Some advice: When testing on Excel for a job, what type of software kit do they use (if any)?

[alf810]

Let me be more specific, because I'm sure it's a confusing question: back in high school I was in a tech program where I certified in Excel by taking a test. The test itself was a simulation - not really excel, just looked like it. At the bottom would be a statement, such as do [...] without right-clicking, or go sometimes it would be even worse if there were several methods to get to something (tabs or right clicking) sometimes it would be incorrect if you chose the route the program wasn't programmed to accept. They did allow (if I remember) 3 tries per question, at least.

In your experience, when going into an excel-based job and having a pre-interview excel test performed (which I have next week) do they typically use a real excel program to ask you to accomplish things or a simulated one like above? I realize simulated is easier for HR to grade - because it automatically has a score available when done. For me, when I use excel I do it through trial-and-error quite a bit - like sometimes I'll forget where an option is and press a tab or two and then see it and move on from there. But with simulated versions it's tricky.

Anyone with experience is this can you please give some advice? I know none of you can know for a fact what the test will be like, but I just need experience, observation, and educated guesses please. Thanks!

 

[Michael M]

For what it's worth, my last 2 jobs needed excel skills and they simply gave me a set of questions that created a "project" from scratch.
So, I had to create headers footers, input data format cells, create formulas, graphs, etc....I the end, I just had to save the workbook as my name and date ??
Job done.....but sadly the test was so simple, given it was for a senior position, I couldn't see any value in it !!
Unfortunately, a lot of organisations think they have expansive Excel skills, sadly they don't !!!
Hope that helps a bit !

 

[annita_parisi]

Hi there,
I think it is more common today for pre-interview tests to cooperate with the installed Excel application, rather than the simulation. The software does all the grading, so the HR department doesn’t get involved at all. They just need to be informed about the quality of the tests that are in the market (which does say a lot about the company itself, but this is a whole different subject).

Simulation software used to be pretty famous a few years ago, but it comes with all these problems that you describe, so software companies have moved on to solutions called “in-ates”, with software that requires you to take steps at the actual application. The big advantage of this method is that you can use any way you know in order to solve the exercises. You can use right-click or a key-board combination and it’s gonna come out correct, because in-ates software checks the result.

If you are asking for a preparation software so as to be even more confident, I would suggest trying test4u.eu (https://www.test4u.eu/en/e-tests/spreadsheets/ms-excel-2016-2013-2010-2007-2003-en). It has certainly helped me a lot. Good luck with the assessment!

 

[alf810]

Thanks for the advice everyone. Unfortunately, it was one of those simulation tests (I think the software was called "Prove It!"), regardless I got 97% , only one wrong question. It's funny because the job was just aiming for the average/normal section to be well done, but I also got the advanced section taken care of (which was really just a pivot table and a graph, maybe a few other things). I'm surprised because in my old job (years ago) I had to do a lot of "work arounds" my boss needed done by learning VBA on the fly, usually from this site or search engined. So for me, advanced means VBA Macros and complex formulas, but nothing like that was on there. Even VLOOKUP, PMT, etc... weren't.

Anyway, now I just have the interview itself to worry about and hopefully that score should help! Thanks again!