Microsoft 77-420 Practice Test Questions, Microsoft 77-420 Exam Dumps

Passing the IT Certification Exams can be Tough, but with the right exam prep materials, that can be solved. ExamLabs providers 100% Real and updated Microsoft Excel 77-420 exam dumps, practice test questions and answers which can make you equipped with the right knowledge required to pass the exams. Our Microsoft 77-420 exam dumps, practice test questions and answers, are reviewed constantly by IT Experts to Ensure their Validity and help you pass without putting in hundreds and hours of studying.

The 77-420 Exam in Retrospect: Core Excel Fundamentals

The Microsoft 77-420 exam, "Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS): Excel 2013," was a globally recognized certification that validated an individual's proficiency with the core features and functionalities of Excel 2013. Passing this exam demonstrated to employers that a candidate had a solid foundation in spreadsheet creation, data manipulation, and visualization. It was a benchmark credential for a wide range of professionals, from office administrators and financial analysts to students and data entry clerks, who needed to prove their competence with this essential business tool.

The 77-420 exam was a hands-on, project-based test. Candidates were not asked multiple-choice questions but were instead given a live or simulated Excel environment and a series of tasks to perform. For example, a task might require the candidate to create a specific formula, format a chart in a certain way, or sort and filter a table of data. This practical format ensured that certified individuals had not just theoretical knowledge but actual, demonstrable skills in using the software effectively and efficiently.

The Role of a Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS)

A Microsoft Office Specialist is an individual who has validated their skills in one or more of the Microsoft Office applications. Earning a MOS certification, like the one associated with the 77-420 exam, signifies a high level of proficiency that can lead to increased productivity and better career opportunities. In the workplace, a MOS-certified individual is often seen as a go-to expert for their respective application. They can work more efficiently, produce higher-quality documents and reports, and often require less support from IT.

For a business, having MOS-certified employees means a more productive workforce. These individuals can leverage the full power of the software to analyze data, create professional presentations, and manage information more effectively. The 77-420 exam was designed to identify and certify these power users, providing a reliable standard for measuring and recognizing proficiency in Microsoft Excel.

Navigating the Excel 2013 Interface and Beyond

A foundational skill for the 77-420 exam was the ability to navigate the Excel interface with speed and confidence. The Excel 2013 interface was built around the Ribbon, which is a tabbed toolbar that organizes the application's features and commands into logical groups. A candidate needed to be familiar with the common tabs, such as the Home tab for formatting, the Insert tab for adding charts and objects, the Page Layout tab for print settings, and the Formulas and Data tabs for more advanced work.

In addition to the Ribbon, a user preparing for the 77-420 exam needed to be an expert in using the Quick Access Toolbar for frequently used commands and the Backstage view (accessed via the File tab) for managing files and options. While the visual look of the Ribbon has been updated in modern versions of Excel (like those in Microsoft 365), its fundamental structure and the location of most core commands remain very similar, making this knowledge still highly relevant.

Creating and Managing Worksheets and Workbooks

The 77-420 exam required a deep understanding of the basic structure of an Excel file. An Excel file is known as a workbook, and a workbook is made up of one or more worksheets. Each worksheet is a grid of cells, which are organized into rows (numbered) and columns (lettered). A candidate needed to be proficient in all the basic tasks related to managing these components.

This included skills like creating new workbooks and worksheets, renaming worksheets, changing the color of worksheet tabs for better organization, and reordering worksheets within a workbook. It also involved knowing how to hide and unhide worksheets. These fundamental file and sheet management skills were often the first set of tasks in a project on the 77-420 exam and are still the starting point for any work done in Excel today.

Customizing Options and Views for Productivity

To work efficiently in Excel, a user must be able to customize the environment to suit their needs. The 77-420 exam tested on the ability to modify the application's options and to control the on-screen view of a worksheet. This included knowing how to customize the Quick Access Toolbar to add your most frequently used commands, making them available with a single click regardless of which Ribbon tab is currently active.

