Dr. Terrell Neuage Excel test @ Hudson School, Hoboken New Jersey May 2010

Multiple-choice test having the main advantage (Alexander 2006, quoted in Brady and Kennedy, 2009) for a broad coverage of content as well as making the test objective. The questions are based on assigned tasks described below.

Before this test there will be four classes where students will have learned a wide range of skills using spreadsheets. We will be doing a project comparing the nutritional value of fast food restaurants with the fat, salt, sugar and calorie content. Following their formatting their spreadsheet with this information they will be using Google Docs in a collaborative project to compare the difference between meals. This of course brings into play other values such as taking on responsibility for one's diet by making proper choices and not following the national trend which leads to heart problems, over weight, diabetes, and no date for the prom.

This is a multiple choice test for sixth grade Excel using baseball salaries. If you think being a teacher is underpaid try being a humble baseball player trying to get by on only 20 to 30 million a year for six months work. The minimum salary in Major League baseball in the States for the 2009 season was $400,000. That is the starting wage like a teacher's first year's wage. The upside to this low pay is the baseball players get first class hotels, air fares and get to be Tiger Woods in every city. What recession?

The quiz is in paper format (we still use paper and pencils in this part of the world) as students will need to work on their computer and see the questions in front of them at the same time. This will be testing several parts of a unit I will be teaching on using Office.

Firstly, they will open Excel so this will test that they know how to find it. It will not be on the Desktop but in programs. We will use PCs for this class. If this was a Mac based school they would need to go to applications to find it.

Secondly, students will need to download my spreadsheet with the data they will use and save it to their folder on the server which tests their finding and putting files in the proper place.

Thirdly, they need to look up a website not from clicking a link but from typing in properly the URL on the paper. This tests the accuracy of keying in the proper URL.

Finally they will need to put in the raw data I have requested and answer the multiple questions below.

1. I want to change the date format in cell 1A to how it is read in Australia and without the day showing. What do I do? In other words to go from Friday April 02, 2010 to 04/02/10

A. Select the cell > Tools> cells > date > format > language

B. Select the cell > Format > cells > numbers> format > language

C. Select the cell > data> format > date > format > language

D. Select the cell > Format > cells > date > format > language

2. Using best practices for spreadsheets which is correct?

A. Using lots of different fonts and sizes

B. Using a very small font so that more data fits into the spreadsheet

C. Using a lot of different colors

D. Use the same font throughout the sheet with two or three different size fonts

3. Using your Excel 2003 spreadsheet we notice that there are 65,536 rows and 256 columns on one sheet. We want to know how many cells per worksheet there are so we put our numbers in two cells and using the sum icon we find that there are how many cells?

A. 16,777,216 cells per worksheet

B. There is no limit to a spreadsheet

C. Each cell can hold 32,767 characters

D. 1,677,721

4. Key in the following URL, http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/salaries/top50?tag=pageRow;pageContainer Who runs this site?

A. the Hudson School

B. The New York Yankees

C. CBS sports

D. no one owns this site because it is on the Internet

5. What tab is the merge cells under?

A. The tools tab

B. The format tab

C. There is no tab for this

D. The edit tab

6. What is the average salary of the top 25 baseball players for 2009?

A. $18,158,281.44

B. $472,115,317.44

C. $11,348,925,900.00

D. $22,697,851.80

7. What is the difference between the top salary and the lowest salary in this sheet? Use the sort tab.

A. $18,500,000

B. $47,500,000

C. $.44

D. $1,850,500

8. We want to keep the text in cell 2A and not have it go across the columns or across the page. What is the procedure?

A. Insert > Rows > divide

B. Format > cells > alignment > wrap text

C. Format > column > width > resize

D. View > toolbars > align

9. Looking at the different chart options highlight your two columns and all the rows with data and with salaries sorted from least to most, which of these charts is the clearest to view the data?

A. Area chart

B. XY (scatter) graph

C. Column graph

D. Pie Chart

10. To drop the cents from all the salaries at once, rounding off to the dollar, what do we do

A. Select the row > format > cells > numbers > currency > decimal places > 2

B. Select the column > format > cells > numbers > currency > decimal places > 0

C. Select the column > format > cells > numbers > currency > decimal places > 2

D. Select the row > format > cells > numbers > currency > decimal places > 0