lookup

five marks: right lookup function, right lookup value, table on the Costs sheet, correct column index, exact match, with absolute references so it copies down — each is a separate, independently gradeable piece of the formula. When copied, the lookup value moves down one row each time (relative), but the Costs table must stay put (absolute): the whole point of a lookup table is that every row's formula searches the same reference table for its own key, so the key must shift with each row while the table itself must not. If the table was not locked, the range would slide down and eventually return #N/A, because a few rows down the table reference would have drifted past the real data entirely, searching an empty or unrelated range. If Costs is arranged across columns instead of down, use HLOOKUP or XLOOKUP — the horizontal-lookup equivalents of the same underlying search-and-return idea.

marks for lookup/combo box type, correct source table, correct column. A Lookup field doesn't just restrict typing to a list — it replaces free-text entry with a controlled, consistent set of values pulled live from another table, which is the whole reason it's used here instead of a plain Short Text field with a validation rule. If tblSectors has an ID and a name and Sector stores the name, bind to the name column, otherwise Sector would be filled with numbers: a lookup's underlying stored value is whichever column you bind it to, so binding to the ID column by mistake would store meaningless numeric codes in a field meant to hold readable sector names, even though the dropdown itself might still display the names correctly.

the paper says A1:F1 but lists only five names, and B2:F2 are the formula cells. So the five names naturally sit in B1:F1, directly above their results — read the cell ranges literally rather than assuming A1 must hold the first name, since the given layout (one blank-ish label cell in A1, five names from B1 onward) is what actually matches both the instruction and the five results expected in B2:F2. VLOOKUP's column index is 5 because Q4 is the fifth column of A:E (Sector, Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4) — VLOOKUP counts columns from the left edge of its own table argument, starting at 1, so the index has to match that table's layout exactly, not the worksheet's column letters. B$1 keeps the row fixed while the column moves when copied right, and the table is absolute so it does not shift: this is a mixed reference (row locked, column free) feeding the lookup value, paired with a fully absolute reference locking the lookup table — exactly the two reference types the spreadsheets notes describe, combined for a formula that's meant to be copied sideways rather than down. FALSE forces an exact match, the same safeguard against wrong approximate matches covered throughout the function notes. Marks: sheet, names, correct lookup, copy across.