How Long Does it Take to Learn Excel?

The Short Answer | Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced | Expert | Specialist | Excel Training Reviews

The Short Answer

Discover how long it takes to learn Excel The short answer is that you can estimate about one day of formal Excel learning for beginners level, one-to-two days for intermediate topics and the same again for advanced. Expert level Excel topics might take you another 6-10 days and then for specialist topics, reckon on between 90 and 150 hours of learning before you'd be ready to take a MOS exam, but a life time of learning if you really want to become a virtuoso Excel guru.

How Long Does it Take to Learn Excel Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced Topics?

With formal teaching you can get quite a long way with Excel in a relatively short period of time. If you are self-learning from books, videos, on-line tutorials etc., then it will probably take you longer. With formal training you can learn the foundational stuff in a single day and then for intermediate level topics two days would be fairly comprehensive and the same again for advanced.

For intermediate level, common topics would be the IF and VLOOKUP functions, database features, charting and drawing and security and so forth.

For advanced level common topics might be What-if Analysis, Goal Seek, Sparklines and Pivot Tables to name a few.

It's once you get beyond advanced level though when learning Excel represents a serious investment in time.

If you need to know what level of Excel knowledge you are starting off from then you can use our free Excel training needs analysis tools to find out by following the links below:

Excel Beginners or Intermediate?

Excel Intermediate or Advanced?

How Long Does it Take to Become an Excel Expert?

If you want to become an Excel expert then learning VBA, Power Query, Power Pivot, DAX and perhaps the Lambda function would be good places to start, but that's by no means a comprehensive list. Estimate 6-10 days for this to make any serious ground, depending upon which topics you choose and how many of them you want to learn.

The caveat here is that with this time you can only expect to dip your toes into the water with DAX, and the time it takes to learn DAX in any depth can be around 4-6 weeks. Expect to continue learning and problem solving beyond this time and throughout your DAX journey.

For VBA you can become a competent beginner within a couple of days but it will take you at least 4 days in total to master VBA at an advanced level.

With Power Query you can get a long way in a day and get a fair grounding in Pivot Tables, Power Pivot and Power Pivot Measures, but again, don't expect that to be the end of your learning journey. Power Query can also provide a good entry point into learning Power BI.

How Long Does it Take to Become an Excel Specialist?

Specialising in Excel can be anything between a hard earnt professional qualification to a vocational odyssey which never comes to an end.

When it comes to specialising in Excel the list is nearly endless and mastering each and every niche could easily be the work of a life time. Sure, you can become a qualified Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) with about 90-150 hours of learning (depending upon the provider) and then passing an exam but you can rest assured that the full 150 hours won't even scratch the surface of everything that's under Excel's bonnet.

Excel has over 250 different functions to learn just for starters and many of these the vast majority of Excel users will never encounter in their entire professional lives. You might, for instance, want to explore the RAND function or the CONVERT function, get to grips with financial and statistical functions or even learn to work with S Curve modelling. You also might want to consider learning Excel for multi-national purposes where the function names and formula syntax can vary between different nationalities and languages.

Then, there are numerous plugins which enhance Excel's functionality and also a rapidly growing number of AI features that you can explore. And of course you'll need to keep up-to-date with regular up-dates and additions, such as the replacement of VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP with XLOOKUP (and even the Fuzzy Lookup add-on), the replacement of the deprecated CONCATENATE function with the CONCAT function, the recent-ish introduction of the LET function and the addition of new modern chart types just to name a few changes and enhancements to Excel over the past few years.

Where can I get Training in Excel?

There are plenty of different ways to get training in Excel. If you are comfortable with self learning then there is a wealth of free Excel learning material available Online such as this VLOOKUP tutorial, plus an almost endless amount of free video Excel learning available on platforms such as YouTube, and even from Microsoft themselves. If you would prefer to be taught by an instructor then you can choose public courses at a training centre, or even local colleges (depending upon their monthly and seasonal training calendars). You could even have a trainer come out to your workplace for an on-site course. But if none of these options is right for you then you can also opt for virtual classroom Excel courses whereby you can attend from anywhere and still get the same great learning outcomes.

You can find our guide to free tutorials and instructional videos from Microsoft here: Where to Find the Best Free Microsoft Office Training and M365 Tutorials

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