Excel test

[overthetop]

I've been retired for two years now and have decided that I would like to return to work on a part time basis in a non-stressful position. Have been offered an interview with a national charity which suits me very well, but there will be a 15 minute Excel test. The job will involve data entry and I did tell them that Excel was not my strongest point - I have never created a document in business but have amended quite a bit. I'm doing an online Excel course, which is great, but there's too much in the complete course to learn (and understand) in a couple of days. I've looked for some tests at basic level on the internet so that I can concentrate on those features, but the ones I have found are all very scary and show that I know nothing at all. Does anybody know of anything suitable?

[jaydah]

Open Excel & Help, there are many example layouts to download.

Most companies have their own layouts, surely they would instruct you on them.

[overthetop]

Thanks jaydah. Will try that. Yes, I am presuming that they will have their own layouts too, but I expect that they don't want to train from scratch so I am just trying to expand on my basic knowledge.

[yelenots]

overthetop - i know exactly how you feel! I've got an interview next week and I have to do ICT test - just keeping my fingers crossed its not on Excel!! Good Luck

[saxy_jag]

All theh Excel tests I've done and created for job interviews in the past have been very simple - perhaps listing half a dozen items with quantities and prices, putting in a couple of sum or multiplication formulae and formatting some figures to money format and then save/print. I doubt it would be anything much more complex than that in fifteen minutes.

More than anything, when I've had to create these tests for others, the panel wants to see how you've translated the given data into spreadsheet form, what kind of logic you've used to do it, and to see that you do have a basic idea of what a spreadsheet is.

[yelenots]

Saxy_jag ...... you make it sound so easy-that would take me more than 15mins!!

[overthetop]

Thanks Saxy. Think I may be worrying too much. I can do most of the basics, including formulas, but because I don't use much, if at all for the last few years, I may need a bit more thinking time than somebody using it on a daily basis.

Yelenots, good luck to you. The course I've been doing online is excellent and assumes you know nothing. Once I had the nouse to open the course AND the workbooks on screen at the same time, it got a lot quicker. Here's the link if you're interested. http://www.learnmicrosoftexcel.com/ or Google "Smart Method Excel 2007".

[yelenots]

Thank you overthetop just going to have at look now - good luck with your interview!

[saxy_jag]

Out simply, yelenots, if someone's done, say, a six-week basic spreadsheet course, they will most likely have covered all the things I've said.

Think of creating a spreadsheet to work out a simple household budget and that's about the level you'd need. If an employer wants much more than that then they would (should) have said so in their advert or person spec.

I'd suggest, OTT, if you've got access to Excel, that you have a practice at the above, or perhaps a simple stock sheet or club subscription list. Try out a few formulae and use the help menus if you get stuck. Nothing like familiarity.

[overthetop]

Thanks Saxy. I found a website with the tests I need. As you say, simple (once you know how!) and just going through them over and over again so that I start to remember what's behind all the tabs without having to take too long thinking about it. If Yelenots reads this, the test website is http://www.abacustraining.biz/index.html. The data entry, in my case, I'm hoping is only a small part of the job!

[yelenots]

Thank you both you - any help is gratefully received! x

[Trotbot]

seriously, almost every user 'uses' less than 2% of excel's capacity. I had member of staff who used to check calculations with a calculator. If you can do basic spreadsheets (with sum, average, decimal rounding and formatting) then you will be fine.