Goodwill Community Foundation creating
opportunities for a better life say I'm
taking a class in school and I'm not
doing very well so far
luckily if I get a high enough grade on
the final exam there's a chance I may be
able to pass the class the question is
what grade do I need to get on the exam
to raise my average to at least a 70 we
can find out using a feature called
what-if analysis which allows you to
fill in missing information based on the
data you already have right now all I
know are the grades I got on the first
four assignments 58 70 72 and 60 before
we do our analysis we need to figure out
my current average by adding a formula
or function in this cell in this case
each assignment is weighted equally so
we can calculate the number we need
using the average function to get the
most out of what if analysis you do need
to be fairly comfortable with formulas
and functions luckily this one is pretty
simple we'll just type an equal sign and
then average next we need to select all
the cells even the empty cell for the
final exam grade if we don't it won't
calculate the average for all five
assignments looks like we're done so I'm
just going to press ENTER and now we can
see my current average unfortunately
it's not high enough but we knew that
was going to happen now we can move on
to the next step using a feature called
goal seek to figure out what we need on
the final exam goal seek is a type of
what-if analysis that basically lets you
work backwards in order to find a
missing value it starts with the result
you want then it calculates whatever
input is needed to get you there to
begin select the cell that contains your
formula or function in our case b7
then go to the data tab and click the
what-if analysis command there are
actually several different types of
what-if analysis including scenario
manager and data table but in this case
we're going to use goal seek a dialog
box will appear where you can set the
parameters for the information you need
in our example we want to set cell b7
that's our selected cell to a value of
70 by changing the cell that contains
our missing value and that's going to be
b6 when you're done click OK and goal
seek will take a minute to see if it can
find a solution based on the message
here it looks like we were successful so
we're going to click OK and now we can
see the result we were looking for in
the final exam cell so I guess I need to
make a 90 on the exam in order to pass
the class it's going to be tough but I
think I can do it at least now I know
thanks to the work we did with what-if
analysis it might take some practice to
get the hang of the feature on your own
but it's a great way to figure out
unknown values in your worksheet
you