Below, I entered what goes into A2, A3, and A4, respectively. They
get entered as text. Notice that only the first line of this is
what's different.

A2
- Derivatives 36 * - -
- Economics 18 * - -
- Equity Analysis 72 - - *
- Ethical & Professional Stnds. 36 - - *
- Financial Statement Analysis 108 - - *
- Fixed Income Analysis 36 - * -
- General Portfolio Management 36 * - -
- Quantitative Analysis 18 - * -

A3
- Derivatives 36 - * -
- Economics 18 * - -
- Equity Analysis 72 - - *
- Ethical & Professional Stnds. 36 - - *
- Financial Statement Analysis 108 - - *
- Fixed Income Analysis 36 - * -
- General Portfolio Management 36 * - -
- Quantitative Analysis 18 - * -

A4
- Derivatives 36 - - *
- Economics 18 * - -
- Equity Analysis 72 - - *
- Ethical & Professional Stnds. 36 - - *
- Financial Statement Analysis 108 - - *
- Fixed Income Analysis 36 - * -
- General Portfolio Management 36 * - -
- Quantitative Analysis 18 - * -

In cell b2, I'd like to print out an output which corresponds to the
"Derivatives 36" score. The score is either "* - -", "- * -", or "- -
*". If it's the first case (with the asterisks all the way to the
left), then the score is 0.40, second case is a 0.6, and finally,
0.8.

I'm aware of "=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Derivatives 36 - * -", A2))......."
as an option, but I'm having great difficulty with the syntax. I'd
basically like to create an algorithm with the following syntax/logic
for B2:B4:

=if (isnumber(search"Derivatives 36 * - -", a2)), 0.4 (if
(isnumber(search"Derivatives 36 - * -", a2)), 0.6, 0.8)

But this is syntatically wrong. Keep in mind, that I'd like to enter
0.4 if the asterisk is all the way to the left, a 0.6 if the asterisk
is in the middle, and a 0.8 if the asterisk is at the right.

Once you help me with this, then I can figure out the rest for the
entire scores (for Economics, etc.) on my own.

Please give me guidance and/or suggestions.