Secretarial Practice and Office Procedures
What the exam tests
Secretarial practice covers the secretary’s duties, inward and outward mail, filing and indexing, appointment handling, meeting arrangements, agenda, notice, quorum and minutes, confidentiality, and office protocol. Questions test sequence and documentation, not just definitions.
Core rules
- Inward mail: receive, date-stamp, enter in the inward register, sort, open except marked personal/confidential, scrutinise, put up to the officer, route to department, and file the copy.
- Outward mail: draft, approve, sign, copy, enter in the outward register, affix postage, dispatch, and retain proof of posting.
- Meeting documents follow a sequence: notice with agenda, venue and time; confirmation of quorum; discussion; resolutions; minutes signed by the chair.
- Filing must allow quick retrieval and return: use guides, folders, an index and cross-references; follow the retention schedule.
- Confidentiality: do not disclose board papers, personnel records or passwords; share only on a need-to-know basis.
Worked example
A registered letter marked “confidential” arrives for the manager. The assistant should not open it. Record receipt in the inward register with date, time, sender and mode; hand it unopened to the addressee; obtain acknowledgement; and file the register entry. If the manager is absent, route it to the authorised officer under a sealed-cover note. The reasoning is that confidentiality overrides the normal opening step, but traceability still requires a register entry.
Traps
Opening “private” mail, failing to date-stamp, losing the dispatch proof, and writing minutes before the meeting is over are frequent errors. Also distinguish an agenda, which lists items to discuss, from minutes, which record decisions. Do not record opinions as resolutions.