Are You Smarter than a Ninth Grader?

Some activities in society are restricted by age. For example, in the United States you have to be 18 or 19 in most states to purchase tobacco products, and at least that old in many states to legally use them. (There’s no age restriction at all for legal use in a number of states, whereas California and Hawaii have a minimum smoking age of 21.) The legal voting age in every U.S. state is 18. And you have to be at least 16 in every U.S. state but four (Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota and South Carolina) to legally operate a vehicle.

One activity, on the other hand, that has relatively few age barriers, is learning. Most schools have the option to refuse admittance to students below a certain age. And some professional trades are restricted by age. Yet there’s really not a whole lot that stands in the way of young minds acquiring knowledge by whatever means are generally available to any person, of any age. Indeed, the brightest young learners are often celebrated for their achievements. Two years ago, Microsoft famously granted a certification to then-5-year-old Ayan Qureshi.

With technology at the fingertips of toddlers in many first-world countries, children are learning IT skills more quickly and thoroughly than ever before. And when kids learn to use Mircosoft Word for their homework assignments in the third or fourth grade, is it really all that much of a leap for them to master the skills required for a Microsoft Office Specialist credential by the time they’re exiting junior high school? Apparently it is not: Microsoft partner Certiport recently reported about a middle school teacher in Lehi, Utah, whose 9th-grade students earned more than 500 Microsoft Office Specialist certs just in the 2015-2016 school year.

Now, here at TestOut Continuing Education, most of our customers are adults. Working professionals. People who have enough drive and experience to manage a 9-to-5 job, fix a home sprinkler system, navigate a life insurance policy, or make a mortgage payment. So how about it, folks? Are you smarter than a ninth grader? If there's no age at which a person is "too young" to learn, then it must also be true that there's no age at which a person is too old. TestOut CE’s Desktop Pro is your ticket to the skills you need to get your own MOS. The students at Willowcreek Middle School can do it. Why not you?