Video Courses vs Hands-On Practice: The Faster Way to Learn Excel

The best way to learn Excel for a job is hands-on practice. Video courses are good at showing you what Excel can do, but job tests and real work ask you to do it: click an empty cell and type the right formula from memory, often with a timer running. This guide compares the two approaches honestly, for job seekers deciding how to spend their study time. (We build a hands-on practice tool, so we are not neutral. We explain our reasoning so you can judge it yourself.)

Video courses vs hands-on practice at a glance#

Both have a place. They build different things.

The best way to learn Excel starts with how it's tested#

To choose a study method, start with what you will be asked to do. Excel tests for jobs usually look like this:

• You get a spreadsheet with data and a list of tasks.
• Each task asks for a result in a specific cell: "In F2, find the salary for the ID in E2", "Total the sales for the West region", "Build a pivot table of revenue by month".
• You have a time limit, and usually no notes.
• The test checks the result, and sometimes the formula itself.

In other words, you have to produce the formula: remember the function, its arguments and their order, type it without errors and check the result. Nobody shows you the first step. A good way to judge any study method is to ask: does it make me do that?

The same skill, learned both ways#

Take the simplest formula there is: pay equals hours times rate.

Learning it from a video#

The presenter clicks E2, types =C2*D2 and presses Enter. 1440 appears. It takes three seconds and makes complete sense. You nod and move on.

Learning it by doing it#

You click E2 and type it yourself. On the way, beginners commonly:

• type C2*D2 without the =, and Excel shows the text instead of calculating;
• type =C2xD2, because that's how you multiply on paper;
• type =32*45, which gives the right answer today but doesn't update when the hours change.

Each mistake teaches you something the video never showed, because the presenter didn't make it. When an exercise checks your answer, you find out straight away and fix it. That's the point of practice: you hit the problems before the test, not during it.

Now scale that up to a lookup. A video of =VLOOKUP(E2,A2:D6,4,FALSE) looks simple. Writing it yourself, you have to remember the argument order, count the column, remember FALSE, and lock the range before filling down. Those are exactly the details tests catch. Our comparison of VLOOKUP vs XLOOKUP shows how many small choices one lookup involves.

When video courses help#

Videos are genuinely useful. Use them when:

• You're starting from zero and want an overview of what spreadsheets can do.
• You're learning a visual, drag-and-drop tool, such as building a pivot table or formatting a chart. Seeing where to click helps.
• You're stuck on a concept after trying it yourself, and want to see a different explanation.
• You need motivation or a structure, such as a course outline to follow.

Videos work best when you treat them as a demonstration, not the lesson itself. Pause after each step and do it in your own spreadsheet. If you only watch, you'll remember that a function exists more than how to write it.

When hands-on practice wins#

Hands-on practice is the better use of time when:

• You have a test coming up. Tests reward recall and speed, which only come from doing.
• You keep "knowing" a formula but getting it wrong. Typing it many times, with feedback, fixes that.
• You want shortcuts to stick. Ctrl+D, Ctrl+arrow and F4 become automatic only after you press them many times.
• You learn better by trying things. Changing a number and watching the result update teaches how formulas work.
• You want to find your gaps. A task you can't finish shows you exactly what to study next.

Practise with realistic data and real questions, not just the function on its own. "Which customers ordered more than once?" teaches more than "type a COUNTIF". Real questions make you decide which function to use, and that choice is half of what a test checks.

Common mistakes when learning Excel#

These waste the most study time, whichever method you use:

1. Watching without doing. Hours of videos can leave you unable to write a formula on a blank sheet. Do every example yourself.
2. Copying formulas instead of typing them. Pasting a formula from a guide teaches you very little. Type it, even when it's slow.
3. Never practising without notes. Recall only improves when you try to remember. Close the guide and try again.
4. Skipping the basics. Cell references and the $ sign cause most errors in lookups and sums. If they aren't solid, read how Excel cell references work first.
5. Learning too many functions at once. A small set used well (SUM, IF, COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, a lookup, pivot tables) covers most tests.
6. Never timing yourself. Being able to do it in five minutes and being able to do it in one are different skills. Tests measure the second.

A study plan that combines both#

You don't have to choose one method. A practical routine:

1. Read or watch a short explanation of one skill, such as INDEX MATCH. Keep it short.
2. Do it straight away on a small table, typing every formula yourself.
3. Change the task: a different column, a missing value, a left lookup. Our guide to VLOOKUP vs INDEX MATCH has good variations.
4. The next day, repeat it on a blank sheet with no notes.
5. Time yourself on mixed tasks once a week, like a real test.

How long this takes depends on where you start and what the job needs; our guide to how long it takes to learn Excel breaks it down. When you're ready for newer functions, INDEX MATCH vs XLOOKUP is a good next comparison.

Our recommendation#

Spend most of your time on hands-on practice, and use videos as a tool, not the main method.

• Starting from zero: a short overview is fine, but begin typing formulas on day one.
• Preparing for a test: practise test-style tasks, without notes, against the clock.
• Stuck on one concept: watch or read one explanation, then go straight back to doing it.

The test will put you in front of an empty cell. Practise in front of an empty cell.

Practise it#

Type the pay formula in the exercise on this page yourself. Then start at the very beginning with the cells, rows and columns lesson, and move on to your first formulas, where you calculate pay, see formulas update and learn the order Excel does its maths in.