Next up in our series of the Top 10 topics that you should know inside and out for the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest regional and state meets is….APPEND & DELETE QUERIES!  This list of 10 topics is focused more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it does on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  To date, the top 5 that we’ve covered have been:

1. IF Statements, Nest IF Statements, COUNTIF, SUMIF in Excel

2. Dates & Times in Excel

3. Select Queries in Access

4. Pivot Tables in Excel

5. VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP formulas in Excel

6. Update Queries in Access

The append and delete queries are frequently tested on the Access portion of regional and state Computer Applications tests. It’s helpful to think of these two types of queries as “opposites.” An Append query allows you to append (tack on) additional records to an existing table. A delete query allows you to delete records (that meet your stipulated criteria) from an existing table.

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Next up in our series of the Top 10 topics that you should know inside and out for the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest regional and state meets is….UPDATE QUERIES!  This list of 10 topics is focused more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it does on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  To date, the top 5 that we’ve covered have been:

1. IF Statements, Nest IF Statements, COUNTIF, SUMIF in Excel

2. Dates & Times in Excel

3. Select Queries in Access

4. Pivot Tables in Excel

5. VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP formulas in Excel

The update query is one of the most frequently tested query types on the Access portion of regional and state Computer Applications tests. Update queries allow you to update different fields in one or more different Access tables. Update queries offer some of the same features that many types of Access queries sport: ability to stipulate criteria, option to use the expression builder such that fields can be updated with the outcome of an input calculation, etc.

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This year, we’re putting together a set of topics that coaches & competitors in the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest should know in order to be competitive at state and regional levels.  These 10 topics will focus more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it will on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  We covered the first item a while back in our blog post on IF statements…and conditional IF statements, SUMIF, COUNTIF, etc.  The second blog post introduced the second item: Using Times and Dates in Excel.   The third item was covered in our blog on using pivot tables in Microsoft Excel. Number four looked at Select Queries & Query Basics in Access. In this fifth installment, we’ll be looking at VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP formulas in Excel

VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP are “lookup” formulas in Excel that enable you to easily pull in data across different flat data sets. While VLOOKUP is more commonly used, both are frequently used to pull in data from one worksheet or workbook to another based upon a primary key that is common across the two data sets. For example, if you have a set of order information (date, quantity, product, revenue, customer ID) that includes a customer ID in it on one worksheet tab and a set of customer information in another tab that includes the same customer ID (along with customer name, email, address and phone number), you can use a lookup formula to pull in the customer name to the order information table (by finding the customer ID in the customer table and pulling in the customer name associated with that ID). The lookup formula in Excel thus allows you to compare flat files and pull data into a worksheet from a separate data file provided there is some unique field shared by the two data sets. In essence, it allows you to structure a select query in Excel.

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Are you getting ready for your school spelling bee and don’t know where to start?  First you need the Scripps’ National Spelling Bee study list separated by grade level from 1^st to 8^th grade.  Each student should be given a copy of the full Scripps’ Graded spelling list and this link to the downloadable list with additional words on our website: 

http://www.hexco.com/content/National_Spelling_Bee_2011_word%20list.pdf

How to study:

- Study all of the words from the Scripps’ Graded List in your grade level.
- Study all of the words in the grade levels before your own grade level.
- Study past your grade level until you have learned all the words on the Graded spelling list that you can possibly remember.

Funny thing about school spelling bees: You can be given a word from any grade level.  Don’t worry, schools generally start out with the first grade words and work their way up to the higher grade words so that everyone gets a chance to field a word before it gets more challenging.  There is only one winner who gets to move on to the San Antonio regional bee, and from there, that student will have a chance to go to the National Spelling Bee, but the fun part is seeing how long you can stay in the game based on how many words you have learned and can remember.

Relax and have fun! Spelling out loud with everyone staring at you can be a little bit stressful at first, but in spelling bees, everyone is generally rooting for each other and everyone in the audience wants you to do your best.  Take a deep breath, don’t rush, and above all, make sure you repeat the word before you spell it and look at the judges to make sure you heard it correctly.  For instance, if the word is “cub,” and you heard “cup” and you did not take the time to repeat the word, you’ll probably go out on a word that you actually knew! The judges’ job is to make sure you heard the word correctly.  When you repeat it, they will acknowledge that you heard the word correctly.

