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Britain's 15-year-old Excel champion

By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 5 Aug 2011 at 17:19

Many people spend too many hours in front of a spreadsheet, but only one gets to claim to be this year's Excel champion - and she's a 15-year-old from Cambridgeshire.

Rebecca Rickwood has won a global competition to find the best student user of Excel, with her perfect score earning her a $5,000 prize at the contest in San Diego, California.

Prodigy Learning, which runs the UK arm of the contest, praised Rickwood's skills, noting she beat 228,000 students - despite being one of the youngest competitors.

We spoke to Rickwood after she arrived back in the UK to find out more.

Q. How did you end up in an Excel competition?

A. At the beginning of the school year, I was asked by my school and Pam Kitchen - who works with Prodigy in the UK and runs a Microsoft Academy [at the school] - if I wanted to do the Microsoft Specialist Office Exams.

We did the training for them once a week after school, a group of 30 of us, and we could take the exams as and when we were ready for them.

When I took the Excel exam, there was a page that came up that asked if you wanted to enter into the worldwide competition. I clicked yes, but didn’t really think about it, and then at the end of June I got a call saying I got the best score and the best time in the UK and I was going to San Diego to compete in the championships.

I wouldn’t see it as a hobby, but I do quite enjoy using the software, and finding out all the different things you can do with it

Q. How did you get so proficient in Excel?

A. We used software to practise for it in school, which takes you through all the different skills you need for the exam. I did quite a bit of training on that.

Q. What skills were you tested on?

A. A lot of stuff: formulas, conditional formatting, data validation, importing data from databases. It’s all the more advanced features of Excel, not the kind of stuff you’d use every day.

On the screen, it opens Microsoft Excel, a workbook, and along the bottom of the screen there’s instructions telling you to enter a formula, or enter a formula that will do this, and restrict the data so it’s only one part of it. We get 50 minutes to do about 20 questions.

It’s scored on percentage you get right, and then if there’s a tie on the score they go to speeds. I got 100% in my qualifying exam and in the championship exam.

You must have spent a lot of time training - hopefully you enjoy using Excel?

A. I wouldn’t see it as a hobby, but I do quite enjoy using the software, and finding out all the different things you can do with it – the actual potential of the software. Without having done this, I wouldn’t have known half of all the things you can actually do with Excel.

Were there any skills you found hard to master at first?

A. Some of the bits around importing data from other sources, that was a bit confusing, and using XML maps took a while to get my head around.

Q. What plans do you have for the future?

A. I’d quite like to go to university and study maths or computing – but I’m only 15 so I’m not entirely sure yet.

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User comments

Excel Champion?

Knowing how to use a toolset is one thing; being able to apply it in practise is another. Just because you're good at hammering nails into wood doesn't mean you can build an ark.

Love
Zorba Eisenhower

By bygwyg on 11 Aug 2011

Poor IT education

If this school is a state school then it is outrageous that a large corporation (Microsoft) should be allowed, and encouraged, to peddle its wares in this manner. This is how Microsoft has gained and maintained its stranglehold over our Education System, from Primary School to University, and then beyond into the Workplace. Children are taught from an early age to use Microsoft products rather than learning about *real* IT hardware, software and systems.

By 6tricky9 on 12 Aug 2011

Congratulations

Regardless of what the niggardly naysayers might thing this young lady deserves our heartiest congratulations. She is continuing a tradition started by Ada Lovelace and Grace Hopper.

And, as for children learning about "real hardware ..." I understand IBM has a programme to teach System Z which we all know runs 95% of the business of the world's top 1000 companies even though I assume 6trick9 probably means its baby cousins Unix and Linux.

By frompfj on 12 Aug 2011

Congratulations

By frompfj on 12 Aug 2011

Congratulations

Well done Rebecca, Britain should be very proud of your achievement.

Please ignore these old people and their partisan obsessions. All software is a tool, your proficiency with your current tool is outstanding.

By cliffxdavis on 18 Aug 2011

Not all software is equal

@cliffxdavis: Yes, "all software is a tool", but not all tools are equal. Nobody ever owns proprietary software; it is used under a restrictive licence with the proprietor being in complete control at all times. In the case of Excel, Microsoft determines what the user can, and cannot, do with the program. Using a free alternative, like LibreOffice or OpenOffice, the user decides how he or she will use, copy, change, or share the program. This free and open approach is what we should be teaching in schools.

My criticism was not of Rebecca Rickwood, but of our Education System for allowing and promoting the use of a restrictive piece of proprietary software.

By 6tricky9 on 25 Aug 2011