independent excel training

rising sophomore at an ivy, never had any excel training and want to have strong skills before applying to ib for summer 27 cycle nyc. whats the best way to do this? not looking to take any paid courses, just independent practice. will also be reading rosenbaum and pearl this summer to accompany it once i have some training. any recommendations?

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Start with a blank page and focus on formatting without a mouse and as always ALT W V G - no gridlines

On the side build out your formatting tables so, number, percentage, and color formatting

Ctrl + 1 for type formatting and google along the way if you don't get it. yyyy for 12/31/2025 -> 2025 and then Center across selected cells and Underline under Accounting to make your dates pretty.

Press alt and press the respective buttons to see how things work and if you don't know a shortcut google it. You'll a ton of time more on alt H.

Once you've finished your side formatting and kind of memorized the motions. Just build out your three statement model for any stock of your choosing focusing on reusing prior formatting along the way. So like ALT E S T or whatever other variant you use.

You can only make your skills better if you're remaking the same stuff over and over. Then move on to whatever else you want to do, push the 3 statement model into a stock valuation. Practice a LBO from the hundreds of free case studies there are on the internet. 

I don't know the culture of your ivy, but surely you have access to past student pitches to see their formatting and if you don't like it fix it. 

 

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