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I've outlined below some of the most useful Excel functions to learn. Some of these functions are very basic but can make a huge difference. These functions save time, automate procedures, and make your life easier! And if you need some help on how to learn them, I've listed some helpful resources to get you started. With all of us social distancing at home, now is as good of a time as any to add a skill to your resume. 

Excel Functions to Know:

SUM: returns sum of cells selected

SUMPRODUCT: multiplies ranges or arrays together and returns the sum of product

IF: return one value for a TRUE result and another for a FALSE result

SUMIF: returns the sum of cells if the cell meets a single condition

AVERAGEIF: computes the average of the numbers in a range that meets a certain criteria

VLOOKUP: lookup and retrieve data from a specific column in a table can be exact or approximate match

LEFT: returns a given number of characters from the left side of text string

RIGHT: returns a given number of characters from the right side of text string

CONCATENATE: joins the text of cells together and returns the joined text in one cell

LENGTH: returns the given number of characters in a text

Resources:

Excel Jet: Very useful as a type of Excel dictionary to look up syntax and specific formulas you don't know

Excel Easy: almost like on online textbook for Excel (great resource for those who have no knowledge of Excel at all!)

Udemy: paid excel course with lots of videos, assignments, and downloadable resources

Coursera: self-paced learning option, quizzes and assignments, and a course certificate

Excel Youtube Course by Technology for Teachers and Students

Datacamp (7/12/20 edit thanks anon for the suggestion!)

Prologue to my Excel series

it’s not gonna be perfect, and that’s ok. high school movies tell us that senior year is this amazing time in your life where you have all these formative experiences that shape the course of your destiny or something, but in my experience this is not really the case. my senior year was somehow both excruciatingly slow and very fast, and it had ups and downs just like any other school year. so if your senior year isn’t a wonderful collection of instagrammable moments, don’t worry. everyone else is finding “senior season” a little underwhelming too, even the people who seem to be having the most fun. quite frankly, you shouldn’t want your senior year of high school to be the best year of your life. 

college apps are important, but you don’t have to kill yourself over them. i know, i can say this because i just finished them, but it’s so true. applying to college is a horrible, tedious process that i’m going to attempt to break down in another masterpost. i went to a high school where people were fucking obsessed with getting into college, and it was sort of horrifying to watch people self-destruct over the process. even i (and i consider myself a fairly private, non-competitive, even-keeled person) went a little nuts towards the end. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, there is no reason on god’s green earth to apply to twenty or more schools. it’s expensive (most application fees are 60+ USD), time-consuming, and stressful. the only reason i can even see why you might be doing this is if you qualify for a bunch of application fee waivers, but even then, it’s just stupid. most colleges make you write secondary essays in addition to the common or coalition app essay, and that doesn’t even factor in scholarship applications, interview prep, and keeping up with school on top of everything. the best thing you can do for yourself is pick around ten-ish schools that you’re actually serious about attending and skip the hassle. you will get into at least one college if you apply smart. trust me. the people i know who went ham with applications were miserable all the time (even the smartest ones) and most of them didn’t even get into their top choice schools. when you’re churning out 3+ essays every month, it follows that they’re not all gonna be winners. additionally, know that life will go on even if you don’t get into harvard. relax. you have an entire life ahead of you. even if it doesn’t work out exactly how you planned, good things take time, ya feel? 

you’re still valid even if you don’t participate in every “senior activity” possible. “but it’s your last pep rally!!” “you HAVE to go to prom!!” “let’s go to every football game this season!!”  no. just no. you’re really not gonna remember a lot of this stuff. if large crowds of ppl aren’t your thing, if you’re stressed or tired, if you don’t have the money (a lot of these “senior only” activities are EXPENSIVE expensive or at least they were at my school), or if you just have no interest in homecoming or whatever, IT’S FINE. you don’t have to justify this stuff to other people. i let ppl guilt trip me into doing a bunch of shit for our “last high school memories” or whatever and uhhh i didn’t always have a good time. for one thing, i’ve never had a shit ton of school spirit or whatever and two, being around crowds of ppl is pretty draining for me. the only “senior activity” i actually enjoyed was prom, but i knew ppl who skipped out on that and ya know what? i think they were ok. i never bought a yearbook. it’s fine. you should shape your senior year around what’s mentally/financially safe for you + and what you’re actually interested in, not what people expect you to do.

you don’t really have to do extracurricular activities this year, so don’t do anything you’re not truly passionate about. i stopped doing a lot of stuff like model un and science olympiad this year because i just wasn’t interested in them anymore. and i don’t regret it. to be blunt, you already have the lines on your resume filled by those activities if you’ve done them for a long time. so if you’re not feelin’ it, don’t waste your time. just do the things you wanna do. i did a lot of theater stuff last year and had a great time. it was super rewarding and i had a pretty good time with my castmates, and i was glad i had done that instead of more “academic” activities like scioly. 

it’s ok to be unsure about your plans for the future. for some reason, this is the year, every adult in your life is gonna be like, “wHaT’s Ur MaJoR???” and “wHaT jOb Do YoU wAnNa HaVe wHeN u GrOw uP??” as a result, you can start to feel a lot of pressure around having an answer prepared, and if you are on the fence about what you wanna do with your life, you can feel like other ppl have their shit together a lot more and that you’re aimless and stupid. trust me, you’re not, though. i personally think it’s unfair that we expect 18 y/os, who in many ways are still kids, to have their whole life planned out. a lot is still liable to change even after high school, and I think you’ll be remiss if you don’t allow your dreams and ambitions to change with it. if you’re truly unsure about your plans but you know you’re going to college, i’d recommend making sure none of the places you’re applying to are going to lock you down in a major when you set foot on campus. i have friends who are going to large universities who have already basically declared a major, which to me seems like an odd system. if 4-yr college isn’t in the cards for you for whatever reason, try taking a year off, getting a job, or community college. a lot of ppl i know look down on ccs, but to my knowledge, community college can be a great start to figuring out what you wanna do with your life. you have time. don’t rush it.

getting sick of your school friends is normal. it sounds mean, but in my experience, it’s true. i mean you’ve gone to school with these people for 4 or more years now, and you’ve changed a lot. and that doesn’t mean you don’t like them and wish them well, but there can be days where you’re like “omg pls stop talking to me rn!!” especially in that lull after application season. don’t be mean to anyone ofc, but realize that feeling exasperated with your peers is just part of the process, and you’re not a bad person for wanting a little bit of space. in my experience, unless the issue is w regards to toxicity or people being generally shitty, ppl will be able to connect w each other much more normally after school is over. 

you will get senioritis to some degree, but you have to push through it. it must be great to be one of those people who literally never stops working. but for the vast majority of us, some kind of senioritis will slap us in the ass after applications are done. you will have no motivation to do coursework but! remember that coursework needs to be completed! to be completely honest, once you’ve been accepted to college, you really only need to maintain a C average to not get rescinded, and i knew plenty of people who screwed around more than i did and they didn’t get their admission rescinded. but like, you don’t want to be one of those people who somehow fails a class because you don’t “feel like” doing the homework. you need to graduate, you need to hold onto your scholarship, and you need to maintain your accepted status. quite honestly, you need to kick ur own ass and make yourself work, whether that’s by turning down invites to hang out, or putting your phone in a different room. also, don’t be that person who’s playing iphone games in every class. your teachers will think you’re an asshole, and that’s really not the move. 

you don’t have to take everyone’s advice. this is the year everyone wants to be an expert on adulting, whether that’s your peers or parents’ colleagues or school counselors. in the end, your are the only one who can decide what’s right for you based on your financial situation and what you are comfortable with. i’m not saying “don’t take anyone’s advice”, because i truly believe there are some people out there who have the means to help you succeed. but i think you should pick and choose because you’re about to be fed a deluge of information that may or may not be useful or relevant to what you want to do. for example, people told me that i was limiting myself by not applying to any ivy league schools or very many competitive universities, or that i should lie about my race on my application (!!) because of the bias against ppl of asian descent in college admissions (note: i actually wrote about my heritage in my common app essay so it wasn’t like it was some secret lmao), which were uhhh not helpful. do what feels right and don’t feel the need to humor ppl who don’t have your best interests at heart. 

don’t compare yourself with other ppl. it’s natural to be a little jealous of peers who snag acceptances to prestigious colleges on full-tuition scholarships or land dream jobs/gap-year programs right out of high school. it’s a bit of an ugly feeling, but i’m not gonna sit here and say i didn’t wish i was one of those people at a point. that’s disingenuous in the extreme. it’s ok to be disappointed if everything doesn’t all work out, but at a certain point you need to accept what’s happening to you and make the very damn best of it. wallowing in self-pity just because your classmates are succeeding is just stupid. also, recognize that everyone’s ability to achieve their post-hs goals is wildly different based on their own circumstances. if you are less financially able to pay for college, for example, your opportunities are more limited than someone with a six-figure college fund. it’s quite frankly naive to assume that everyone shares your experience. be happy for people who do well. be happy for people who are proud of themselves. don’t try to take other people down because you’re feeling bitter. i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again-other people’s success is not your failure. 

2 / 9 / 18

Hi everyone! I don’t know about you, but settling into all online classes hasn’t been easy. However, I have found a few applications that help me stay on top of my day to day grind that I wanted to share with you all!

