Function PositionValue(VolRng As Range)
Dim First, Last As Long
First = Application.WorksheetFunction.min(VolRng)
Last = Application.WorksheetFunction.max(VolRng)
Call Quick_Sort(VolRng, First, Last)
PositionValue = VolRng(3, 1)’ this will return the third position within the sorted array
End Function

The Quick Sort routine I’m using is as follows:

Private Sub Quick_Sort(ByRef SortArray As Variant, ByVal First As Long, ByVal Last As Long)
Dim Low As Long, High As Long
Dim Temp As Variant, List_Separator As Variant
Low = First
High = Last
List_Separator = SortArray((First + Last) / 2)
Do
Do While (SortArray(Low) List_Separator)
High = High - 1
Loop
If (Low <= High) Then
Temp = SortArray(Low)
SortArray(Low) = SortArray(High)
SortArray(High) = Temp
Low = Low + 1
High = High - 1
End If
Loop While (Low <= High)
If (First < High) Then Quick_Sort SortArray, First, High
If (Low < Last) Then Quick_Sort SortArray, Low, Last
End Sub

I’m not sure if using Quick Sort is overkill for this and there is a simpler way. Any help to get this working would be very much appreciated. Thanks.

Best regards,
Bill Ghauri

Now look at this from the perspective of you taking an “assessment” for material that you did not not attend a specific class on. (1) They can ask questions on anything since they taught you nothing. (2) If their agenda is to sell you on taking a course they are better served by making the test too hard / ambiguous. (3) They don’t care if everyone gets a question right (i.e. the question is beginner level but everyone taking the assessment is advanced).

Now imagine that the “assessment” was actually the exit test for a course. Pass the assessment and you know you don’t need the course. Would that all “assessments” were this way!

Take this question: What is the worst way to monitor a range variable’s address while running VBA code?
A. Create a watch on the Watch List
B. View it via the Locals Window
C. Insert break points and hover over the variable

“Worst” is a qualitative word. A casual observer might think there’s no wrong answer and that the test is unfair. But if you’ve worked with VBA for any length of time, the answer is obvious. If it’s not obvious, then you haven’t worked with VBA long enough or you just don’t happen to use certain features. In the latter case, you may be a great VBA programmer and still miss the question. But if I have 34 other similar questions, I can start to get a feel for your abilities. If you miss half because you don’t happen to work with those features, then I think the case can be made that you’re not as great as you think.

That leads to the unfortunate situation where people who think they should get 100% (like me) don’t. Rather than admit I’m not great, I’ll say the test sucks. Maybe the test doesn’t tell you your score, but tells you your range: Correct answers 31-35 “Your great”, 27-31 “Your good”, 22-27 “Probably dangerous”, and so on. But then you wouldn’t be getting the “correct” answers, which is something I didn’t like about the above test.

I think we need to crowdsource a VBA assessment test. Sounds like a blog post.

Multiple choice tests are like that though. I’ve rarely (if ever) seen knowledge properly graded in a multiple choice fashion.

Mike, I guess I got Rows and Columns incorrect too–I never would have tried that. Other than that I have no idea what I got wrong and it would take way too long to figure out.

I’ve been involved in setting tests for the Spreadsheet Safe exam, and the peer review process was pretty painful in shaking out all the ambiguities you start with when you think of things one way and discover the amazing number of ways your question can be interpreted!

Patrick

I’m with John though; these quizzes often make the assumption that everyone uses the system in exactly the same way: the way the question writer uses the system. Having ambiguous questions/answers doesn’t exactly help.

For instance, I rarely use keyboard shortcuts so wouldn’t even know what Ctrl+Shift+R does (I’ve since checked!), but does only knowing how to achieve the same using the UI mean I am any worse at VBA than someone who knows both methods? What about someone who only knows the shortcut?

I remember getting assessed on Word in some course a few years ago and almost all the questions were like “In which menu would you find Web Discussions?” - not ever having used this, or considering it in any way relevant to my work, I didn’t have a clue. I could easily find it in about 20 seconds though if I ever needed to though. I would be marked down…for this?

What’s more important is knowing that X is at least capable of something, and being able to apply yourself to getting the required result. For instance, today I was asked about creating some XML metadata for some images that will be scanned to a network share, then shifting the images & XML over SFTP. I’ve not done this before, but know of a few ways in which this *could* be achieved.

If you can get an online quiz/CBT to identify this kind of knowledge then you’ve probably got the basis of a very profitable training corporation!