MS Excel: Formulas & Charts

What this lesson covers

MS Excel: Formulas & Charts is a 10-part Class 7 Computer Science lesson. Each part makes one point and then hands over to the next, so it can be read in a sitting or picked up again at the part you stopped on. It defines the idea in plain words before using it, works through an example step by step, breaks the topic into its parts and compares them, shows where it is used outside the textbook, names the mistakes that cost marks in an exam, ends with a recap of what to remember.

How it begins

A spreadsheet's value is not the grid. It is that a cell can hold a formula referring to other cells, and recalculates automatically when they change. Every formula begins with =. Without it, the cell just shows text. The consequence: build a model once, then change any input and every dependent figure updates. That is what makes "what if" analysis possible.

The 10 parts

1. Why a spreadsheet is powerful
2. Functions worth knowing
3. Relative and absolute references
4. Building a working model
5. Charts that do not mislead
6. Sorting, filtering and validating
7. Where spreadsheets are used
8. Where it usually goes wrong
9. What to remember
10. Watch one worked through