Things I need to commit to memory and practice....that's you IF function.

Some of Excel functions have me messed up in so many ways. Messed up is not the word I wanted to use but this is a PG blog. Okay, really it is the IF function. Before I get into it, the most commonly used functions in Excel are the SUM, SUMIF, COUNT, COUNTA, COUNTBLANK, MAX, MIN, AVERAGE,IF, and LEN.  There are definitely more and I am sure there are people out there that would disagree about my top 10.

That IF function is simple to understand and in theory to implement, but for me, my brain has a hard time. During the LabSim reviews and projects, when the IF function came up I always had to pause and think about what I was doing. It did not come naturally. Usually I got it wrong. It is one of those things that I need to commit to memory and just do. If I think about it I mess myself up. Also, SUMIF is the a close second. Really it is the  IF that throws me off to be honest.

Seems Simple Enough?

PivotTables. They seem simple enough and in fact appear quite useful in evaluating large amounts of data and information. The mastery of creating them seems to allude me at the moment. I understand its concept and the ease to extract different bits of information from the data without going through the entire spreadsheet. One can pick and choose what to look at in a given time and create charts based on the information. It isn't hard, and suspect with practice it will become easier. I think it is the way my brain works. It has always been hard for me to visualize where things should go. It is not a skill I have and it tends to make things difficult or longer to grasp.

With this in mind and with my notes, I do have a project on the horizon. That is to account for where all my money is going. I do believe PivotTables will be of great help.

Photographs

Spring Break. I actually haven't had a spring break since 1999! And even then I was studying for my boards. So during this break I'll be working as usual, catching up on additional schoolwork but I am going to carve out some time to take photographs of my garden. I want to print them on metal and hang them on a particular wall in my home. 

This a picture of my butter lettuce with oregano and mint lettuce in the background. If one squints, you can also see cumin growing as well.

Here we have the beginnings of collard greens. I can't wait to see the end results.

I also have strawberries planted in a seed started and well as tomatoes. When they start to sprout, I'll add them to my collection of pictures and see if they make the cut to print and hang.

Skip it and move on to the next

I have always been a terrible test taker. Being timed increases my anxiety from a cool 3 to a 10 on the rate your pain scale from 1-10, 10 being the worst. I tend to get hyper focused and when I don't know the answer I will try a figure out the problem. There in lies the problem. Trying to figure it out on a timed test is not the way to go. Then I get panicky, I start hearing my heartbeat in my ear and I have convinced myself I'm doomed and I'm going to fail the test. 

My advice is to skip and move on to the rest. Breathe and don't listen to that internal dialogue that tries to convince you to give up or not do your best. If you have prepared for the MOS, one should be fine. The other tidbit is to read carefully. Good Luck to any one that needs to still take the first of three and the other two that are coming up. Hopefully I can take my own advice.