Excel Challenge (prize - she keeps her job!)

This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.

Post the Excel question here, and someone may be able to help.

Her Husband wrote:
This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.


--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

Post the Excel question here, and someone may be able to help.

Her Husband wrote:
This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.


--
Debra Dalgleish
Excel FAQ, Tips & Book List
http://www.contextures.com/tiptech.html

Hi "He who must do what he is told"!

Very few people will visit your (unknown) website for fear of what
might be picked up. Post your example in the body of a plain text
e-mail if possible and you'll surely get detailed responses.

Whether or not the question is fair will depend upon the question
itself (often ambiguous) and the amount of time involved.

In general terms, generous time allowances are better in ascertaining
the precise skill levels of examinees as they allow incorporation of
data validation, protection, conditional formats, table formats,
charts, pivot tables UDFs and Subroutines. The more skilled examinee
will have more time to provide more than a quick and dirty solution.

--
Regards
Norman Harker MVP (Excel)
Sydney, Australia

Debra Dalgleish wrote in message ...
Post the Excel question here, and someone may be able to help.

Thanks Debra for the suggestion. If we can get about 100 people to do
this and send to our email address their Excel file to include also a
note of their years and level of experience and how long it took them
to do, then we might be able to present a statistical argument as to
the fairness of the test.

TEST
Present the following information in an accessible table format

The following training programmes are run in a college

Course A1, 10 groups (6 day and 4 evening)
Course A2, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course A3, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course B, 2 groups (1 day and 1 evening)
Course C1, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course C2, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course C3, 1 group (day)

15 enrol on each group in the A Courses and 17 in Course B. 12 enrol
in each group for the C courses.

All groups run for 18 weeks. Day-time groups are 10 hours a week (per
group) and the evening groups are for 5 hours a week (per group).
Courses C1 & C2 groups run for 4 hours a week each. Course C3 is 15
hours a week.

Calculate the total number of students enrolled and the total number
of learning hours for the 18-week programme.




Her Husband wrote:
This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.

Column A lists Courses (A3:A9)
Rows 1 & 2 give column headings

B3:G9 lists # students in daytime groups (many are blank)
H3:K9 lists # students in evening groups (many are blank)
=SUM(B3:K9) is total number of students

L3:L9 lists # hours per daytime group (L3:L6 are identical)
M3:M9 lists # hours per evening group (M3:M6 are identical)
=(SUMPRODUCT(B3:G9,ISNUMBER(B3:G9)*L3:L9)+SUMPRODU CT(H3:K9,ISNUMBER(H3:K9)*M3:M9))*18
is total number of learning hours per 18 week program

You could also add students/learning hours per course, and dress up with
borders, etc. Total time (including formatting) 10 minutes

Jerry

Her Husband wrote:

Debra Dalgleish wrote in message ...

Post the Excel question here, and someone may be able to help.


Thanks Debra for the suggestion. If we can get about 100 people to do
this and send to our email address their Excel file to include also a
note of their years and level of experience and how long it took them
to do, then we might be able to present a statistical argument as to
the fairness of the test.

TEST
Present the following information in an accessible table format

The following training programmes are run in a college

Course A1, 10 groups (6 day and 4 evening)
Course A2, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course A3, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course B, 2 groups (1 day and 1 evening)
Course C1, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course C2, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course C3, 1 group (day)

15 enrol on each group in the A Courses and 17 in Course B. 12 enrol
in each group for the C courses.

All groups run for 18 weeks. Day-time groups are 10 hours a week (per
group) and the evening groups are for 5 hours a week (per group).
Courses C1 & C2 groups run for 4 hours a week each. Course C3 is 15
hours a week.

Calculate the total number of students enrolled and the total number
of learning hours for the 18-week programme.





Her Husband wrote:

This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.

This is just an "aside". If your description of the situation is correct --
she had minimal training in Excel, it was 8 years ago, and she doesn't use it
in her day-to-day work, then expecting her to accomplish this task in 20
minutes is not reasonable. Use of Excel is presumably not part of her job
description. Why is she being tested on something she isn't required to do?

OTOH, if she uses Excel routinely, it would be OK. The only "trick" that I see
is the need to create two rows for each group, one for the day class and
another for the evening class, since they have a different number of hours per
week. A person who works with Excel several times a week should have no
problem with it.

Anyway, I've been using spreadsheets for at least 25 years. It took me 12
minutes to set up a table and get the required totals.

