ICDL Advanced Spreadsheets study guide
ICDL Advanced Spreadsheets · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
ICDL Advanced Spreadsheets is an advanced-level spreadsheet certification within the ICDL (formerly ECDL) family of digital-skills credentials. It is designed for candidates who already work confidently with spreadsheets and want formal recognition of higher-end capability: building complex formulas, presenting data in charts, managing and interrogating large data sets, and controlling how workbooks are validated, protected and produced as output. The ICDL Advanced Spreadsheets study guide has 5 sections and about 2,224 words.
01Formatting: Numbers, Conditionals and Presentation
A formatted cell still holds the underlying number. Typing 0.256 and applying a percentage format shows 26% but the value stays 0.256 for calculations, whereas =ROUND(A1,2) genuinely changes the stored value.
370 words, about 2 min02Formulas and Functions: References, Logic and Lookup
Every copied formula question tests relative (A1), absolute ( A 1) and mixed (A 1, A1) references. Press F4 to cycle them.
355 words, about 2 min03Charts: Choosing, Building and Refining
Column and bar charts compare discrete categories, line charts show trends over continuous time, pie charts show parts of one whole (one series only, few slices), scatter (XY) charts show correlation between two numeric variables, and combination charts plot a series on a secondary axis when its scale differs greatly. A common exam trap is a pie chart built from several series - it only plots the first, so the picture is misleading.
392 words, about 2 min04Data Analysis: Sorting, Filters, Subtotals and PivotTables
A sort applies to whole records, so always select the full table or a single cell inside it and let the tool detect the range. Multi-level sorts (Custom Sort) let you order by region, then by revenue descending.
363 words, about 2 min05Validation, Protection and Output
Data validation restricts what can be typed into a cell. The main types are Whole Number, Decimal, List, Date, Time, Text Length and Custom (a formula that must return TRUE or FALSE).
744 words, about 4 min