PMBA 8040

Assignment 1

Excel Exercises

1. Use the Sales Data for Pivot.

a. Create a pivot table to analyze the Total Amount by State and by Product simultaneously.

b. Create another pivot table to analyze the Total Amount by Date and by Product simultaneously.

2. In a blank worksheet, enter 10 names of fictitious students. Create six column headings for the following: Assignment 1, Assignment 2, Test 1, Test 2, Test 3 and Final Exam. For each student, enter grades arbitrarily for each of the assignments and tests and exam between 60 and 100 points (you are simulating the grades for 10 students on the various activities).

a) Compute the course average for each student, assuming each assignment is worth 10%, each test is worth 15%, and the final exam is worth 35%. Use appropriate formula in Excel to do so.

b) Compute the letter grade for each student, assuming 90+ = A, 80+=B, 70+=C, 60+=D and under 60 = F. Again, make sure to use appropriate formula in Excel that will do so automatically for each student.

c) You wish to remove the lowest test grade and substitute the final exam grade in its place for each student. In other words, the final exam now counts 50%, and the two best test scores are worth 15% each as before. However, the substitution of the final will be done only if the final exam score is larger than the lowest test grade. Figure out how to do this in Excel with formulas and implement it to compute the average with substitution where appropriate. Show revised letter grade in another column.

Decision Making Biases

3. Explain briefly what Anchoring, Framing, and Confirming Evidence biases mean, with an example of each. For any one of these, explain how one might go about overcoming it.