Been a while since you used Excel?
You knew how it worked once, but now you're not sure: did VLOOKUP want TRUE or FALSE at the end? Where did that dollar sign go again? Brushing up is much quicker than starting over.
Jump straight to the topic you want to revise. Every lesson starts with a short explanation and then moves on to exercises, from easy to challenging.
Why Lurndo suits you
Choose where you start
Every topic has a page of its own with an explanation and an exercise. What you already know, you skip.
What's new since then
Excel has gained powerful functions. XLOOKUP replaces VLOOKUP, and with FILTER, SORT and UNIQUE the results spill over several cells by themselves.
The pitfalls, seen again
A forgotten
$, a number stored as text, the order of the arguments in SUMIFS. The exercises show them, so you recognise them again.Everything on one page
The cheat sheet puts every function side by side, with an example and the classic pitfall.
Do you remember?
In F2, put "child" for anyone younger than 12 and "adult" for everyone else. Fill down to F11.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Name | Age | Pass | Visits | Paid | Category | Per visit |
| 2 | Jack | 9 | Single | 3 | £15.00 | ||
| 3 | Nora | 34 | Annual | 22 | £240.00 | ||
| 4 | Mila | 15 | Monthly | 9 | £25.00 | ||
| 5 | Rita | 67 | Annual | 15 | £240.00 | ||
| 6 | Laura | 41 | Single | £10.00 | |||
| 7 | Rory | 7 | Monthly | 6 | £25.00 | ||
| 8 | Jim | 72 | Annual | 18 | £240.00 | ||
| 9 | Will | 28 | Single | 4 | £20.00 | ||
| 10 | Hannah | 12 | Monthly | 11 | £25.00 | ||
| 11 | Sara | 55 | Annual | 0 | £240.00 | ||
| 12 |
Where's the best place to start?
Unsure about the basics? Start with references and logic. If you mainly want to learn something new, go to lookups and dynamic arrays.
- 2Functions and referencesYour second client: the Green Fingers allotments in Harrogate. You learn to calculate with functions like AVERAGE, MAX and ROUND, to count what is there and what is missing, and to lock references with $.
- 3LogicYour third client: The Splash swimming pool in Tamworth. You learn to compare, to choose with IF, to combine conditions with AND and OR, and to deal with empty cells and error values.
- 5LookupsYour fifth client: Flying Velo bike couriers in Manchester. You learn to look up values in a table, with VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, XLOOKUP and the duo INDEX and MATCH.
- 8Dynamic arraysYour eighth client: Whirlwind theme park in Lowestoft. You learn formulas that return a whole list: UNIQUE, FILTER, SORT and LET.
Stuck? Ask Lurnie
Lurnie is your AI coach in every lesson. Ask your question during or after an exercise and get an explanation at your level, straight away.
- During or after any exerciseLurnie knows which lesson and exercise you're on. Ask why something works, what a mistake means or how else you could do it.
- Fresh examples, never the solutionLurnie explains with an example on different data and helps you on with a question to think about. That way you find the solution yourself, and it sticks.
- Your conversations are keptRead back later what Lurnie explained. Your conversations stay with your account, course by course.
Lurnie comes with premium, with 30 questions a day.See premium
Why does my formula go wrong when I drag it down?
Excel moves your references along. If E2 holds =C2*D2, E3 gets =C3*D3. Handy, until one cell has to stay put, like a VAT rate in H1: one row down that becomes H2, which is empty.
So put a $ before whatever mustn't move: $H$1 points to the same cell in every copy. Which cell has to stay put in your formula?
29 of 30 questions left todayLurnie can make mistakes.
Frequently asked questions
How quickly will I be back up to speed?
A lesson takes a few minutes. If you knew the basics before, you'll have the main topics down again in a few evenings.
Which version of Excel do I learn?
Microsoft 365 and Excel 2021 or newer. Where older versions or Google Sheets work differently, the lessons say so.
Can I skip lessons?
Yes. Every topic has a page of its own with an explanation and an exercise, and you can open any free lesson straight away.
Is it free?
The first three modules are free, without an account. The modules after that are premium.
Start wherever you like
Pick a topic, or start at the first formula and carry on at your own pace.
Start free with the first lesson