Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that understands formulas. You can use the formulas to easily and accurately calculate various functions, including the percentage based on two values. An advantage to using Excel rather than a calculator or doing it by hand is that you can quickly change one of the values to see how it would change the resulting percentage. For example, you can see how much higher your grade would have been if you had gotten a few more questions correct or lower if you had gotten a few more wrong.
Instructions
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1
Enter the value representing the total in cell A1. For example, if you want to calculate a percentage score on a test and the grade is out of 60 questions, enter “60” in cell A1.
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2
Enter the value representing the desired portion of the total in cell A2. Using the test example, if you got 52 questions correct, enter “52” in cell A2.
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Enter the formula “=A2/A1*100” in cell A3 and Excel will display the resulting percentage. In this example, Excel will display “86.666667” meaning you got an 86.67 percent.