What you can ask when you get your word:

- “May I have the definition?”
- “Will you use it in a sentence?”
- “May I have the language of origin?”

 Beware of easily confused words: Some words can be spelled two or more different ways! This is where it is important to ask for the definition and/or the word in a sentence.  Here are some examples.

- to, too, two
- bare, bear
- write, right
- sight, site

 For the convenience of our spellers, we keep the annual spelling list on our Downloads & Brochures page on our website so you can get access to it any time of the year.  Click here to download the full 2011-2012 spelling list from the Hexco website.  In the rare case that a school uses all of the words on the Scripps’ Graded list, and they actually run out of words when they get to the 8^th grade words, they generally will use words from the Scripps’ Spell It! list included in our downloadable version on our website.

Last year we had excellent participation when we hosted a local school spelling bee, and everyone showed good spelling spirit for their peers with the last two standing breaking off with a high-five.  It’s all about challenging yourself and doing your best. If you are a teacher, students, or parent and would like to contact us regarding rules, words, etc. just call or email us and we will be happy to answer any questions! 

View clip of a real spelling bee!

 Good luck and good spelling!

By popular demand, we’ve decided to put together a set of topics that coaches & competitors in the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest should know in order to be competitive at state and regional levels.  This list of 10 topics will focus more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it will on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  We covered the first item a while back in our blog post on IF statements…and conditional IF statements, SUMIF, COUNTIF, etc.  The second blog post introduced the second item: Using Times and Dates in Excel.   Our third post was on Select Queries and Query Basics in Access.  The fourth item will keep us in Excel but turn our attention to pivot tables.

Pivot tables in Excel are similar to Crosstab queries in Access in many ways.  They are definitely one of the most powerful features of Microsoft Excel.  They allow you to cut, filter, manipulate and display summarized information based off of a stipulated data set.

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By popular demand, we’ve decided to put together a set of topics that coaches & competitors in the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest should know in order to be competitive at state and regional levels.  This list of 10 topics will focus more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it will on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  We covered the first item a while back in our blog post on IF statements…and conditional IF statements, SUMIF, COUNTIF, etc.  The second blog post introduced the second item: Using Times and Dates in Excel.  This time, we’re turning our attention to Access for #4: Select Queries & Query Basics.

The select query is the most basic of queries that you’ll use in Access. Select queries allow you to select different fields from one or more different Access tables in order to combine data from different flat data sets. Select queries also offer some of the same features that many types of Access queries sport: ability to filter on different fields (based upon field value or any stipulated criteria), ability to hide/show included output fields in output date, ability to sort output table by any of the included columns, use of ‘Group By’, etc.

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Well, we have finally finished the Social Studies Notes for The Penguin History of Latin America by Edwin Williamson.   This is definately the most comprehensive subject tackled by Larry McCarty so far.  It seems to me that there could be several ways to approach the subject, by chapter of course, or by country, or by topic (politics, economy, natives, etc).  Does anyone have any ideas they would like to share?

The arrival into nationhood of many of these countries involved civil war, but I had not realized the extent, especially in Mexico.  Between the civil wars of the early 20th C and the drug wars at the end of the 20th C  and into the 21st C, Mexico really has been rather unstable for a long period of time.  It is a precarious position to be in.  What are your thoughts for the future?

Shannon

By popular demand, we’ve decided to put together a set of topics that coaches & competitors in the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest should know in order to be competitive at state and regional levels.  This list of 10 topics will focus more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it will on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  We covered the first item a while back in our blog post on IF statements…and conditional IF statements, SUMIF, COUNTIF, etc.  This blog post introduces the second item: Times and Dates in Excel.

Times and dates in Excel work the same way that they do in Access (with some minor differences – e.g. dates are set off by pound signs in Access formulas whereas they’re set off by quotes in Excel formulas).  To understand them, the key is grasping that every time and date (and time/date combination) is saved as a number in Excel (or Access).

