will first be asked to reada passage for duration of about 5 minutes. This passage will be a short story or a write up andwill be made available as a hard copy or can also be a computer based one. It depends on themode of test administration. The candidate will then be asked to speak on a topic that will besimilar (if not the same) to the ones mentioned below:
  •  “My biggest goal in life” 
  • “My dream vacation” 
  • “If there is one thing you would change in this world, what would you change?”
(Note: The above mentioned topics are only a sample list and need not necessarily be the same).
There will be a sentence reading and word repetition exercise for 10 minutes. Candidates willhave to read the sentences and the words aloud.
The candidates will be assessed on the following parameters;
Voice Clarity, Accent, Fluency and Grammar and Prosody. The parameters are defined below:
  • Voice Clarity: This parameter evaluates the clarity of the test taker’s voice. Voice Clarityis influenced by five features – rate of speech (RoS), presence of speech defects (lisp,stammer etc), volume of the test taker’s speech, enunciation & pitch.
  •  Accent: This parameter evaluates the degree of Mother Tongue Influence (MTI) on thetest taker’s accent.
  •  Fluency: This parameter evaluates the ease with which the test taker constructssentences, and the range of words that the test taker employs in constructing sentences.
  • Grammar: This parameter evaluates the grammatical correctness of the test taker’sspeech & focuses on the correct usage of verb forms (tenses & SVA), prepositions,articles, plurals & other grammatical items.
  • Prosody: This parameter assesses the syllable stress and intonation that a person useswhile speaking. It basically means if the right syllable is being stressed upon during aspeech. For eg. if a person is enquiring about something, the stress is to be laid so that it sounds like an enquiry.
The total duration of this test will be of 25 minutes, which includes the preparation time of 5minutes for the candidate. Trained evaluators will assess the candidates telephonically on the
parameters.
Mode of administration:
This test can be administered in the following ways:
  1. Computer Based Test (CBT): Candidates will wear headsets with microphones. The                 passage    will  appear on the computer screen and the candidate has to read out the passage into the microphone so that the voice gets recorded. This will be followed by the Impromptu wherein a list of topics will appear on the computer screen. The candidate hasto choose a topic and speak into the microphone. This will be followed by sentences andwords that the candidate has to repeat. 
  1.  Off line mode: This is a face-to-face or Offline mode of administration. The same process as   explained above will be repeated but in front of an assessor/evaluator. The passage, sentences and words will be given in hard copy format to the candidate, which the candidate has to read out aloud. The evaluator will score the candidate.
  1.  Telephonic mode: The assessor/evaluator will telephonically evaluate the candidate.The candidate will speak into a speaker phone/hand phone. A test administrator will givethe passages, topics, words and sentences to the candidate in hard copy format.
2. Listening:
              This test is used to measure comprehension of spoken English in a neutral accent.                Conversation
              in neutral English will played online followed by questions which the candidates can answer
             online. This test is usually of 25 minutes duration.

Mode of administration:
This section supports online mode of administration.
  • ONLINE: This section contains of two parts: Part A short conversations; and Part B longerconversations and talks. You will use individually controlled headphones to listen to the test. Aftereach conversation the question will appear on the screen and the candidate will have to choosethe appropriate option.
  • OFFLINE: In this mode, the conversations are played on CD Player/Tape Recorder. Thequestions and options are in hard copy format which the candidates have to mark after eachconversation is played
 3.Writing: 
              The Written English Test (WET) is used in two forms. First, it is in the form of     multiple  choicequestions, where candidates will attempt questions on Grammar, Reading Comprehension,Vocabulary. This test is designed to measure a candidate’s ability to comprehend and usewords/vocabulary appropriately and correctly. Emphasis is given to usage a technical context. Itincludes Reading Comprehension, Grammar (Preposition, Synonyms, Articles). The test is of amultiple choice question format. The second part of WET is designed to assess a test taker’swritten English skills. It addresses the topics like Word Usage, Contextual Relevance, Spellingand Punctuation. Each of these tests is of duration of 20 minutes.
Mode of administration:
The test can be administered both online or paper/pencil mode
  •  Learning Ability:The Learning Ability Test is designed to evaluate a person’s ability to learn technology. TheLearning ability test assesses the ability of Test Takers to read, understand and apply new concept in a given context. The Test construct is as follows,
  1.  The test takers are presented with a passage of 500 – 600 words on a new technologyarea.
  2.  Test takers are allowed 10 minutes to read this passage.
  3. The test taker has to respond to questions based on this passage.
Mode of administration:
The test can be administered both online or paper/pencil mode
  •  Analytical and Quantitative Reasoning:This section of the test consists of questions to test analytical ability and the quantitative aptitude of a candidate. The Analytical Ability Test is designed to measure a candidate’s ability to comprehend and interpret a system of relations (data) and/to arrive at certain conclusions. This test addresses various topics like Inductive and deductive logic, Pattern recognition, series completion, etc. The quantitative reasoning part tests a candidate in areas like Percentages, Averages, Profit and Loss. The test is of a multiple choice question format with time duration of 30 minutes.
Mode of administration:
The test can be administered both online or paper/pencil mode

  •  Key board Skills: This section checks if the candidate is comfortable in using the keyboard and also if the candidate can enter data into fields accurately. The test has two parts, namely Free-flow and Data Entry. The free-flow version allows the candidate to replicate a passage in the given time. It assesses the candidate on speed and accuracy. Score reported would be on Net Speed, which is the average of speed and accuracy. The Data Entry version allows the candidate to type alphanumeric content into text fields provided. Candidate is assessed on accuracy also. The duration of this test is of 5 minutes. Mode of administration: This is purely a Computer Based Test. 
NAC-Tech Sample Papers: