STAT1250 - Business Statistics

Week 2 Practical
Introduction
Welcome to STAT1250 Practical classes! These classes complement and extend the concepts
you learn in lectures. Today you will begin to learn about how to use the computer package
Excel.
Practical participation is compulsory (it is a Hurdle requirement)
and participation will be recorded during your class time. You must
attend at least 10 of the 12 practicals or you will receive a fail in the unit. You must attend
the practical that you are registered in according to e-student. It is your responsibility to
complete the participation quiz during your practical.
Each practical class will contain:
revision of material covered in lectures and tutorials
problem solving using Excel
The data files that are used in these practicals will be made available on iLearn in the
Data Sets section.
When completing the practicals having your lecture notes with you is useful for reminding
you of definitions and concepts.
What will we cover today?
Today we will complete:
Hurdle Quiz 1 opening a data file and editing
data in Excel how to save the work you have
completed using Excel cutting and pasting from
Excel to Word
If you are not familiar with Excel at all there are many, many sites and YouTube videos that
can help you. Type something like ‘Excel beginners’ in a browser then select from the
options available.
Recommended textbooks have resources for Excel. For example recommended text book by
Black et al (published by Wiley) has how to videos that you might benefit from watching.
The recommended textbook 3 comes with a key to MyStatLab. If you log into MyStatLab,
you can view a video in the Week 0 or Week 1 area on the basics of Excel 2013 and the
1 | Stat1250 Week 2 Practical: Introduction to Excel © Copyright Macquarie University 2021

Excel data analysis add-in that you will need. The add-in will usually be available on Lab
computers already.
You need Excel with data analysis Tool to successfully complete
STAT1250 (see iLearn for how to obtain a free copy for your
computer/laptop from MQ).
Remember: If you have difficulty with any parts of the Practicals
ask your practical demonstrator for help during your class.
Opening Excel
Practicals can be completed on a lab computer or on your own computer/laptop, but not on
tablets such as iPad, and certainly not on your smart phone.
After you have logged onto the lab computer, find Excel and open it.
Excel should appear with a blank worksheet as in the picture below.
Excel stores data in columns labelled A,B,C, ........... and in rows numbered 1,2,3,......
Data are stored in cells that are referenced by their column label and row number. For
example, the cell that is located in column C and in row 9 is referred to as cell C9.
The Excel menus
At the top of an Excel spreadsheet are menus including
•Home – which is generally used to format cells
•Insert – which is used, for example, to add charts
•Formulas – which is used to add appropriate formulas to the worksheet and so on.
Some of these menus will be used in later Practicals. You are expected to be able to use Excel
with data analysis and to be able to do your own analysis and interpret the Excel output that
is presented in lectures, in the class tests and in the final examination.
2 | Stat1250 Week 2 Practical: Introduction to Excel © Copyright Macquarie University 2021

Excel as a calculator
Excel most basic use is as a calculator. For example in cell A1 type =123*456 and then
press enter. The “=” specifies that we are using a function in this cell that we want an answer
for.
Did you get 56088? yes
Excel can be used to add/subtract/multiply/divide (and many other functions) two or more
columns together. Type the data in the image below into the same columns of your
spreadsheet.
In cell C1 type =SUM(A1:B1). The SUM(A1:B1)
command says add the cells specified (A1 and B1)
together.
Now we want to use the same function for cells C2 to
C10. The easiest way to do this is to click in cell C1. At
the bottom right hand corner of the cell you can see a
little square. Hover over that square until the Excel curser
becomes a thin +, using the left hand mouse button click
and hold on the + and drag the curser down to C10. The
formula should copy to cells C2 through C10 and give
you the remaining row sums.
Ask your demonstrator if you have any
problems during your class time! You can also watch the pre-
recorded Practical Video if you missed your class and submit your
solution(s).
Now we are going to import some data into Excel.
Open an internet browser such as Google Chrome and log into iLearn (ilearn.mq.edu.au).
Scroll down to the Data Sets section and you will see the names of the data sets that we
will use this semester. Excel data files have the extension .xlsx or .xls.
Double click on Rollercoaster.xlsx to download the file. Using Google Chrome, a link
to the data file should appear in the lower left hand side of the browser window.
The variables in the Rollercoaster worksheet are described below.
3 | Stat1250 Week 2 Practical: Introduction to Excel © Copyright Macquarie University 2021