Adventures in CSEC examinations

Once again the time has come to see what goes on in the minds of a few young people when placed under pressure. Yesterday I was invigilating the IT exam. Now if u ppl are close enough to me u will know that i know NOTHING in this area, but if needs be i will figure something out to survive. The lingo, the expressions are Greek to me, it is as if i started talking about the crista terminalis to someone who is an English major.
Anyway, based on the fact that i don't get the subject, i would never think of actually doing an exam for it. However, it seems that not everyone has this insight. Some students sat in front of the computer and looked completely clueless as to what to do next. They were given diskettes with files on it that they would modify. All that they had to do was save their work as they went along. Simple right..
The first question had something to do with Excel. Now since we had to teach ourselves how to use Excel for Chemistry, i figure these children are going to school to learn this so they must know what to do. WRONG! One mark questions state "Add a column to the existing table", "Add a row.." Huh? Are they kidding? "Find the average", "Find the percentage" LOL! I almost laughed when a guy calls over his teacher to say something is wrong with the computer because it is not accepting the formula. The teacher looks at him and says "Because it is WRONG!" They were taught, but the question is were they in class? My problem with this is not that these students just don't know what to do, it is that Excel helps you. Instead of looking at the screen blankly, try stuff, anything! It will tell u when you are wrong. I wish i had some exams like that last week..Computer take away 2 wrong answers please..(sadly, thats all i could do anyway, so it wouldn't have helped).
One guy calls me over to tell me his work has disappeared. I look at the screen and the line number is at 1200, i never even knew the rows in excel could go that far:S I simply scroll back up and say "there u go". One girl tells me she knows what she is doing is right but she can't get the pie chart, everytime she tries she gets a line instead. "It needs data, dear, values of some kind, (in my mind: like the percentages u just calculated)"
Then a guy calls me over, frantic "Tell me sup'm, you see a file name FRAUD?" I look at his screen and see all 6 files that were given to him. "Uh..no" "All dem ting deh, 'ow dem expec me fi do dis den" "Show me the question" Retrieve files SPAM and PHISHING from your diskette and combine in a file named FRAUD, "but Miss, no file name fraud de deh" I calmly point to the word combine and watch the recognition slow creep onto his face OHHHH.
Finally, a young lady calls me over and says the question says she should put in 0.5 borders left and right and 1.0 for top and bottom, but her computer has no 1.0, just 1, then 1.1 etc... :s This world is too confusing and clearly not just for me.