NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — McCann Junior Justin Perry will compete in the Microsoft Office Specialist National Competition in Atlanta, Ga. this summer.

 

Perry, a business tech student, will represent Massachusetts in June and compete against the best from each state in Microsoft Word.

 

"I am looking forward to the competition," he said. "I have ever been to Atlanta before and I have never been on a plane either."

 

Perry is going to Atlanta because he scored so highly on his Microsoft Office Certification Exam in November. Perry scored  982 out of 1,000.

 

"It is a pretty basic exam; everyone in my grade takes them. We get a little project we have to do and we just have to go through every step," he said. "We have to make flyers, reports and change different aspects of it to make it look the way we want."

 

Perry said the competition isn’t your typical competition and you are less trying to edge out your opponents but rather focus on scoring as highly as you can.

 

Even then, Perry said the pressure was on.

 

"The pressure was on a little bit because there was a lot of stuff to do," he said. "There are 26 different tasks and there are subparts to each one."

 

Perry noted that the national competition will be different than the 45-minute state qualifier and competitors will have to test their mettle for seven hours. 

 

Perry attributes his success to his dedication and work outside of class hours. 

 

"Throughout the past couple of years in my shop, we have done different lessons…and we do projects at the end of each lesson," he said.

 

"I worked really hard and I stayed after school to get more help and I trained at home to work on it and I use a lot in academics."

 

If Perry scores highly again he will compete in the world competition to be held in Orlando, Fla.