The exam also covered view-related tasks. A candidate needed to know how to use the zoom controls to zoom in and out of a worksheet. They also needed to be proficient in using commands like Freeze Panes, which is essential for keeping a row of headers or a column of labels visible while scrolling through a large dataset. The ability to split the screen to view different parts of the same worksheet simultaneously was another key skill.

A Core Skill of the 77-420 Exam: Entering and Formatting Data

At its core, Excel is a tool for working with data. Therefore, the 77-420 exam placed a heavy emphasis on the ability to enter and format data correctly and efficiently. This started with the basics of typing text, numbers, and dates into cells. It also included knowing how to use time-saving features like AutoFill, which allows you to quickly fill a series of data (like days of the week or a sequence of numbers) by dragging the fill handle.

Formatting the data to make it readable and professional was equally important. The exam tested a wide range of formatting skills. This included applying font formatting (like bold and italics), changing cell colors, aligning text within a cell, and, most importantly, applying the correct number formatting. A candidate needed to know how to format numbers as currency, percentages, dates, or with a specific number of decimal places, a fundamental skill for presenting data accurately.

From the 77-420 Exam to Modern Excel Certifications

The Microsoft Office Specialist program has evolved significantly since the 2013 version. The 77-420 exam has been replaced by a series of exams for the latest versions of Excel, which are part of the Microsoft 365 suite. The modern certification path includes an Associate level and an Expert level, allowing candidates to certify their skills at different degrees of proficiency. The current exam for the Associate level is the MO-210, "Microsoft Excel (Microsoft 365 Apps)."

While the software version and the exam numbers have changed, the core skills tested remain remarkably consistent. The modern MO-210 exam still covers the fundamental topics that were the heart of the 77-420 exam, such as managing worksheets and workbooks, formatting data, creating formulas and functions, and creating charts. The knowledge from the 2013 era provides a very strong foundation for anyone looking to achieve the current certification.

The Foundation of Excel: Creating Formulas

The true power of Excel lies in its ability to perform calculations. The 77-420 exam required every candidate to be an expert in creating and working with formulas. A formula is an expression that performs a calculation on values in a worksheet. In Excel, every formula begins with an equal sign (=). Following the equal sign, a formula can contain a combination of constants (like the number 5), cell references (like A1), mathematical operators (like +, -, *, /), and functions.

A simple formula might be =A1+B1, which would add the values in cells A1 and B1. A core skill for the 77-420 exam was the ability to create these formulas to perform basic arithmetic. It also involved understanding the order of operations (PEMDAS/BODMAS) to ensure that complex formulas were calculated correctly. This foundational skill of formula creation is the basis for all data analysis in Excel.

Understanding Relative, Absolute, and Mixed Cell References

A critical concept for working with formulas, and a key topic on the 77-420 exam, is the different types of cell references. By default, when you create a formula with a cell reference, like =A1, it is a relative reference. This means that if you copy that formula to another cell, the reference will automatically adjust. If you copy it one cell down, it will become =A2. This is incredibly useful for applying the same calculation to a whole column of data.

However, sometimes you do not want a reference to change when you copy a formula. For this, you use an absolute reference. An absolute reference is created by adding dollar signs to the cell address, like =$A$1. This reference will not change no matter where you copy the formula. You can also create mixed references, like =$A1 or =A$1, where either the column is absolute and the row is relative, or vice versa. The 77-420 exam required mastery of all three reference types.

Using Essential Mathematical and Statistical Functions (SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, COUNT)

While you can perform many calculations with basic operators, Excel's true power comes from its vast library of built-in functions. The 77-420 exam required a candidate to be proficient in using a core set of the most common and essential functions. These are the workhorses of everyday spreadsheet work. The SUM function is used to add up a range of numbers. The AVERAGE function calculates the arithmetic mean of a range.

The MIN function finds the smallest value in a range, and the MAX function finds the largest value. The COUNT function is used to count the number of cells in a range that contain numbers. The 77-420 exam would present tasks that required the use of these functions to summarize a set of data, such as finding the total sales, the average score, or the highest price in a list of products.

