NEW JOB TEST

E

EXCELRATED1

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Joined
Feb 2, 2006
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Hi all--

This group was recommended to me. I am currently a novice with Excel. The most elaborate thing I can do is a Vlookup/Hlookup. I must take a test in order to be considered for a new position in HR. I was told that the test was on some kind of Excel Test program. The test is next week. Is there any tips you can give me? WHat I can expect? IS there just a handful of Excel Testing software?
 

Excel Facts

Which lookup functions find a value equal or greater than the lookup value?
MATCH uses -1 to find larger value (lookup table must be sorted ZA). XLOOKUP uses 1 to find values greater and does not need to be sorted.
I do not know of any standard excel testing software, but I haven't really looked for if. In my experience as a consultant, I've found that most of these type test involve nothing more than formatting, simple Functions(such as Sum), maybe calculating an average, sorting, and perhaps filtering. In my opinion, the real test is designed to see HOW you think in addressing problems in Excel, not so much the solution itself. So, DON'T PANIC.

This is, of course, only my opinion, and I could be wrong!

lenze
 
My two cents worth...

If, by cramming on excel for a few days, you can pass a test that you would otherwise fail, then either the test is poor, or the level required to pass is so low that you should be able to pass it if you're at the 'vlookup stage'.

That said, I would:

1) Take a half hour or so to remind myself of what each and every menu option did & where it was; look up in the help files / search the board for those that you're not sure about (e.g. do you know what insert | name | create is for?)

2) Devote another hour or so to browsing through the posts here. Check out the questions, think how you'd go about answering them, then see how they actually progressed - why not even answer a few from scratch!

Best of luck with the job.
 
Hi EXCELRATED1, Welcome To The Board,

Just as Lenze says " Dont Panic !! "

You could do no worse than search the Internet for :
"Free Excel Tests"

You dont have to complete these , just have a look !

If you feel that you are pretty much covered , then thats
ok :)

Should you need any advice on tests there any many sites
available !!

Chill out , i have just sat a maths exam for a potential job...
No calculators allowed , and its been 30yrs since i used my
Brain !!!! All thanks to Excel of course !!! ( I passed...JUST ! )

Good Luck

HTH

Russ
 
I know when I've set tests for others, I have purposely made them reasonably easy so that I can establish how people solve the tests/derive a solution (much in the same way that Lenze described). I wouldn't try and cram your mind with every Excel function/option, but I would probably make sure you know what a basic pivot table is (and how to create one from tabular data), and maybe how to graph a set of simple data.

All the best for the test!

Richard
 
Thanks so so much guys. This is a really cool message board! Thanks for the kind words and advice.
 
Excel requirement for an HR job? I think vlookup will blow people away. I agree that brushing up on pivot tables and graphs is certainly worthwhile. I doubt you'll need to know anything more than if, sum, count, average, sumif, countif, max and min.

Don't forget. F1(help) is your friend!
 
"I wouldn't try and cram your mind with every Excel function/option..."

Indeed, though the "remind yourself of all the menu functions" suggestion was intended seriously - I know of a few excel 'tests' that proceed as follwows:

1) give subject 100 points
2) set subject a series of tasks (e.g. copy the range of cells in a1:a10 to b1:k1)
3) deduct a point for each time subject makes a mouse click that is not in the right sequence on the shortest menu path for the job.
 
Paddy

I certainly didn't mean to imply that i disagreed with what you said - in fact when I stated "...cram mind with every Excel function..." I was drawing on my own experience from many years ago when I tried to do exactly that (literally reading a book of functions and trying to memorize them before interviews). Needless to say, a complete waste of my time (but I still got the job ;-). I think knowing what the menu functions are is extremely sensible - particularly for formatting/changing options/aforementioned pivot tables etc.

Richard
 
I'm inclined to agree with Guentjo. I've yet to see an HR person that could even do VLookup(). I'll be quite surprised if the job truly requires anything much more complex than that. Do let us know how it turns out, now you've got us all curious.

Richard -- your HR personnel can do Pivot Tables? :o

Paddy -- so on tests like that, what if you [almost] never use the mouse? :-D I don't have all the hotkeys memorized, but I reckon I use most of 'em; I only mouseketeer when I havta.
 
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