Optional: Fluffy Spreadsheet Model-Building Competition

I want to encourage you to practice, practice, and practice the skills associated with this class. Becoming really comfortable with using a computer has many advantages:

• In good jobs; that is, one's where you are given real responsibility and are paid for completing work rather than putting in hours ... the faster you complete the work, the sooner you can play.
• When giving the necessary commands becomes second nature, you can devote more attention to producing high-quality, reliable work.
• Pride.

So I want to sponsor a competition to see who can most quickly complete the Fluffy Spreadsheet portion of the practice version of the Prerequisite Exam. This includes formatting the Fluffy.xls worksheet and building appropriate formulas, but it does not include building the chart.

Winners during Spring term, 2004 include:

• Andrew Stewart submitted this 4 minute and 2 second Fluffy Spreadsheet competition entry.
• Jessica Napier submitted this 4 minute and 58 second Fluffy Spreadsheet competition entry.
• Brian Collins submitted this 4 minute and 47 second Fluffy Spreadsheet competition entry.
• Duc Phan submitted this 3 minute and 36 second Fluffy Spreadsheet competition entry.
• Kelsie Gatke submitted this 4 minute and 50 second Fluffy Spreadsheet competition entry.
• Ryan Martin submitted this 5 minutes and 50 second Fluffy Spreadsheet Competition entry.
• Mark Scrichfield submitted this 5 minutes and 30 second Fluffy Spreadsheet Competition entry.
• Jamie Fuller submitted this 4 minute and 55 second Fluffy Spreadsheet Competition entry.

Winners during Winter term, 2005 include:

• Richard Rich, 2 minutes, 55 seconds
• Jonathan Green, 3 minutes, 3 seconds
• Sarah Nelson, 3 minutes, 7 seconds
• Kristina Tolstad, 3 minutes, 20 seconds
• Rian Berg, 3 minutes, 33 seconds.
• Scott Wiegal, 3 minutes, 40 seconds
• Wade Reese, 3 minutes, 45 seconds
• Brandon McMullen, 4 minutes, 4 seconds
• Joseph Gardner, 4 minutes, 31 seconds
• Nathan Walker, 4 minutes, 48 seconds
• Ryan Stillwell, 4 minutes, 53 seconds
• Tim Erb, 5 minutes, 18 seconds
• David Tura, 5 minutes, 23 seconds
• Ryan Snell, 5 minutes, 23 seconds
• Aharon La Grander, 5 minutes, 40 seconds
• Amanda Stampke, 5 minutes, 42 seconds
• Matthew Daiker, 5 minutes, 56 seconds
• Zach Worth, 5 minutes, 57 seconds

Winners during Spring term, 2005 include:

• Bryan Jordan completed the task in 2:29 seconds.
• Jonathan Lund completed the task in 2:29 seconds.
• Dustin Mote completed the task in 3:06 seconds.
• Tonya Barrett completed the task in 3:39 seconds.
• Brandon Mc Mullen completed the task in 3:41 seconds.
• Brian Westerberg completed the task in 3:57 seconds.
• Betsy Starr completed the task in 4:01 seconds.
• Ashlee Clair completed the task in 4:09 seconds.
• Jennifer Landis completed the task in 4:38 seconds.
• Lisa Schindler completed the task in 5:38 seconds.
• David Roberts completed the task in 4:32 seconds.
• Mary Sampson completed the task in 4:48 seconds.
• Joe Flagger completed the task in 4:51 seconds.
• Stephanie Reckard completed the task in 5:15 seconds.
• Jia Liu completed the task in 5:31 seconds.
• Matthew Crowe completed the task in 5:29 seconds.
• Kyle Jeffers completed the task in 5:38 seconds.

Rules:

• You must record your work in a file named Fluffy.wmv; that is, a Windows Media Video file. This will let us play back the video to see what you did to  complete the Fluffy model.
• Use Microsoft Producer to record the Fluffy.wmv file.
  • Begin by opening Microsoft Producer and ask to "Start a new blank project".
  • Give a Tools-Capture command and ask to capture a Video Screen Capture with Audio. We don't care about the audio portion of your video, so you don't have to talk during the recording session.
  • Fill out the Capture Wizard dialog box as shown to the below.
    
    Thus, you should:
    • Minimize while capturing
    • Mute speakers
    • Set the Target Audience Connection to: "Corporate LAN connection at 300 kbps"
    • Set the Video Display Size to "Large - 800 x 600"
    • Open Excel and adjust its borders to fit within the 800 by 600 pixel outline.
    • Open the unformatted Fluffy.xls spreadsheet.
    • Click on the Capture button and begin formatting and building formulas as rapidly as you can.
  • When you have finished building the Fluffy.xls spreadsheet model, return to Microsoft Producer and save your video as Fluffy.wmv.
  • Store your Fluffy.wmv video in your public folder on drive P, as in P:/public/fluffy.wmv.
  • Send an email message to David Sullivan.
    • The message's subject line should say, "BA271, Fluffy Competition Entry"
    • The body of the message must say how long it took you to complete the model; that is, how long is your video.
  • Your entry must be submitted before 5 p.m. on Friday, October 8th.
  • If your final Fluffy model contains a logical error ... or if your model is not formatted correctly, your entry will be disqualified.
  • Winning entries will be posted on the class website so other students can see what techniques you used.
  • The decision of the judges will be final.

Scoring:

• An entry with a logical error or formatting mistakes earns no points.
• Entries less than 6 minutes in length will earn 10 points.
• The fastest three entries will earn 20 points.

Sample Video

To show you what your video should look like, I've recorded the following sample video. 7 minutes, 37 seconds Windows Media Video

Two final thoughts:

1. While this is an optional activity, everyone should learn to build a well-formatted, logically-correct spreadsheet model in less than 6 minutes. As you practice this activity, your times will come down, and you will be learning useful shortcuts that will help you complete every computing task more quickly.
2. Don't become overly confident about your abilities because you can work quickly. Several people who were winners in last term's spreadsheet competition failed to build a correctly working spreadsheet model during the Prerequisite Exam. My guess is they become so comfortable whipping out formulas that they forgot to take the time to carefully check their work for logical correctness. As a result, the bonus points they earned on the spreadsheet competition were lost on their errors during the Prerequisite Exam.

  -- Dave Sullivan

This website was created and is maintained by Dave Sullivan.
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