Study guide · 3.1
Use and refine criteria for online searches
Good searching starts before you type: you decide what you need, choose words that describe it, then judge the results and record where useful information came from. This guide covers each of those steps.
A study feature written by ExamDragon, not part of the real exam. Each heading is one of Certiport's skills for this objective.
3.1.1Define the information required to complete a given task
- Start by stating the task in one sentence, then list the questions you must answer.
- Pick the key words: the main subject, important names, places and dates; drop filler words.
- Decide what kind of information you need: facts, statistics, opinions, images, instructions or news.
- Decide how current it must be and what sources are suitable (for example official, academic or news).
- Use search tools to narrow: quotation marks for an exact phrase, a minus sign to exclude a word, and filters for date, type or language.
Example: For a school project on water use in your country, you search "household water consumption" plus your country's name and the current year, and filter for results from the past year.
3.1.2Distinguish between relevant and irrelevant search results
- A relevant result answers your actual question; an irrelevant one only shares a word with it.
- Read the title, the short description (snippet) and the web address before clicking.
- Results marked Sponsored or Ad are paid placements and are not necessarily the best answer.
- Prefer results from recognized sources such as government (.gov), education (.edu) and established organizations, and check the date.
- If results are off topic, change your keywords or add more specific ones.
- AI-generated answers at the top of a results page can contain errors; check them against the sources.
Example: Searching for 'python' about programming returns snake facts too; you add the word 'programming' to remove the irrelevant results.
3.1.3Collect and retain source reference information for search and research results
- Record source details as you go: author, title, website or publisher, date published, URL and the date you accessed it.
- Save useful pages with bookmarks, organized into folders by project.
- Keep notes in a document or note-taking app that link each fact to its source.
- A reference manager or the citation tool in a word processor can store sources and format citations later.
- Save a copy or screenshot of pages that might change or be removed.
Example: While researching, you paste each useful link into a notes document with the author, title and date, so writing the reference list later takes minutes instead of hours.
Key terms
- Keyword
- An important word used in a search to describe what you want.
- Search engine
- A website that finds web pages matching your words, such as Google or Bing.
- Relevant
- Directly useful for the question you are answering.
- Search filter
- A tool that narrows results by date, type, language or other criteria.
- Bookmark
- A saved link to a web page.
Easy to confuse
- Assuming the first result is the best or most accurate one.
- Not noticing that a result is a paid advertisement.
- Forgetting to record sources and being unable to find them again.
- Typing a whole question with many filler words instead of focused keywords.
After this guide: You should be able to define what information a task needs, refine a search, pick relevant results and record source details.