Excel Practice Sheets

Excel for consultants

Consultants build models fast, on someone else's messy data, and then have to defend the numbers in front of the client.

What the job actually asks for

The data arrives in whatever shape the client's system produced. The work is structuring it quickly, building a model with visible drivers, and sanity-checking output before it reaches a slide — because a wrong number in front of a client is expensive.

The recurring tasks

  • Clean and structure a client's export
  • Build scenario models with clear drivers
  • Produce summary tables for a deck
  • Sanity-check figures before they reach a client

Where people get caught

Burying assumptions inside formulas. A growth rate typed into the middle of a calculation cannot be changed in a meeting, which is exactly when someone asks what happens at eight percent instead of five.

What interviews test

Structuring a messy export quickly, building a model with clearly separated inputs, and explaining how you check your own work.

Practice built from consultant work

5 exercises using the situations above, ordered from most approachable to hardest.

Other roles