  The present paper reports the results of testing first year students of
Informatics on their algorithmic skills and knowledge transfer abilities in
spreadsheet environments. The selection of students plays a crucial role in the
project. On the one hand, they have officially finished their spreadsheet
training - they know everything - while on the other hand, they do not need any
training, since they are digital natives, to whom digital skills are assigned
by birth. However, we found that the students had serious difficulties in
solving the spreadsheet problems presented: so low were their results that it
allowed us to form broad tendencies. Considering computational thinking,
algorithmic skills, and knowledge transfer abilities, it is clear that those
students performed better who used algorithm-based, multilevel array formulas
instead of problem specific, unconnected built-in functions. Furthermore, we
can conclude that students, regardless of their birth date and digital
generation assigned to them, are in great need of official, high-mathability,
algorithm-based training with expert teachers.

Human-Computer Interaction