Thoughts on Excel
February 28th, 2006 | Published in general | 7 Comments
I’m writing this as I’m sitting in my mid term examination for the ridiculous, compulsory course: Computer as Analysis Tool. We call it CAT for short. The title is misleading. It really ought to be Excel as Analysis Tool. I can see why that name was avoided. EAT (other descriptors, like ’shit’, will probably be frequently appended to it).
The sole purpose of this module, it seems, is to prepare us to become corporate serfs who can churn out stacks and stacks of financial spreadsheets. Call me naive; while I appreciate the desire to equip us with advanced office skills, my eyes can’t help but glaze over the sample questions involving stocks, mortgages. I like Excel. Some parts of it. I can kick some serious ass when it comes to.. you know, Boolean functions, or random stimulation, or.. using Excel to do all kinds of stupid things to amuse myself. But I think I can safely say I’m never, in this lifetime, going to be preparing end of year financial statements for ANYONE (not even myself), much less a company, or help an imaginary couple weigh out their investing or property options. Even if I wanted to, I doubt anyone would hire me for that. They would close down by the next financial quarter.
Peering over at the answers prepared by my neighbours, their Excel spreadsheets look ready to conquer the corporate world. Nice shadows. Great colour combinations. Perfect layouts. Oh, and they even have numbers that make sense inside those nightmare cells.
My Excel sheets look like when they get printed out, they might be mistaken for the garble that laser printers sometimes print out, and I worry that if I’m not there to grab them as they’re printed, someone might use it to recycle paper by printing on the other side of this “waste”. Coming to think of it.. having my Excel sheets actually serve a purpose, like help save the planet, is not too bad at all.
P.S. Mac users, don’t try hitting F9 to try to recalculate ââ¬â you’ll end up with your windows splitting open in Expose. The shortcut for that is cmd and += (the one next to your delete key). At least that’s one thing I’ve learned.
=IF<0.9,”Flunk”,”Pass”)
February 28th, 2006 at 2:54 pm (#)
FA, FIM, IE, AFI, CB…what is with all the world? Maybe it is just a too long life put in short form…..our lives = duh…
February 28th, 2006 at 2:56 pm (#)
Bah. If I had known ’bout that cmd = bit while working on assignment financial.
And I’ve just noticed the redesign! =)
February 28th, 2006 at 3:54 pm (#)
Excel=Death.
Simple enough. I can think of only one way to get an A for CAT: endless special favours for adjunct faculty member X next semester.
heh.
February 28th, 2006 at 4:56 pm (#)
tat’s weird. we had 2 girls coming over yesterday wanting to do a project on exactly that; solving business problems using Excel as a tool, part of their Computer as Analysis Tool module.
hootie
February 28th, 2006 at 9:27 pm (#)
yey…smile, smile, smirk, smirk!!!
Similar things came to my mind when I was doing my CAT midterm….!
But the F9 button worked for me, although there was no real use, as I didnt came to the point where I had to use it….well well fair enough!
Isabella
March 1st, 2006 at 5:25 pm (#)
ur excel function will not work because there is a “space” between RAND and ().
:P
March 1st, 2006 at 6:22 pm (#)
I know.. i had to put the space there because without the space, my text-formatting engine translates RAND with () after it as an acronym, and makes () disappear.