Complexity Levels of Excel Employment Assessment Tests

Microsoft Excel harbor very basic calculations to very advanced data processing and analysis that requires in-depth knowledge of every tools of Excel. Depending on the position candidate is  applying for you are likely to face a pre-employment Excel test with varying level of difficulty. Microsoft Excel Employment Assessment tests can be categorized into at least three levels of difficulty:

• Microsoft Excel Basics Test: The basic test will evaluate your skills performing basic Excel functions. This can include anything from printing, formatting cells, inserting tables, and so on. If you have used Excel in the past or familiar with other similar applications you should be able to refresh your skills with the quick tutorial, practice sample excel interview questions to pass assessment test. Basic Excel Test for Interview Candidates is a screening process for entry-level or experienced candidates, including administrative assistants, retail store managers, Sales Representatives, Marketing Representatives, Accountants, Entry level Analysts, or any other position that requires using Microsoft Excel.
• Intermediate Microsoft Excel test: This test requires more than basic knowledge but is not as complex as the advanced level test. The intermediate Microsoft Excel skills test presents candidates with a series of timed questions designed to assess their knowledge of Microsoft Excel. For passing this test, you will need to study and practice in advance using different tools and resources and ideally have practical experience of solving problems with Microsoft Excel. The Intermediate Excel Test is typically offered to evaluate skills of Business Analysts, Project Managers, Architects and other professionals, that may be responsible for complex decision making.
• Advanced Microsoft Excel test: This test is designed for job that require to use Excel in a more complex manner. The test will evaluate your skills with pivot tables, creating macros, filtering, and functions such as IF, IFS, VLOOKUP, SUMIFS, VBA and other advanced concepts used in Microsoft Excel. An advanced Excel user would need to have advanced formula skills. He would have a skill and confidence to make his own formula to adapt to any situation. Typically, this test is offered to Senior Professionals, Executives, Financial Analysts, Scientists and other professionals that may need to use advanced features of Microsoft Excel.

What Employers are Looking For?

Microsoft Excel is a comprehensive tool that allows businesses to record, track, and analyze data essential for measuring company performance, maximizing return on investment, and defining goals – when used to its fullest potential. A new employee who can comfortably navigate Excel is prepared to immediately contribute by producing meaningful, data-driven spreadsheets, reports, and graphs to best serve company needs.

Assessing a job candidate’s Microsoft Excel proficiency is an important step in making the right hire. The Beginners Microsoft Excel skills test is helpful in learning if a job candidate understands how to manipulate the many functions, tools, and formulas of Excel to present extensive information, identify key trends, or calculate financial and numerical data.

Microsoft Excel assessment test helps predict a job candidate’s ability to:

• Enter sales figures and properly apply formulas to generate sales totals by date, representative, product or region.
• Conditionally format cells with the goal of highlighting specific dates, values, or ranges.
• Create bar graphs and pie charts from large datasets to illustrate critical company data, performance metrics, and outlook.

TIP #1 – What are the Smartest Ways to Prepare for Assessment Test:

• Use outlines from Test provider (Indeed.com, SkillsCheck, IKM) and review their sample questions
• Take Online Training Courses, if available
• Download and read Assessment Test Books and eBooks
• Download and Use Practice Tests

TIP #2 – What to do during the test:

• Try to schedule test in the morning, when you have high levels of energy
• Get a good sleep before the test.
• Do not take a test if you are tired
• Read Question carefully (ideally more than once)
• Answer easy questions first (if you have a choice)
• This would allow you to leave harder questions for the end, but you will get easy answers in
• Validate your answer with more than one method (i.e. Common sense, Manual Calculations, Use Calculator etc.)

For some tests, IKM Excel Assessment Test might use adaptive testing methodology in which question difficulty is determined by your previous answers. Adaptive tests measure knowledge in fewer questions than standard tests by eliminating questions that are too hard or too easy for the test taker based upon their previous answers. Answering correctly will result in more difficult follow-up questions. Answering incorrectly will result in easier follow-up questions. Below are typical guidelines for IKM Adaptive Excel Assessment Test:
1. Each question has only one correct answer.
2. You may not go back to a question once it is answered.
3. You will get only 3 questions and no score.

Each employer might use a slightly different variation of the test. The Excel exam will be broken down into a multiple-choice section and an interactive portion. Some tests are timed but some of them do not have a limit on how long applicant can take to answer the questions, but there might be exceptions. There are different types of questions typically being presented during the test like Multiple Choice Questions, Multiple Answer Questions, True/False Questions and Interactive Questions. It is rare that only one type of question is used during the test – most of the time questions are part of the large pool and testing software randomly selects certain number of questions from the pool and presents them to the candidate. Let’s look at the details of each type.

Multiple Choice Excel Assessment Questions

In this test format applicants are being presented with the question that has multiple options but only one possible answer. Applicants are typically being asked to select one choice as the answer for the questions. These types of questions are typically used to test Beginner or Intermediate skills on Excel Assessment test. Figure 1 shows an example of multiple choice excel assessment test question:

(Sample multiple choice question as part of Excel Assessment Test)

Multiple Answer Excel Assessment Questions.

In this test format applicants are being presented with the question, which has multiple potential answers. Applicants are typically being asked to select all answers that are applicable. These types of questions are typically used to test Intermediate or Advanced skills on Excel Assessment test (See below image). The multiple-choice questions are typically pulled at random from a larger pool of questions. This means that you will likely not be asked the same questions as someone else you know who took the exact same exam.

(Sample Multiple Answer Excel Assessment Test Question)

True/False Excel Assessment Questions.

In this format applicants are being presented with a statement that is either true of false. The key to answering these questions correctly is in reading the questions in detail and determining which answer is correct and which one isn’t.

(Sample True/False Question asked as part of Excel Assessment Test)

Interactive Excel Software Simulator Questions

Interactive test question typically asks candidates to complete specific task or scenario using Excel Simulator, presented at the bottom. Simulator is different from the regular Excel software, since it has internal help disabled. Sometimes the entire test might be done using interactive questions, but most of the times Interactive question type is just one of the types of questions used during the test.

Below is the example of Excel Interactive Simulator question, candidates might be asked to complete.

(Sample Interactive Simulator asked as part of Excel Assessment Test)

Testing Candidates with Ad-Hoc Questions by the interviewer

Sometimes interviewers prefer the test to be interactive with the candidate rather than judging by some static questions. Since the main objective of Excel test is to determine whether a candidate can perform Excel function, specific to what employer needs to do, some companies ask Ad-Hoc questions during the interview to test the candidate and evaluate his skills. In this approach potential candidates are not being asked to take any computerized tests, but rather are being asked open-ended questions during the interview. Typically, interviewer ask questions from memory, but a lot of times they might also prepare questions in advance, based on functional or technical areas they would like to test the candidate.

Three major categories of questions might be asked in Ad-Hoc approach:

Technical Questions:

• Which function would you use to add all the values in the column?
• How can you import data from the database into Excel?
• What are Excel Formulas used for?

Functional Questions

• What is your experience managing prices in Excel?
• What is your experience doing forecasting in Excel?
• What is your experience planning a budget in Excel?

Challenge questions

• Can you access the values from another worksheet in the same workbook using the formula?
• How can you project Excel data from modification?
• How can you protect Excel with the password?
• What is the difference between absolute and relative cell references? In which situations would you use each?