A Key Topic of the 77-420 Exam: Logical Functions (IF, AND, OR)

Beyond simple calculations, the 77-420 exam required a deep understanding of logical functions, which allow a spreadsheet to make decisions. The most important of these is the IF function. The IF function allows you to perform a logical test and then return one value if the test is true, and another value if the test is false. For example, you could use an IF function to determine if a student has passed or failed based on their score.

To create more complex logical tests, the IF function is often combined with the AND and OR functions. The AND function returns TRUE only if all of its arguments are true. The OR function returns TRUE if any of its arguments are true. By nesting these functions, you can create sophisticated, multi-condition logic. The ability to build these complex IF statements was a key skill for the 77-420 exam.

Text Manipulation with Text Functions

Not all data in Excel is numeric. A significant portion of the 77-420 exam was dedicated to functions that allow you to manipulate and work with text data. For example, a common task is to combine the text from multiple cells into a single cell. This can be done using the CONCATENATE function or the ampersand (&) operator. For instance, you could combine a first name in cell A1 and a last name in cell B1 to create a full name.

Other essential text functions tested in the 77-420 exam included LEFT, RIGHT, and MID, which are used to extract a specific number of characters from the beginning, end, or middle of a text string. Functions like UPPER, LOWER, and PROPER are used to change the case of text. Proficiency with these functions is essential for cleaning and standardizing text data, a common task for any data analyst.

Date and Time Functions for Calculations

Working with dates and times can be complex, and the 77-420 exam required a candidate to be proficient with Excel's date and time functions. It was important to understand that Excel stores dates as serial numbers, which allows you to perform mathematical calculations on them. For example, you can subtract one date from another to find the number of days between them.

The exam tested on key functions like TODAY(), which returns the current date, and NOW(), which returns the current date and time. It also covered functions like YEAR, MONTH, and DAY, which are used to extract specific components from a date. The ability to use these functions to perform calculations, such as determining an invoice's due date or calculating the age of an employee, was a key practical skill.

Lookup Functions: VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP

One of the most powerful and frequently used functions in Excel is VLOOKUP. A deep understanding of VLOOKUP was a non-negotiable requirement for the 77-420 exam. VLOOKUP stands for Vertical Lookup, and it is used to search for a value in the first column of a table and then return a corresponding value from a different column in the same row. For example, you could use VLOOKUP to find the price of a product based on its product ID.

The exam also covered its lesser-known sibling, HLOOKUP, which stands for Horizontal Lookup. HLOOKUP works in the same way but searches for a value in the top row of a table and returns a value from a specified row below it. While VLOOKUP was a workhorse function for years, it has some significant limitations, which led to the development of more modern functions.

Modern Evolution: XLOOKUP and Dynamic Arrays

The world of Excel formulas has been revolutionized in modern versions with two major introductions: XLOOKUP and Dynamic Arrays. XLOOKUP is the modern and much more flexible successor to VLOOKUP. It can look up a value and return a corresponding value from any column, it can search from the bottom up, and it has a simpler and more intuitive syntax. It has made VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP largely obsolete for users of modern Excel.

Dynamic Arrays are another game-changing feature. In older versions of Excel, a formula could only return a single value to a single cell. With dynamic arrays, a single formula can now return, or "spill," an array of multiple values into multiple cells. This has led to a new set of powerful functions like FILTER, SORT, and UNIQUE that make complex data analysis tasks much simpler than they were in the era of the 77-420 exam.

The Importance of Data Visualization

A spreadsheet full of numbers can be difficult to interpret. The ability to translate that raw data into a visual format is a critical skill for any Excel user, and it was a major domain of the 77-420 exam. Data visualization, through the use of charts and graphs, allows you to quickly identify trends, patterns, and outliers in your data. A well-designed chart can communicate a complex message much more effectively than a table of data.

The 77-420 exam was designed to ensure that a certified professional could not only create a basic chart but could also choose the right type of chart for their data and format it in a way that was clear, accurate, and visually appealing. This skill is about more than just making pretty pictures; it is about effective communication and storytelling with data.

