Customer Reviews

Excel Data Analysis for Dummies

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've been using Excel for years, but I've always been frustrated by the more advanced stuff in Excel. Things like pivot tables and pivot charts, or the super-powerful but mega-confusing VLOOKUP function. Sometimes I'd get lucky and figure out how to get one of these things to work, but most times I'd have to ask a co-worker to figure it out for me.

Now, I'm starting to be the guy that folks are coming to for help with advanced Excel stuff. This book is fantastic, and for the first time I'm starting to really use Excel for something more advanced than the Sum button!

Here's the table of contents from my copy of the book. Some of the chapters might sound intimidating, but believe me, this book is fun and easy to read:

Part I: Where's the Beef?

Chapter 1: Introducing Excel Lists.

Chapter 2: Grabbing Data from External Sources.

Chapter 3: Scrub-a-Dub-Dub: Cleaning Data.

Part II: PivotTables and PivotCharts.

Chapter 4: Working with PivotTables.

Chapter 5: Building PivotTable Formulas.

Chapter 6: Working with PivotCharts.

Chapter 7: Customizing PivotCharts.

Part III: Advanced Tools.

Chapter 8: Using the Database Functions.

Chapter 9: Using the Statistics Functions.

Chapter 10: Descriptive Statistics.

Chapter 11: Inferential Statistics.

Chapter 12: Optimization Modeling with Solver.

Part IV: The Part of Tens.

Chapter 13: Almost Ten Things You Ought to Know about Statistics.

Chapter 14: Almost Ten Tips for Presenting List Results and Analyzing Data.

Chapter 15: Ten Tips for Visually Analyzing and Presenting Data.

Part V: Appendix.

Appendix: Glossary of Data Analysis and Excel Terms.

This book is only appropriate for the older Excel additions. If you own Excel 2007 this book will do nothing for you!

The world of mathematical analysis is changing, and for the people involved, doing so at ever younger ages. As a Physics teacher, much of the mathematical modeling or problem solving strategies that come first to a student is something that I might say as a "brute force" method. While not an elegant method sometimes, the computer in general, or graphing calculators in particular are able to handle the demands of a student's "brute force" method of problem attack.

While the elegance of some mathematics takes considerable practice, and perhaps intuition, it has been this feature that has kept many people from the "hard sciences", and engineering. Or, so I would suggest having taught both in secondary and post-secondary. Technology has changed all of this, but it would seem that the full impact of this will take some time to be felt by everyone.

This book sees to much of the analysis possible with the Excel spreadsheet. There are enormous sections that are easily understood by High School students, and with a little coaching can be used to work with experimental data. The laboratory work that many students are able to produce is of exceptional quality, and gratifying to experience.

On the flip side of this same coin is the ability of teachers to quickly check results, and look at the quality of data used.

Material is easily understood, and with functions explained in layperson terminology, the book accomplishes not simply the how, but the why as well. I would recommend that this book is purchased by anyone who can help students learn how to use a spreadsheet.

Currently, I am considering the other Excel spreadsheet books on closely allied areas, and hope that they are as well written, and organized as this book.

This book is a bizarre mix of basics (how to create a list, change the color of a chart) and seriously advanced (heavy customization, detailed descriptions of every statistical and analytical function), without much in the middle.
I wouldn't consider this a dummies book at all, but it's a nice addition to my library for the function descriptions. If you don't have a clue what you are doing, start elsewhere.

This would be an OK book for someone who knows excel (which is almost everyone I guess) but does not know about some of the basic analysis tools it has. It is not really good for the more advanced. I gave it 4 stars because it is simple (yet annoying) to follow and am rating it for the more beginning user. Even for the advanced however, I think there is always something to learn or at least be refreshed on. I don't like the way the author writes - it is a bit annoying and amateurish, but who am I? It's not like I ever wrote a book. However, that said, I did not really enjoy reading it, but it does touch on the high level tools that excel has. I am not a very tough grader so an average me may have given it more like 3 stars.

Added to Library with other books to help communicate ideas and thoughts to kids. Variety in communicating is a great way to see other angles to help kids figure out how things work.


I Love Math - Great Help for kids to learn how to apply them selves in Excel

This book has useful information but the layout, paper quality, and wording make it very hard to read. It's sad, but I feel that if the publisher had put a little more work into the presentation and material quality that this book would be 1000 times more successful.