Equipping Students with Advanced Excel Skills in the Classroom – Building Flexible, Robust, and Self-Adaptive Financial Models

Abstract

Both Excel skill and financial modeling skill are essential for finance students. When building a financial model in Excel, it is important to keep it clear, concise and consistent. But an even better model would be flexible, robust, and dynamic. This paper uses three detailed examples to demonstrate how finance professors can equip students with advanced Excel skill and financial modeling skill at the same time in finance classes, and in turn, helps the students be competitive when they are on the job market and be successful in their future careers.

Keywords: Advanced Excel skills, financial modeling skill, pedagogy, finance classroom, financial models

JEL Classification: A22, I23