Creating Charts in Excel: A 77-420 Exam Staple

The process of creating a chart in Excel is a fundamental skill that was tested thoroughly on the 77-420 exam. The process typically starts by selecting the range of data that you want to visualize. This includes both the data series themselves and the labels for the categories and series. Once the data is selected, you would use the Charts group on the Insert tab of the Ribbon to choose the type of chart you want to create.

Excel would then instantly create a basic chart based on your data and place it on the worksheet. The 77-420 exam would often present a task that required a candidate to create a specific type of chart from a given data range. This required not just knowing the steps but also ensuring that the data was selected correctly so that the chart was rendered as intended.

Formatting and Customizing Chart Elements

Creating a default chart is just the first step. To make a chart truly effective, you must be able to format and customize its various elements. The 77-420 exam required a candidate to be an expert in this process. After a chart is created, a set of contextual Chart Tools tabs appear on the Ribbon, providing a wealth of options for customization.

A candidate for the 77-420 exam needed to be proficient in modifying all the key chart elements. This included tasks like adding or changing the chart title and the axis titles, formatting the data series by changing their colors or adding data labels, and adjusting the chart's legend. It also involved changing the scale of the axes and adding gridlines to make the chart easier to read. The ability to precisely control every aspect of a chart's appearance was a key skill.

Understanding Different Chart Types (Column, Line, Pie, Bar)

Part of being a skilled data visualizer is knowing which type of chart to use for which type of data. The 77-420 exam tested on the use cases for the most common chart types. A column chart is ideal for comparing values across a small number of different categories. A bar chart is very similar but is often a better choice when the category labels are long.

A line chart is the perfect choice for showing a trend over time, such as sales per month or website traffic per day. A pie chart is used to show the proportional contribution of different parts to a whole, but it is only effective with a small number of categories. The 77-420 exam would require a candidate to analyze a set of data and choose the chart type that would most effectively communicate the intended message.

Introduction to Sparklines for In-Cell Charts

Excel 2013, the version covered by the 77-420 exam, included a powerful and compact visualization feature called Sparklines. A Sparkline is a tiny chart that is placed inside a single cell. It provides a quick, visual representation of a trend in a row of data, without the need for a full-sized chart. There are three types of Sparklines: Line, Column, and Win/Loss.

For example, if you had a row of monthly sales data, you could place a Line Sparkline in the cell next to it to instantly see the trend for that product over time. The 77-420 exam required a candidate to know how to create and format these Sparklines. This included changing their color, highlighting the high and low points, and grouping multiple Sparklines together so that they shared the same axis scaling.

Inserting and Formatting Objects and Images

In addition to charts, the 77-420 exam also covered the ability to insert and format other graphical objects to enhance a worksheet. This included inserting pictures from a file, adding shapes like arrows and callouts, and using SmartArt graphics to create professional-looking diagrams, such as organization charts or process flows.

Once an object was inserted, a candidate needed to know how to manipulate and format it. This included skills like resizing and rotating the object, applying different styles and effects (like shadows and glows), and arranging objects by bringing them to the front or sending them to the back. These skills were important for creating visually appealing and informative reports and dashboards directly within Excel.

Modern Charting and Visualization in Excel

While the fundamental chart types from the 77-420 exam era are still the workhorses of Excel, modern versions of the software have introduced several new and powerful charting options. These include new chart types like Waterfall charts, which are excellent for showing the cumulative effect of a series of positive and negative values, and Funnel charts, which are great for visualizing stages in a sales process.

Modern Excel also has much more powerful mapping capabilities, allowing you to create geographical maps based on your data with just a few clicks. The integration with other tools like Power BI has also opened up a whole new world of advanced, interactive data visualization that goes far beyond the capabilities of the standalone Excel application that was the focus of the 77-420 exam.

Working with Data Ranges and Excel Tables

A fundamental skill for the 77-420 exam was the ability to manage and organize data within a worksheet. Data is typically organized in a tabular format, with column headers at the top and rows of data below. In its simplest form, this is known as a data range. However, Excel provides a much more powerful way to work with this data by converting the range into a formal Excel Table.

