New Jersey Civil Service Exam Clerical Aptitude and Filing 5 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: A government office uses a color-coded filing system where each color represents a different year. What is the PRIMARY advantage of this system?
- It eliminates the need for labels
- Misfiled folders are immediately visible due to color breaks (Correct answer)
- It reduces the number of folders needed
- It allows files to be stored without alphabetizing
Correct answer: Misfiled folders are immediately visible due to color breaks
Color-coding makes misfiled folders immediately visible because a different color stands out against the correct sequence.
Question 2: In a numeric filing system, what serves as the link between the document and its assigned number?
- The date stamp
- The accession log or index (Correct answer)
- The file folder color
- The alphabetic label
Correct answer: The accession log or index
The accession log (or numeric index) records each assigned number along with the name or subject, allowing retrieval by name.
Question 3: A clerk receives a memo dated June 3 referring to a meeting 'next Monday.' If June 3 is a Wednesday, what is the date of the meeting?
- June 6
- June 7 (Correct answer)
- June 8
- June 10
Correct answer: June 7
The Monday following Wednesday June 3 is June 7.
Question 4: Which of the following would be filed LAST alphabetically among entries beginning with 'Mc'? 'McAllister', 'McBride', 'McCann', 'McCarthy'
- McAllister
- McBride
- McCann (Correct answer)
- McCarthy
Correct answer: McCann
Comparing letter by letter after 'Mc': All-ister, Br-ide, Ca-nn, Car-thy — McCann (Ca) comes before McCarthy (Ca-r), but McCann ends at double-n while McCarthy continues, so McCann files before McCarthy — but among all four, McCann and McCarthy both start with 'McCa'; 'McCann' has 'n' at position 4 vs McCarthy's 'r' — 'n' comes before 'r', so McCarthy is last.
Question 5: An office supervisor asks a clerk to 'purge' the files. This means the clerk should:
- Reorganize all folders alphabetically
- Remove and dispose of outdated or inactive records according to retention schedules (Correct answer)
- Make duplicate copies of all active files
- Transfer all files to a new cabinet
Correct answer: Remove and dispose of outdated or inactive records according to retention schedules
Purging files means removing outdated, duplicate, or inactive records in accordance with the office's established retention schedule.
Question 6: A clerk types the number 4,872 when the correct figure is 4,782. This type of error is called a:
- Transposition error (Correct answer)
- Omission error
- Addition error
- Substitution error
Correct answer: Transposition error
A transposition error occurs when digits or letters are switched from their correct order.
Question 7: A New Jersey civil service office files records using a phonetic filing system. Under this system, how would 'Schmidt' and 'Schmitt' most likely be filed?
- In separate locations because the spellings differ
- Together, since they sound the same phonetically (Correct answer)
- Under 'S' and 'Sc' respectively
- Only 'Schmidt' would be retained; 'Schmitt' would be cross-referenced
Correct answer: Together, since they sound the same phonetically
Phonetic filing systems (such as Soundex) group names that sound alike, so 'Schmidt' and 'Schmitt' would be filed together.
New Jersey Civil Service Exam Clerical Aptitude and Filing 5
A government office uses a color-coded filing system where each color represents a different year.
What is the PRIMARY advantage of this system?