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          Every year, we receive numerous phone calls and emails asking what we think of the annual changes (or lack of changes) in the official National Spelling Bee study lists. Often, the questions hinge on whether the changes instituted are fair, whether students are still being challenged enough, how much of the contest relies on luck of the draw, and whether the contest itself rewards hard work. With the 2011-2012 word list from Scripps’ just released, we found that the entire graded list was changed from last year. To the disenchantment of spellers who embrace the challenge of being introduced to new words, the Spell It! list was unchanged. While it is interesting to discuss possible advantages and outcomes, there are no guarantees when it comes to spelling in contests. Sometimes, no matter how hard you work, luck of the draw can wipe even the most phenomenal speller out of the game. The goal is to have fun and reduce the odds of early elimination by learning not only the words selected by Scripps’, but as many off-list words as your noggin can handle!
          With plenty of words at our fingertips as well as few in the vault, it was a toss-up this year as to whether to add more off-list words in this year’s Spelling Mentor and Valerie’s Supplement, but the verdict is in, and we decided to change out only 20% of the words that we add to the school/classroom list. Thus, this year, for class and school bees, students who learned all the words last year will have to learn 450 new words from the graded list provided by Scripps’ and only 125 words from the extra words added by Hexco for class and school bees. Our goal is to release our annual spelling products to the public by the end of September, 2011 so you can have them to study at the beginning of the school year.
          Which spellers will have the advantage in 2012? That depends on how you look at it. Kids who studied the same list last year may already know many of the words and thus may have an advantage over kids who are studying the same word list for the first time. However, having a higher number of kids knowing all the words can definitely make the competition tighter and inevitably will force winners to be determined by more off-list words.
          So if this year’s contest success depends on finding more words to study (given you have already mastered the ones on the 2011 Graded and Spell It! lists), Hexco offers a plethora of products with off-list words. Hexco’s Verbomania, which has 13,000 vocabulary enriching words is a great choice for expanding your spelling foundation and improving vocabulary. New Nat’s Notes with 18,000 words has performed well at the higher reaches of the National Bee. Verbomania is currently available in our software format as VerboMentor, and half of New Nat’s Notes is available in software format as New Nat’s Mentor, and the remainder should be complete by year end. These are also available in our Flips format through our website. We have the 1999 and 2006 Paideia word lists available in old Valerie’s Supplements, classic Spelling Mentors, and Flips format. Other customer favorites are the Spelling Rules Book and our etymology products. Review Linda’s Study Plan on our website, if you don’t know where to start!

By popular demand, we’ve decided to put together a set of topics that coaches & competitors in the Texas High School UIL Computer Applications contest should know in order to be competitive at state and regional levels.  This list of 10 topics will focus more on advanced formulas and applications of the programs than it will on basics (e.g. basic math formulas in Excel, letter formats and other Word templates, etc).  Thus, we’re starting with something that might qualify as relatively basic (IF statements), but rest assured that IF statements can get pretty complex pretty quickly when nested. For each of the topics in this list, we’ll refer you to some videos that we’ve pulled together to comprehensively explain the technique, formula or concept. IF statements (including standard IF statements, nest IF statements, COUNTIFs and SUMIFs) are covered in a series of 4 videos on IF statements that you can find here. While the full series is available for purchase, individual videos (easily accessible through the previews embedded below) are also available for purchase.

IF statements are basically formulas in Excel (related to IIF formulas in Access) that are structure to return one of two things depending upon whether a provided criteria is met or not.  There are three different parts to an if statement: IF(decision criteria, value if true, value if false).  Thus, let’s think of an if statement that is designed to return “>50″ if a cell value of A2 is greater than 50 and “<=50″ if it is not.  An if statement to accomplish this would have the following parts:

*  Decision Criteria: A2>50
*  Value if True: “>50″
*  Value if False: “<=50)
Putting these elements together, we end up with:  IF(A2>50, “>50″, “<=50″).
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