1. Session Buddy: If you opeobn a million tabs at once, then this Google Chrome extension is for you. Session Buddy saves your window (and you can rename your session to be more specific like, “English Essay”) and then you can access it and open up all your million tabs later. 

2. The Most Dangerous Writing App: This website can be really terrifying at first, but it is life changing. The Most Dangerous Writing App has you set a session length and once you start writing if you stop for a certain period then it’ll erase all your work. It seems really daunting at first, but this app is GREAT to help you stop procrastinating and just write a bad first draft that you can fix later. It’s not great for incorporating research because looking at your sources/notes takes awhile, but it’s great to just get down an initial first draft that you can fix later. 

3. Cuckoo: Cuckoo is a great way to virtually do productivity sprints with a group of other people. Just give them your link and people can join your timed session. There are preset options that follow the pomodoro technique, but you can also set your own too. 

4. MinimaList: extremely simplified to do list app with a built in focus timer (its minimalist design is very easy on the eyes). This isn’t for complex subtasks, but it allows you to cross off tasks (which is so satisfying). I think its simplicity is great for those who don’t want to spend a lot of time messing with fancy settings for their to do lists. 

this year, i absolutely bombed the first ap statistics test (i think i got 30%) and since tests were 60% of our grade, my high A in the class went down... to a high F. however, i was able to rescue my grade from certain death using these methods. (i actually brought it up to an A) so if you, too, have a grade that is gasping out its last breaths, never fear, the ambulance is on its way! a small disclaimer-in no way do i claim that these tips will work for every situation, and i’m afraid i don’t know any “quick fixes” that will magically restore your grade to its former glory. 

first, be brutal. now is not the time to be a perfectionist! recognize that you may not get the perfect 110% you dreamt of. also, recognize that life goes on. what’s important is that you pass the class. 

change your mentality. you’re not “stupid” or “bad at x subject” just because you have 1! low grade in 1! class. this kind of thinking will just send your further into a downward spiral and you will be even less motivated to work hard. 

next, analyze at your performance. what about the class makes it difficult for you? is it something small like forgetting to turn it a lot of assignments, or is it something more major like poor test scores? are you doing something less important when you should be studying for this class? is the teacher hard to understand or do you not get along with them? do you find the class boring or a waste of time? now you know what to focus on. in my case w stats, low test and quiz grades were dragging my average down. 

talk to the instructor. as soon as you feel like you may be in jeopardy grade-wise, you absolutely do need to get in contact with the person who teaches the class. make an appointment if the teacher is very busy. explain to the instructor that you are struggling with the class and ask if the teacher has any sort of tutoring or resources to help you understand the material better. do not ask about extra credit or ask “what can i do to get an A?” this makes it sound like you only care about your grade and not about actually learning. even though this might be true in your case, the teacher needs to see that you are making an effort to improve and that you care about the class. do not get angry or start blaming the teacher for the low grade. this will not win you any points (even if you feel the teacher is hindering your learning). if this feels like sucking up, it absolutely is, but sometimes sucking up can be helpful. once you’ve established this relationship with the teacher, go in and ask for help regularly. and push it if you don’t understand. if the teacher is unwilling or unable to help you, or if they refer you to another student instead of helping themselves, you don’t have to make the effort after the first attempt. as long as you at least attempt to form a relationship with the teacher they can’t see you don’t care. 

spend more time on the subject that’s bothering you. study for it in your free time. make it your first priority. by that i mean, do all! the work that has been assigned for that class first and only afterward do work for other things.

be extra! if you didn’t previously make notes or flash cards, make notes or flash cards. look for online resources on the topic like youtube videos or extra practice questions. read the lesson before the teacher covers it in class. try to participate in class even if you’re not confident. you don’t want to walk into an exam feeling you haven’t utilized all your resources.

every point counts. do all your homework. you do not have the luxury of blowing off assignments because they’re “not worth a lot of points.” think of every grade, no matter how small as an opportunity, and do your utmost to get a good score. also don’t neglect extra credit opportunities, even if you don’t typically “do extra credit.” even if it seems tedious or unimportant, it is worth it. 

and if nothing is working, consider dropping the class. there is nothing wrong with admitting you’re in over your head. if you feel there is a strong possibility you will fail the class, you can’t afford to have that on your record. why not drop it and move on to bigger and better things? however, use this as a last resort. administrators do not like dropped classes, as it means more work for them. at my school at least, people cannot drop out of classes after first quarter unless there are extenuating circumstances. if this is your case, you will typically get a pretty good sense of “ahhhh i need to get out” within the first week or two. 

i realized i only purchased the brushables in the bi flag colors oops