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Excel Skill Assessment

F

fred

Member
Hi all,


I understand that Excel is vast and deep. But how do we assess our skill set? Is there a standardized assessment test or evaluation program to let people know where they stand on Excel skill set? Where can we find them? Like certifiying an automechanics into different levels?


Thank you very much.
 
Fred


There are a number of online Excel tests are available.

Although Standardized I doubt it.


I have employed people in the past who have been "Assessed" as having Advanced Excel skills, whom I'd rank as learners.


The difficulty is that just because you know the functions doesn't mean you know how to use them as well as the fact that Excel can have many ways to achieve the same result and it doesn't mean that any are more right than the others.

eg: a few weeks ago at http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/03/13/want-to-be-an-excel-conditional-formatting-rock-star-read-this/


Chandoo posted: =IF(MOD(ROW(),2)=1,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=0,MOD((ROW()-1)*8+COLUMN(),2)=1)

I posted: =ISODD(ROW()+COLUMN())

Both work as required.
 
It's a nebulous question.


As Hui said, there's dozens of ways to achieve the same thing. And that doesn't even broach the fact, that on this forum, we have people who spend a lot of time trying to accomplish completely different tasks. Some guys - engineers and the like - see it as a platform to build big custom calculators. Other's use it for data analysis. I'm pretty ok at the latter, the former - I wouldn't have a clue.


Hui's pretty much the resident expert. He used to track how many stegosauruses he killed in Quatro Pro. We're all learners compared to him :) I kid.
 
The closest thing to a "standardized" test would probably be Microsoft's certification process:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mos.aspx


But like Hui & Dan said, it's hard to nail down specifically what "level" someone is. Personally, my specialty is formula manipulation and providing interfaces for technical (engineers) individuals. I can write some VB mostly through trial and (a lot of) errors. And yet I know there's a world out there involving class modules and userforms and what not that I still put in the "black magic" box.


I think that like all things, it's one of those "the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know" kind of things.
 
Thank you all very much for the kind advise here. I was asked in a job interview question that on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 being the strongest, that where I would stand on Excel skill.


Knowing that there are a cruise liner load of people out there much stronger in Excel than me, I would like to know where I stand and answer the question correctly and honestly that there are things I can and cannot in Excel, such as VBA and others.
 
Ugh, that'd be tough. I'd say it depends on the job. If it's a programming job/IT/interface desiger, I'd judge it on how well I know VB. Similarly, accountants and engineers each have their own set of functions they should be familiar with.


For a "general" office worker, I say the key things are knowing how to write a formula, PivotTables (at least what it is), and basic charts. The other key things is, you may not know the info, but you know where to get it! For me, I may not truly be the "guy who knows it all", but I know where to find it ala

Charts - www.peltiertech.com

PivotTables - www.contextures.com

VBA - www.dailydoseofexcel.com

Formula tricks & dashboards - www.chandoo.org

Everything else - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office
 
Ugh, that'd be tough. I'd say it depends on the job. If it's a programming job/IT/interface desiger, I'd judge it on how well I know VB. Similarly, accountants and engineers each have their own set of functions they should be familiar with.


For a "general" office worker, I say the key things are knowing how to write a formula, PivotTables (at least what it is), and basic charts. The other key things is, you may not know the info, but you know where to get it! For me, I may not truly be the "guy who knows it all", but I know where to find it ala

Charts - www.peltiertech.com

PivotTables - www.contextures.com

VBA - www.dailydoseofexcel.com

Formula tricks & dashboards - www.chandoo.org

Everything else - http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office
 
Check skillexam.com, a unique skill assessment test. don't know in details but recruiters always prefer it.
 
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