Excel Exercise #1

Excel Exercise #1

Figuring Your Grade

This exercise will show you how to create an average using Excel. Use this spreadsheet to keep track of your grade.

Step 1: Open excel by doubleclicking on the excel icon in the Microsoft Office folder.

Step 2: Highlight cell B2 by clicking in it. B2 means going to column B and going down to row 2.

Step 3: Making titles. Type "Exam 1" and hit the tab key. Don't type " ". Type what is inside of them. The tab key saves the changes you have made in the square and moves you one square to the right. The enter/return key saves changes and moves you one square down. I want you to have your next title to the right of the first one.

Step 4: Type the following titles, pressing the tab key after each one: "Exam 2" "Experiment" "Survey" "Paper" "Homework" "Grade". These titles stand for each of the graded exercises in the syllabus plus a final square for grade. If you did everything correctly, the "grade" title should be in cell h2.

Step 5: Formulas. All formulas start with an = sign. The = tells the cell that these are instructions to perform actions, not just text to show. Highlight cell h3 like you did in step 2. Type "=". Then type "SUM". That tells excel to add up the cells you are going to name. To indicate the cells, type "(", a left parenthesis. Using the mouse, click and hold on cell B3. Then drag to cell g3. Look what happened in cell h3. It should have added "B3:G3" to the formula you are constructing. Then type ")", a right parenthesis. The stuff in the parenthesis [cells B3 through H3] are what you want excel to SUM up. Press enter and the formula goes away to be replaced by a 0 in cell h3. That is because there is nothing in cells B3 through g3.

Step 6: Creating an average. Cell h3 contains the sum of your scores. To figure your grade, you need to average all of your scores. An average [technically, a mean] is the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores. Your final grade will be based on the average of 6 scores. To divide by six, doubleclick in cell h3 again. Above your worksheet, you can see the formula that you created. We are going to edit this formula. Click at the end of the formula, after the right parenthesis. Type "/" , a right slash found with the ? on your keyboard. That means divide. Type "6". Press return. You have just told excel to divide the sum of the scores by 6. You have created an average.

Step 7: Playing with scores. For each graded exercise, you can receive one of the following grades: A, B, C, D, F. A=4 points, B=3 points, C=2 points, D=1 point, F=0 points. Type a grade for each of the five cells. If you get B's on your 2 exams, an A on the experiment, a C on the survey, a C on the paper and an A on the homework, you would have the following six scores:

3 3 4 3 2 4

Type those scores into the six boxes below their titles. If you do this correctly, you should get a grade of 3.166. Now change the grade of the first exam and see what happens. It should change to a 2.667. Here's how to translate those numbers to a letter grade

3.83 to 4.0 A

3.5 to 3.83 A-

3.16 to 3.5 B+

2.83 to 3.16 B

2.5 to 2.83 B-

2.16 to 2.5 C+

1.83 to 2.16 C

1.5 to 1.83 C-

1.16 to 1.5 D+

.83 to 1.16 D

Below .83 F