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Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel 2022

This Excel 2022 for Data Analysis: Beginners training covers how to take huge amounts of data or big confusing spreadsheets and use Excel to extract meaningful information that helps make better business decisions.

Jonathan BarriosData Science, Machine Learning & AI

Updated April 2023

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5Skills
34Videos
5hTotal

Who This Course Is For

This Excel 2022 for Data Analysis: Beginners training is considered foundational-level data analysis training, which means it was designed for technical and non-technical professionals. This Excel skills course is valuable for new IT professionals with at least a year of experience with data analysis tools and experienced technical and non-technical professionals looking to validate their data analysis skills.

Skills Your Team Will Gain

  • Finding your way around spreadsheets
  • Reading, writing, and updating formulas in Excel
  • Using the power of Excel to do the heavy lifting of analysis for you

Course Curriculum

One skill is free to watch — no signup needed. The other 4 premium skills unlock for your whole team with a CBT Nuggets plan.

Free skill preview

Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Analyze Data with Excel

Jonathan BarriosDuration: 45m13 videos

Watch this complete skill free — the same trainer, videos, and labs your team gets with a plan.

Watch free skill
  • Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Analyze Data with ExcelFree45m · 13 videos
  • Premium skill.Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Manipulate Data with Excel53m · 15 videos
  • Premium skill.Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Identify Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis57m · 15 videos
  • Premium skill.Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Apply Descriptive Statistics1h 12m · 15 videos
  • Premium skill.Foundational Statistics for Data Analysis with Excel: Apply Inferential Statistics1h 4m · 15 videos
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Every plan includes this course plus the full library, virtual labs, and practice exams — or talk it through with sales.

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For IT leaders

What IT leaders need to know before assigning this course

Organizations often rely on large, confusing spreadsheets for operational decisions, but inconsistent Excel analysis can create reporting risk and slow decision-making. IT Directors and Training Managers can assign this foundational statistics course to technical and non-technical teams that work with data in Excel, including IT Practitioners, analysts, operations staff, and managers who need a shared baseline for interpreting data.

The course is a realistic upskilling commitment: about 4 hours, 51 minutes per learner, covering Excel-based data analysis, data manipulation, foundational statistics, descriptive statistics, and inferential statistics. It is not positioned as a compliance course, but it can support governance by helping teams use more consistent statistical language and spreadsheet practices. For change management, Team Leads should pair the training with internal reporting standards and example datasets from the business.

CBT Nuggets Playlists can help sequence this training into a broader data-skills path, and Team Reporting helps managers track completion across assigned learners.

Team Impact

How this training helps your team succeed

IT teams complete this training to make Excel-based reporting more consistent and decision-ready across departments. The course focuses on turning large spreadsheets into meaningful information, then applying foundational, descriptive, and inferential statistics in Excel.

  • Improve spreadsheet-driven decisions: Teams can move from raw or confusing data toward summaries that support business decisions.
  • Create a shared data vocabulary: Technical and non-technical staff align on foundational statistics used in day-to-day analysis.
  • Reduce reporting inconsistency: Learners practice analyzing and manipulating data in Excel instead of relying on ad hoc spreadsheet habits.
  • Support cross-functional workflows: IT Practitioners, analysts, and operations teams can better communicate findings from Excel-based data sets.

After completion

Capabilities your team walks away with

Knowledge

  • How Excel can be used to analyze business data and extract meaningful information
  • Core concepts behind foundational statistics for data analysis
  • The role of descriptive statistics in summarizing data sets
  • The role of inferential statistics in drawing conclusions from data
  • How data manipulation supports clearer analysis in Excel

Ability

  • Analyze data in Excel for business reporting and decision support
  • Manipulate spreadsheet data so it is easier to interpret
  • Apply descriptive statistics to summarize patterns in data
  • Apply inferential statistics concepts within an Excel-based workflow
  • Communicate data findings using a more consistent statistical foundation

Readiness check

Confirm prerequisite knowledge before training begins

A short placement assessment on the CBT Nuggets assessments platform measures whether a learner already has the foundation this course assumes. IT Directors use it to put the right people in the right training — and any learner can take it right now to make sure they'll get full value from day one.

  • Questions generated from this course's own video transcripts — what gets measured is exactly what gets taught
  • Instant, per-learner results that show whether the prerequisite foundation is in place
  • Results roll up into team readiness reporting, so training hours go where they change outcomes
Take the placement assessmentHow assessments work
Runs on assessments.cbtnuggets.com — sign in with an Adept account so results roll up into team readiness reporting. Need one?
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If gaps show up, start here

CompTIA Data+ (DA0-002)

This CompTIA Data+ certification training is a perfect data analyst course for beginners. With unlimited practice exams included, this course helps you build skills in organizing information, spotting patterns, and turning data into strategic insight...

~21h

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is it worth it for data analysis beginners to take a whole class in Excel?

Absolutely yes. Whether you're brand new to data analysis or you're a seasoned professional, mastering Excel 2022 won't just teach you important concepts of data analysis, it'll also show you how versatile and powerful the Microsoft product is. Learning how to organize and visualize data – and how to do it in Excel – will open doors to job opportunities as well as improve your data-driven decision-making skills. Excel is arguably the most universal data analysis tool and everyone can know how to use it better.

How much does a Microsoft certification in Excel cost?

Microsoft offers many different certifications related to Excel, and the vast majority of them cost $100. Microsoft maintains the Microsoft Office Specialist: Office 2016 line of certifications for proving mastery of the 2016 version of the software that's common in many enterprise networks. There are also MOS certs for the Microsoft 365 Apps version of Excel. The only MOS cert that costs more than $100 is the MOS: Expert (Microsoft 365 Apps) which has two $100 exams.

Are Microsoft Excel certification exams difficult?

No, although everyone experiences tests differently, generally speaking the Microsoft Excel certification exams aren't especially difficult. They are, however, very particular. In other words, Microsoft doesn't want someone who doesn't have extensive familiarity with the Microsoft Office product itself but is otherwise "pretty good with spreadsheets" to be able to earn their cert. That means the tests can be difficult as they try to make sure you've got a level of competence with Excel itself.

Do Microsoft certifications for Excel expire?

No, none of the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) certifications expire. At the time of this writing, there are 24 active Microsoft Office Specialist certifications, relating to different versions (Office 2013, Office 2016, Microsoft 365 Apps, etc.) of different Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, OneNote, etc.). Although every other specialty and role-based certification from Microsoft expires after one year, once you earn any MOS certification, it's active and valid for life.

How to study for Microsoft Office Specialist certifications?

Studying for Microsoft Office certifications can often be challenging not because of the technical detail or the level of difficulty of the material itself, but because it can be so easy to avoid sticking with the course and so hard to finish in a timely manner. If you can find a course that helps you stay accountable to your study goals – either through accountability coaches or an actually engaging presentation style – your chances of finishing quickly and earning your certification go way up.

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