But your wife's current situation. Let's say she sues the company, she wins,
and she gets her job back. What kind of atmosphere will she have to endure? I
sure wouldn't want to work under those conditions!

Yes, of course there are rules re retaliation on the part of the employer, but
such behavior can be very subtle and difficult to prove in court. Even if she
wins the suit, I expect she will eventually decide the situation is too
unpleasant and look for another job. And the job hunt may be difficult because
she has identified herself as a "trouble maker" or "difficult employee" (even
though, in this case, I think the test was unfair and the employer is at
fault). If I were your wife, I would start the job hunt now. And be sure the
job requirements are spelled out in full!


This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.

Hi, Jerry:

Your expertise is showing! I sure hope that employer is not expecting
"occasional" Excel users to handle SUMPRODUCT formulas as a replacement for
array formulas vbg.

Myrna Larson


On Sun, 01 Aug 2004 12:27:12 GMT, "Jerry W. Lewis"
wrote:

Column A lists Courses (A3:A9)
Rows 1 & 2 give column headings

B3:G9 lists # students in daytime groups (many are blank)
H3:K9 lists # students in evening groups (many are blank)
=SUM(B3:K9) is total number of students

L3:L9 lists # hours per daytime group (L3:L6 are identical)
M3:M9 lists # hours per evening group (M3:M6 are identical)
=(SUMPRODUCT(B3:G9,ISNUMBER(B3:G9)*L3:L9)+SUMPROD UCT(H3:K9,ISNUMBER(H3:K9)*M3:M9))*18
is total number of learning hours per 18 week program

You could also add students/learning hours per course, and dress up with
borders, etc. Total time (including formatting) 10 minutes

Jerry

Her Husband wrote:

Debra Dalgleish wrote in message
...

Post the Excel question here, and someone may be able to help.


Thanks Debra for the suggestion. If we can get about 100 people to do
this and send to our email address their Excel file to include also a
note of their years and level of experience and how long it took them
to do, then we might be able to present a statistical argument as to
the fairness of the test.

TEST
Present the following information in an accessible table format

The following training programmes are run in a college

Course A1, 10 groups (6 day and 4 evening)
Course A2, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course A3, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course B, 2 groups (1 day and 1 evening)
Course C1, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course C2, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course C3, 1 group (day)

15 enrol on each group in the A Courses and 17 in Course B. 12 enrol
in each group for the C courses.

All groups run for 18 weeks. Day-time groups are 10 hours a week (per
group) and the evening groups are for 5 hours a week (per group).
Courses C1 & C2 groups run for 4 hours a week each. Course C3 is 15
hours a week.

Calculate the total number of students enrolled and the total number
of learning hours for the 18-week programme.





Her Husband wrote:

This is an appeal to all Excel users out there. My wife has just lost
her job because she didn't satisfactorily complete an Excel task in
the allotted time. We've put the actual Excel question up on our
website at www.dmhcipr.icom43.net. Please have a look. She is
appealing against her dismissal and would be grateful for any
constructive comments anyone might have - they just might help her win
her job back. Thanks for looking.

"Norman Harker" wrote in message ...
Hi "He who must do what he is told"!

Very few people will visit your (unknown) website for fear of what
might be picked up. Post your example in the body of a plain text
e-mail if possible and you'll surely get detailed responses.

Thanks Norman, the test question is below. If I can get about 100
people to do
this and send to our email address their Excel file to include also a
note of their years and level of experience and how long it took them
to do, then we might be able to present some evidence in support of
her appeal against redundancy. Thanks to everyone who has submitted
examples so far.


The question was:

Present the following information in an accessible table format

The following training programmes are run in a college

Course A1, 10 groups (6 day and 4 evening)
Course A2, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course A3, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course B, 2 groups (1 day and 1 evening)
Course C1, 5 groups (3 day and 2 evening)
Course C2, 3 groups (2 day and 1 evening)
Course C3, 1 group (day)

15 enrol on each group in the A Courses and 17 in Course B. 12 enrol
in each group for the C courses.

All groups run for 18 weeks. Day-time groups are 10 hours a week (per
group) and the evening groups are for 5 hours a week (per group).
Courses C1 & C2 groups run for 4 hours a week each. Course C3 is 15
hours a week.

Calculate the total number of students enrolled and the total number
of learning hours for the 18-week programme.

-----------------------------------------------------

How much was she off by, in terms of time? Maybe she's not cut out for that
kind of work.