Friday, January 2, 2009

Final Evaluation of the Course

Adam Frieberg’s Final Evaluation of
Excel for Business 2008


Can you describe some things you learned about Excel this semester? This question could quite honestly be answered by just naming every single thing we did in the course this year. Almost every single skill I learnt was completely new, but the formulas (for ex- sumif, irr, v-lookup) were all totally new. So new that I never even knew that they existed!
Describe your progress in mastering Excel skills.
At the beginning I found it rather easy, but then as the concepts became more conceptual, I found them harder to grasp. I still find it way easier to use the formulas and tools when I understand what is going on and therefore chose to dom my final on case #9. But I understand that even if you don’t know how something is working, you can still use it to your advantage.
Did you like our textbooks? Explain. I liked casegrader, because it slowly made the problems more challenging as the cases went on. It spoon-fed you less and less as you proceeded through the book. The other text book I rarely used, so I don’t want to make a judgment.
Was there any material that helped you either personally or academically? Explain.Learning how to budget things, will for sure be useful in my personal life in the future. Additionally, learning that excel can keep tracks of your stocks is invaluable knowledge to have; no reason to waste money on stockbroker anymore!
What stands out as something special that you learned in the class?
The information that I used on case #9 was special to me because it showed me that all the concepts I learnt in introduction to finance are real and practically used on a day to day basis.
How would you describe your personal work ethic in the course?
Pretty good. I think I stayed on top of my cases, though I sometimes let 2 or 3 pile up and then sat down for a few hours and did them all in one shot. I may have been a bit lax in doing the journal write ups, though I finished them last night, because after doing a case, I was often too tired to write it up and forgot to do it later.
Do you have any additional comments?
AWESOME COURSE! Super practical and relevant to everyone’s life, whether they end up in computers, business or just managing their personal household. I would definitely recommend it to all YU students!

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Case #8

Our last and final case, I have mixed emotions. Sad to leave this wonderful, safe work environment but excited to move on to the real world of being examined on a case and then taking those skills to the global marketplace. I guess such a transition is inevitable the life of every student. 

I really liked this case because I think Macro's are super cool! They just enable you to accomplish tasks 100 times faster; what an amazing invention! I was very excited to learn about them in class and continue to enjoy using them and therefore loved this case.

See you at the final!

-Adam

Case #7

This case was very cool! It based itself off your previous knowledge of formulas (such as the sum function or the If function) but it took everything a step further by combining things you already knew how to do, thereby letting you create an even more powerful workbook!

a very impowering (though I hope not dangerously empowering, as we know where that can get you) experience!

-Adam

Case #6

Though I eventually understood all the details of this case and was able to get a great mark, I found this case to be a little bit tricky. Playing with all of the different files and constantly renaming them and opening and closing them, got kind of confusing! I wonder if that ever happens on the job and I just need to get used to it, or whether it is only appropriate for the academic setting?

However, I did find the idea of creating a static web page very interesting; who know that excel could do such a thing?

-Adam

Monday, December 8, 2008

Sort Stats In Class assignmet

Today's class was REALLY enjoyable.
I learnt how to use a Macro button in a very practical way... what a useful tool!
This function is really powerful and definitely something that I'm happy to have in my excel skills portfolio, for job interviews and future personal use.
The best part was, I even had fun learning how to use it.
-Adam

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Homerun Incentive- a reflection

I really liked this assignment. It was nice to take a class off from being told how to do things and be given the opportunity to try to figure things out on your own. Not only was this enjoyable, I thought it was a great educational technique that should be used more often in this class and in all classes in all educational institutions.
About the actual assignment... I found it intriguing. While neither method was exceptionally easy to figure out... I much preferred the NestedIF function. I found it easier to use and more logical (despite the insane amount of parentheses needed!).
-Adam

Case #5- Reflections

I found this case to be a little challenging, but very rewarding. When first encountering the step that asked me to do "multi-level" filtering, I wasn't really sure how to do it. I managed to figure it out by highlighting things and just 'winging it'. While this did get me a perfect score, when I later sat down with the Prof., he showed me that Excel has a built in function that helps you sort things in a "multi-level" type way. I knew there had to be a better way to do it then the way I had used, and was very please to find out my inclination was correct. Once again, Microsoft proved there is always multiple ways to accomplish a task, the key is to find the most efficient way that works for you!
-Adam