Stop googling the same formulas

Basic Training is a free Google Sheets course that lives inside a Google Sheet. You type the formula yourself. The Sheet grades it the moment you press Enter, and a wrong answer tells you what you missed.

7 lessons. 19 graded exercises. About 40 minutes. Google Sheets only.

Watching is not practice

You can total a column. You have used a lookup formula, mostly by copying one that worked last time. When it breaks you google it, paste something in, and hope.

That is not a knowledge problem. It is a reps problem. You have read about these formulas plenty. You have just never had to write them with something checking your work.

I kept watching people finish a two hour video course, open a blank spreadsheet, and freeze. Recognition is not skill. So I built the training inside the tool itself.

You type it

Real formulas, on real data, in a real spreadsheet. Nothing to install and no video to sit through first.

It grades you

Press Enter and the check fires instantly. Green means you got it, and your progress bar moves.

Wrong gets a reason

Not a red X. A line naming what you missed, like a range that needed locking. A hint sits behind a checkbox whenever you want one.

The 7 lessons

Each one ends with graded exercises. The last one pulls all seven together into a monthly budget you build yourself.

1. Cell references. Point one cell at another and watch it update itself.
2. Math operators. Add, subtract, multiply and divide without reaching for a calculator.
3. SUM, AVERAGE and MAX. Your first real functions, and how ranges work.
4. The fill handle. Write a formula once and drag it down a whole column.
5. Absolute references. The dollar signs, and why formulas break without them.
6. Your first IF. Make the spreadsheet make a decision.
7. COUNTIF and SUMIF. Count and total only the rows that match a condition.

Finish all 19 and a certificate unlocks with your name on it.

Start here if

• You use Google Sheets at work and keep googling the same formulas
• You have watched Sheets videos and still freeze on a blank grid
• You want to find out whether being graded as you type suits you

Skip it if

• You already write lookups and QUERY without looking them up
• You work in Excel and are not moving to Sheets. The grading only runs in Google Sheets
• You want to learn by watching. Progress here only comes from typing

How you get it

1. Put your email in the box. I send you a confirmation email straight away.
2. Press the confirm button in that email. Google then offers to drop your own copy into your Drive.
3. Start on the Start Here tab. The copy is yours, it saves as you go, and nobody else can see it.

Check spam and Promotions if it does not land within a minute. It is the first email I have ever sent you, so it has no history to go on.

Get your first green check today

It is free, it takes about forty minutes, and it will tell you within ten whether this way of learning works for your brain.