Excel Testing

wyebird

Hi

I have an interview tomorrow and I have an Excel Test at the end of it (NHS Analyst position).
I use Excel day in day out so shouldn't be worrying, but I am!

Does anyone have any advice, or sites where I can practice - so I might sleep tonight!

Thanks

Sooler

All the basics http://inpics.net/excel07.html

andrewjf

I'm guessing you are ok with creating formulas in cells? I'd say if you're using Excel on a day to day basis, then nothing to worry about.

btw how about this
for extreme spreadsheet programming. I doubt whether you'll be asked to do something like that

Good luck with the interview.

paddyrg

I doubt on a live test if you'll meet anything you can't handle - anyone who writes an 'Excel Test' which can be 'marked' is going to have to cope with the fact you can do any task 6 different ways, and the more complicated, the tougher it'll be to mark!

I doubt you'll even touch pivots, grouping, tables, lookups, etc let alone funky stats graphing!

DiscoPistol

My advice would be to learn how to do some of the simple things the 'Microsoft' way.

As an example whenever I add a named range I just type it into the Name Box, but I've never seen a test that would let me do it that way.

Also do you know what version of Excel you'll be using and more importantly is it one you are familiar with?

I develop on Excel (amongst other MS platforms) and I still get lost on the ribbon from time to time.

Good luck!

Edit - Just noticed that this might be a bit late....

stevemcol

I wonder if you'll be able to use F1 Help. I've got a memory like a sieve with excel forumlas but find I'm able to tackle most tasks if I can remind myself with help. Also, there are quite a lot of on screen hover prompts when you insert a formula (I'm assuming the test will be actually using excel and not on paper?).

WilliamO

They might of asked (test over by now, surely!) the OP to do a european computer driving license (ECDL) test; so although you might use excel day in day out ECDL needs a lot more attention/practice.

John424

I hate those Excel tests as they are so prescriptive when there is more than one way to skin a cat. I have an advanced knowledge of Excel and I hate employers that insist on them when a cursory cv glance shows you to be competent. I wouldn't worry, they are dead easy, the most difficult thing I have ever encountered was asked to resolve aVLOOKUP issue where the data was text or similar so the tutor wanted me to either reformat the lookup data or multiple the data x 1. She was gobsmacked and clueless when I replaced the LOOKUP with an INDEX MATCH function, ha ha!!!!!

TrickyDicky101

Why would you use INDEX/MATCH to resolve that?

stevemcol

John424 wrote: »

She was gobsmacked and clueless when I replaced the LOOKUP with an INDEX MATCH function, ha ha!!!!!

I guess you had to be there.

stevemcol

TrickyDicky101 wrote: »

Why would you use INDEX/MATCH to resolve that?

Index/Match are useful when the target data is to the left of the lookup value (Vlookup can only look right). It saves having to generate a ghost column.