WALL STREET PREP EXCEL CRASH COURSE
RETAKE EXAM 2026 – VERIFIED ANSWER KEY
WITH STEP-BY-STEP SOLUTIONS | A+ SCORE |
COMPLETE REVIEW GUIDE
• This is a comprehensive question practice exam covering all core Excel topics
tested in the Wall Street Prep Excel Crash Course — use it to drill every concept,
identify weak areas, and reinforce answers using the EXPERT RATIONALE provided
under each correct option. • Each question features 5 options (A–E), a clearly
marked CORRECT ANSWER, and a concise EXPERT RATIONALE — ideal for active
recall, timed practice sessions, or final review before your retake.
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Q1. What is the keyboard shortcut to open a new workbook in Excel?
A. Ctrl + O
B. Ctrl + W
C. Ctrl + N
D. Ctrl + S
E. Ctrl + F
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Ctrl + N
EXPERT RATIONALE: Ctrl + N creates a brand-new blank workbook. Ctrl + O
opens an existing file, Ctrl + W closes the current workbook, and Ctrl + S saves.
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Q2. Which function returns the largest value in a range?
A. LARGE()
B. MAX()
C. TOP()
D. HIGH()
E. CEILING()
, CORRECT ANSWER: B. MAX()
EXPERT RATIONALE: MAX() returns the largest numeric value in a specified
range. LARGE() also retrieves large values but requires a rank argument (e.g., 1st,
2nd largest).
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Q3. Which shortcut selects an entire column in Excel?
A. Ctrl + Shift + End
B. Shift + Space
C. Ctrl + Space
D. Alt + Space
E. Ctrl + Shift + Space
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Ctrl + Space
EXPERT RATIONALE: Ctrl + Space selects the entire column of the active cell.
Shift + Space selects the entire row.
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━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q4. What does the F4 key do when editing a cell reference in a formula?
A. Deletes the cell reference
B. Copies the formula down
C. Toggles between absolute, mixed, and relative references
D. Opens the Format Cells dialog
E. Repeats the last action only
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Toggles between absolute, mixed, and relative
references
, EXPERT RATIONALE: Pressing F4 cycles a reference through $A$1 → A$1 → $A1
→ A1, allowing you to lock rows, columns, or both quickly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Q5. In Excel, what does a dollar sign ($) in a cell reference indicate?
A. The cell contains a currency value
B. The reference is locked (absolute) and will not change when copied
C. The formula will only work with dollar amounts
D. The cell is protected
E. The reference will adjust automatically when copied
CORRECT ANSWER: B. The reference is locked (absolute) and will not change
when copied
EXPERT RATIONALE: A $ before the column letter locks the column; before the
row number locks the row. Both together ($A$1) make the reference fully absolute.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Q6. Which formula correctly calculates the sum of cells A1 through A10?
A. =ADD(A1,A10)
B. =TOTAL(A1:A10)
C. =SUM(A1:A10)
D. =PLUS(A1,A10)
E. =SUMRANGE(A1,A10)
CORRECT ANSWER: C. =SUM(A1:A10)
EXPERT RATIONALE: SUM() is Excel's native function for adding a range of
values. The colon (:) denotes a contiguous range from A1 to A10.
, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q7. What does VLOOKUP stand for?
A. Variable Lookup
B. Vertical Lookup
C. Value Lookup
D. Vector Lookup
E. Visual Lookup
CORRECT ANSWER: B. Vertical Lookup
EXPERT RATIONALE: VLOOKUP searches for a value in the first column of a
table and returns a value in the same row from a specified column — operating
vertically down rows.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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Q8. What is the correct syntax for VLOOKUP?
A. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, col_index, table_array, range_lookup)
B. =VLOOKUP(table_array, lookup_value, col_index, range_lookup)
C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index, range_lookup)
D. =VLOOKUP(col_index, lookup_value, table_array)
E. =VLOOKUP(range_lookup, table_array, col_index, lookup_value)
CORRECT ANSWER: C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index,
range_lookup)
EXPERT RATIONALE: The correct order is: what you're looking for, where to
look, which column to return, and whether to use exact (FALSE/0) or approximate
(TRUE/1) match.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
RETAKE EXAM 2026 – VERIFIED ANSWER KEY
WITH STEP-BY-STEP SOLUTIONS | A+ SCORE |
COMPLETE REVIEW GUIDE
• This is a comprehensive question practice exam covering all core Excel topics
tested in the Wall Street Prep Excel Crash Course — use it to drill every concept,
identify weak areas, and reinforce answers using the EXPERT RATIONALE provided
under each correct option. • Each question features 5 options (A–E), a clearly
marked CORRECT ANSWER, and a concise EXPERT RATIONALE — ideal for active
recall, timed practice sessions, or final review before your retake.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q1. What is the keyboard shortcut to open a new workbook in Excel?
A. Ctrl + O
B. Ctrl + W
C. Ctrl + N
D. Ctrl + S
E. Ctrl + F
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Ctrl + N
EXPERT RATIONALE: Ctrl + N creates a brand-new blank workbook. Ctrl + O
opens an existing file, Ctrl + W closes the current workbook, and Ctrl + S saves.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q2. Which function returns the largest value in a range?
A. LARGE()
B. MAX()
C. TOP()
D. HIGH()
E. CEILING()
, CORRECT ANSWER: B. MAX()
EXPERT RATIONALE: MAX() returns the largest numeric value in a specified
range. LARGE() also retrieves large values but requires a rank argument (e.g., 1st,
2nd largest).
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q3. Which shortcut selects an entire column in Excel?
A. Ctrl + Shift + End
B. Shift + Space
C. Ctrl + Space
D. Alt + Space
E. Ctrl + Shift + Space
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Ctrl + Space
EXPERT RATIONALE: Ctrl + Space selects the entire column of the active cell.
Shift + Space selects the entire row.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q4. What does the F4 key do when editing a cell reference in a formula?
A. Deletes the cell reference
B. Copies the formula down
C. Toggles between absolute, mixed, and relative references
D. Opens the Format Cells dialog
E. Repeats the last action only
CORRECT ANSWER: C. Toggles between absolute, mixed, and relative
references
, EXPERT RATIONALE: Pressing F4 cycles a reference through $A$1 → A$1 → $A1
→ A1, allowing you to lock rows, columns, or both quickly.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q5. In Excel, what does a dollar sign ($) in a cell reference indicate?
A. The cell contains a currency value
B. The reference is locked (absolute) and will not change when copied
C. The formula will only work with dollar amounts
D. The cell is protected
E. The reference will adjust automatically when copied
CORRECT ANSWER: B. The reference is locked (absolute) and will not change
when copied
EXPERT RATIONALE: A $ before the column letter locks the column; before the
row number locks the row. Both together ($A$1) make the reference fully absolute.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q6. Which formula correctly calculates the sum of cells A1 through A10?
A. =ADD(A1,A10)
B. =TOTAL(A1:A10)
C. =SUM(A1:A10)
D. =PLUS(A1,A10)
E. =SUMRANGE(A1,A10)
CORRECT ANSWER: C. =SUM(A1:A10)
EXPERT RATIONALE: SUM() is Excel's native function for adding a range of
values. The colon (:) denotes a contiguous range from A1 to A10.
, ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q7. What does VLOOKUP stand for?
A. Variable Lookup
B. Vertical Lookup
C. Value Lookup
D. Vector Lookup
E. Visual Lookup
CORRECT ANSWER: B. Vertical Lookup
EXPERT RATIONALE: VLOOKUP searches for a value in the first column of a
table and returns a value in the same row from a specified column — operating
vertically down rows.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Q8. What is the correct syntax for VLOOKUP?
A. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, col_index, table_array, range_lookup)
B. =VLOOKUP(table_array, lookup_value, col_index, range_lookup)
C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index, range_lookup)
D. =VLOOKUP(col_index, lookup_value, table_array)
E. =VLOOKUP(range_lookup, table_array, col_index, lookup_value)
CORRECT ANSWER: C. =VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index,
range_lookup)
EXPERT RATIONALE: The correct order is: what you're looking for, where to
look, which column to return, and whether to use exact (FALSE/0) or approximate
(TRUE/1) match.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
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