High school and college students may seem like computer whizzes—but it turns out they aren't. In fact, most don't even know how to properly surf the Web.

Half of the 800 high school and 3,000 college students who took a trial test assessing their ability to find and prioritize online information scored poorly, the Educational Testing Service announced in October.

Students were asked to devise workable search terms, search library databases, and select online reference materials. "Overall, people found it really hard to do these problems," says Irvin Katz, a senior research scientist who played a key role in the ICT Literacy Assessment Core Level test (ICT stands for "information and communication technology").