To create a Table, you select your data range and use the "Format as Table" command. This does much more than just apply formatting. It turns the data range into a structured object with special properties. The 77-420 exam required a candidate to be proficient in creating and working with these formal Tables, as they unlock a number of powerful features that make data management much easier.

The Benefits of Using Formal Excel Tables

Using a formal Excel Table, a key topic on the 77-420 exam, offers numerous advantages over a simple data range. One of the most obvious is that the table comes with built-in filter and sort controls in the header row. The formatting of the table, such as banded rows, automatically expands as you add new data. When you create a formula that references a table, Excel uses structured references (like [SalesAmount]) instead of standard cell references, which makes the formulas much easier to read and understand.

Furthermore, any charts or PivotTables that are based on the table will automatically update when you add new rows or columns to the table. A formal Table also allows you to easily add a Total Row, which can provide quick summaries of your data, such as a sum or an average, for each column. The 77-420 exam would test a candidate's knowledge of these many benefits.

A Core Skill of the 77-420 Exam: Sorting Data

One of the most basic but essential data management tasks is sorting. The 77-420 exam required a candidate to be an expert in sorting data to organize it in a meaningful way. The simplest form of sorting is to sort a list based on the values in a single column, for example, sorting a list of employees alphabetically by their last name or sorting a list of sales transactions by date.

The exam also covered more advanced, multi-level sorting. This allows you to sort your data by one column, and then by another column within each group of the first sort. For example, you could sort a list of customers first by country, and then alphabetically by city within each country. A candidate for the 77-420 exam also needed to know how to perform custom sorts based on a non-alphabetical order, such as sorting by month name.

Applying Filters for Data Analysis

When you have a large dataset, you often only want to look at a specific subset of the data that meets certain criteria. The tool for this in Excel is the filter. Filtering was a critical skill for the 77-420 exam. When you apply a filter to a data range or a Table, a drop-down arrow appears in each column header. Clicking this arrow allows you to filter the data in that column.

You can perform simple filters, such as showing only the rows that have a specific value in a column (e.g., showing only the sales for a specific country). You can also perform more advanced filters, such as filtering for numbers that are greater than a certain value, or for text that contains a specific word. The 77-420 exam required proficiency in applying these filters to quickly isolate and analyze the data you are interested in.

Conditional Formatting for Data Visualization

Conditional formatting is a powerful feature that allows you to automatically apply formatting to cells based on their values. This is a form of data visualization that can make it much easier to spot trends and outliers in your data, and it was a key topic on the 77-420 exam. For example, you could use conditional formatting to automatically highlight any sales numbers that are below a certain target, or to color-code a list of project tasks based on their due date.

The 77-420 exam tested on the ability to apply a variety of different conditional formatting rules. This included simple highlighting rules, as well as more advanced visualizations like data bars, which create a small bar chart inside each cell, and color scales, which apply a color gradient to a range of cells based on their values. Conditional formatting is an essential tool for creating insightful and easy-to-read reports.

Summarizing Data with Subtotals

For a simple sorted list of data, the Subtotal tool provides a quick and easy way to insert summary rows into your data. This was a useful feature that was covered in the 77-420 exam. To use the Subtotal tool, you first need to sort your data by the column you want to group by. For example, you might sort a list of sales transactions by sales region.

You can then use the Subtotal command, which will automatically insert a new row every time the value in the sorted column changes. This new row can contain a summary calculation, such as a sum or a count, for the group of data above it. The tool also automatically creates an outline, which allows you to easily collapse or expand the data to see just the summary rows. While more advanced tools like PivotTables are often a better choice, the Subtotal feature is great for quick summaries.

Why the MOS Certification Path Evolved

The Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) program, including the certification for Excel, has evolved from the version-specific model of the 77-420 exam to an evergreen model based on Microsoft 365. This change was a direct response to the way Microsoft now develops and delivers its software. In the past, a new version of Office was released every few years as a major, one-time purchase. The certifications were tied to these specific versions.

