I tackle an old enemy : Excel aka spreadsheet

I've been using Excel for many years. Like, since last century. I've been using it as you would a dirty, old dishrag; not wanting to touch it, but holding it from a corner and dragging it around. I'm not good with numbers. Now, that's hillarious info for a starter. But here we go...

The first step to analysing data is to get your hands on some. My tutor did the curtesy of providing sources. I was familiar with most already, which was smooth. I needed smooth, because excel was going to do my head in. I knew.

This is where I started:

https://ourworldindata.org/blog

https://ukdataservice.ac.uk/

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets

https://www.kaggle.com/

https://github.com/awesomedata/awesome-public-datasets (looks awesome, but talks about API,etc. No thank you for the moment)

The second step is to download your csv files. (If I don't repeat 'comma separated value' in my head, I write cvs and I know why.)

After downloading, renaming, sorting (and some other moves I already know), we have something to work with. Also, where was the 'freeze' function before? We used to scroll up and down to remind ourselves of headers. A second sheet had to be created to see two chunks of spaced entries. No more.

The most complicated things I've been able to pull this week are these:

I got my data from https://ourworldindata.org/teachers-and-professors#pupil-teacher-ratios 

I custom sorted my data in several ways. I wasn't happy how it visualised, so a column 'E' was added to inverse the data at 'F' (asked for help). Now, I had teacher per head. That made better sense to me.

I've also tried to understand different available visualisations of the data set to get a feel of these charts, and also to see whichever way this data can be sliced.

Below you can see my 'will do for the day' output. I'll keep all the gradient colour fun I've had to myself.

I play too much with everything. The function I can locate the easiest is 'undo'.

 

Good news: The classrooms are getting smaller in OECD countries. 

Disclosure: I have no other data and/or skills to find out about the break-up for each OECD country, and if there's more to it than meets the eye here. 

Take-away: Focus on one thing (even if it's less fun) and etch that better.