BIDA Docs

    Chapter 2 exercise: The Top-20 Vehicles Challenge

    Practise the Chapter 2 formulas on a table of the 20 best-selling vehicles (2021 vs 2020 unit sales).

    Thursday 8 October 2026: blended class

    This is your attendance

    There is no face-to-face class on 8 October. Do this exercise on UUM Online Learning during your own class hours:

    • Group C 10:00 – 11:20 AM
    • Group D 2:30 – 3:50 PM

    You get one submission only. Submitting within your class hours counts as your attendance.

    What you do

    1. Download the Top-20 Vehicles workbook from the task on UUM Online Learning.
    2. Calculate the growth from 2020 to 2021 for each vehicle.
    3. Use IF to label each vehicle GROWTH or DECLINE.
    4. Use VLOOKUP / HLOOKUP to look up values from the table.
    5. Answer the written questions in the workbook.
    6. Save as .xlsx and submit on UUM OL.

    Common errors

    Quotes

    Excel only recognises the straight double quote " as the start and end of text.

    You typedExcel thinks it isResult
    "GROWTH"Text✅ GROWTH
    'GROWTH'A broken sheet-name reference❌ "There's a problem with this formula"
    “GROWTH”An unknown name❌ #NAME?
    =IF(D2>=0,"GROWTH","DECLINE")
    • Single quotes '...' are used in formulas only around sheet names with spaces, e.g. ='Sales 2021'!B2. Around text they make no sense, so Excel rejects the formula.
    • Curly "smart" quotes “...” sneak in when you copy from Word, WhatsApp or a phone keyboard. Excel reads them as a name it doesn't know, so it shows #NAME?.

    Fix: type formulas directly in Excel. If you pasted one and get #NAME?, retype every quote mark inside Excel.

    Thousands commas

    Write 250000, not 250,000. Inside a formula a comma separates arguments, so 250,000 becomes two values.

    $ locking

    When you fill a formula down, an unlocked range moves with it (B2:B21 becomes B3:B22…). Lock the lookup table with $: $B$2:$B$21, or press F4 after selecting the range.