Entrance Exam for Grammar School

[ticker]

At the moment all of the information from this process from parents who have applied to the school for their children, to when the entrance exam is taken and marked,etc. It is all done between an access database and excel spreadsheets. Since starting at the school i have expressed my concern that only the Heads PA and an outside contractor (don't ask long story) are the only two people who know how the system works.

Does any other school that requires an entrance exam use any software that could do this whole process for us without having to keep going to this outside contractor to make changes etc.

[featured_spectre]

What sort of changes do you require?

 

The last place I worked at had their own in house system made using a MySQL database and a webpage front end. It did the job quite nicely (however I couldn't make a copy).

[teejay]

If you're using SIMS, couldn't you do this in Exams Organiser with external candidates? I think most of the MIS exams systems will support external candidates.

[SovietRussia]

PHP + MySQL

 

One db table called "students" with the field names as

"id, name, mark" (Add your own options)

 

On the page:

 

// put your mysql connector here

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM students WHERE mark > 60"); // Change the 60 to what the minimum successful entry mark is.
while($get = mysql_fetch_array($sql))
{
    echo('
' . $get[name] . '');
}

?>

 

(This is just a concept, feel free to use it)

[ticker]

Cheers, i suppose the really issue is that nobody in school including the heads PA really knows how it works, because she just asks the guy to make changes but there is no documentation. From what she has shown me so far in the access database it just tables, queries and forms. In the excel spreadsheets it is using formulas, v-look ups and i suspect macro's. The thing is it works, and it works ok, but instead of paying this guy a lot of money every year to help out i hope we could do it in house but it all depends whether this chap will provide either documentation or show me how it works.