With Microsoft 365, Office applications are now delivered as a subscription service. Instead of major version releases, the applications are updated continuously with new features and improvements. A version-specific certification like the one for Excel 2013 no longer made sense in this new world. The modern MOS certifications are designed to be "evergreen," meaning they are updated periodically to reflect the latest features available in the Microsoft 365 apps.

Key Skills from the 77-420 Exam in the Modern Era

While the certification exams and the software have evolved, the vast majority of the core skills that were tested in the 77-420 exam are still the absolute foundation of Excel proficiency today. The modern MOS Excel Associate exam still requires a candidate to be an expert in managing worksheets and workbooks, applying custom formatting, and creating and managing Excel Tables.

The heart of the modern exam is still formulas and functions. A candidate must still master the concepts of cell references and be proficient with the essential math, text, and logical functions. The ability to create and format charts to visualize data is also still a major domain. The knowledge from the 77-420 exam provides a nearly complete foundation for the core competencies required to pass the modern associate-level certification.

Game-Changing Features in Modern Excel (Power Query, Dynamic Arrays)

While the fundamentals remain the same, modern Excel has introduced several incredibly powerful new features that have completely changed the way advanced users work with data. One of the most important of these is Power Query (also known as Get & Transform Data). Power Query is a data connection and transformation tool that allows you to easily connect to a wide variety of data sources, and then to clean, shape, and transform that data using an intuitive graphical interface. This has automated many of the manual data cleaning tasks of the past.

As mentioned previously, Dynamic Arrays have revolutionized the formula language. A single formula can now return multiple results, and new functions like XLOOKUP, FILTER, and SORT have made complex tasks that used to require convoluted formulas much simpler and more intuitive. These modern features are a major focus of the current MOS Expert level certification.

Introduction to Power Pivot and the Data Model

Another major advancement for power users is the introduction of Power Pivot and the Excel Data Model. This technology, which is part of the "Power BI" family of tools, allows an Excel user to build a sophisticated relational data model directly within their workbook. You can load and connect multiple tables of data, even from different sources, and create relationships between them, just like you would in a dedicated database program.

This allows you to analyze much larger datasets than can be handled in a single worksheet and to create powerful calculations using a formula language called Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). Power Pivot is the engine behind modern, advanced PivotTables and is a core skill for any serious data analyst using Excel today. It is a key topic in the MOS Excel Expert certification.

The Modern MOS Excel Associate Certification (MO-210)

The direct successor to the 77-420 exam is the modern MOS Associate certification for Excel, which is earned by passing the MO-210 exam, "Microsoft Excel (Microsoft 365 Apps)." This certification is designed to validate the same core competencies as its predecessor. It demonstrates that the holder has a fundamental understanding of the Excel environment and the ability to complete tasks independently.

The objective domains of the MO-210 exam will look very familiar to anyone who studied for the 77-420 exam. They include managing worksheets and workbooks, managing data cells and ranges, managing tables and table data, performing operations by using formulas and functions, and managing charts. A candidate with a solid grasp of these fundamentals is well-prepared to earn this modern credential.

Conclusion

For users who want to validate a higher level of proficiency, the modern certification path includes an Expert level. This is earned by passing the MO-211 exam, "Microsoft Excel Expert (Microsoft 365 Apps)." This exam builds on the associate-level skills and covers the more advanced and powerful features of the application.

The objective domains for the MO-211 exam include managing workbook options and settings, managing and formatting data, creating advanced formulas and macros, and managing advanced charts and tables. This is where you will find the more modern topics, such as Power Query and Power Pivot, which were not part of the 77-420 exam. Earning the MOS Expert certification signifies a truly deep level of expertise in Excel.

Choose ExamLabs to get the latest & updated Microsoft 77-420 practice test questions, exam dumps with verified answers to pass your certification exam. Try our reliable 77-420 exam dumps, practice test questions and answers for your next certification exam. Premium Exam Files, Question and Answers for Microsoft 77-420 are actually exam dumps which help you pass quickly.

Hide