I have a very simple spreadsheet. I’m trying to show the improvement of kids taking a quiz before and after a lesson (the first quiz being a control to show that they didn’t already know the material).
The spreadsheet should have, in the end, the following data:
Column A: question numbers (1-10) Column B: number of correct answers for that question on the pre-quiz Column C: percentage of kids answering that question right on the pre-quiz Column D: number of correct answers for that question on the post-quiz Column E: percentages of kids answering that question right on the post-quiz Column F: difference between Columns D and B (how many more kids got the question right on the post quiz than on the pre-quiz) Column G: percentage increase from the pre-quiz to the post-quiz
So there were 20 kids taking the quiz, which means that I could find the percentage by multiplying the number of correct answers by five. So for Column C, for example, I put =B1*5. The number of kids getting that question right was 2, so 2*5 was 10, which was the correct percent. I selected the cell to format it as a percentage and now it says “1000%”
Buh? I don’t unnersan’. How do I do it?
Alternatively to that, you could have a reference cell someplace for each quiz with how many quiz-takers there were (in case of absences or additions to the class), and reference that cell instead of manually inputting the number each time.
This is a one-time thing. It’s for a paper I need to write. There will be no future quizzes or classes, and all of the data is already entered in.
[For the one person out there who may be curious, I taught three classes of 5th graders the same information. The first class got only a lecture. The second got a lecture with a powerpoint presentation that had visual aids and written text. The third class had the powerpoint and also a hands-on activity. The paper will discuss how the more stimuli you bring into a lesson, the more the information is retained. Whee.]
Ok so the =b1/20 is the magical formula that I knew was out there. (I am math-phobic, haven’t taken math in about 20 years, and my brain turns off when I have to come up with anything involving numbers. It’s sad, really.)
Sounds like you’ve got your answer (I guess we can assume you weren’t teaching math ). When you have a number in a cell, and then change the format to %, Excel interprets the number as a fraction that is supposed to be displayed as a %, e.g., 0.5 is displayed as 50%. That’s why 10 was displayed as 1000%.
(However, note that once you format the cell as %, you can type in “10” and it will be displayed as 10%. That doesn’t apply in your case since you’re using formulas but it’s something to be aware of.)
[QUOTE=CookingWithGas]
(However, note that once you format the cell as %, you can type in “10” and it will be displayed as 10%. That doesn’t apply in your case since you’re using formulas but it’s something to be aware of.)
[/QUOTE]
And since we’re on this tangent, you might want to be aware that if you type 10 into a cell formatted as %, it will display 10%, and the numeric value stored in the cell will be 0.1. (I’ve seen people bit by that in formulae, so I thought I’d mention it.)
). When you have a number in a cell, and then change the format to %, Excel interprets the number as a fraction that is supposed to be displayed as a %, e.g., 0.5 is displayed as 50%. That’s why 10 was displayed as 1000%.