Sims examination and A2c help

[Mellas]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help. I work at a School which currently has two sims systems. In the past I have been making the exam entries manually via the exam awarding bodies own websites. However the number of students and the number of exam subjects is growing, making this method very time consuming.

I was wondering whether there was anyway that I could use our two sims systems and upload the files via A2C?

Kind regards

[pete]

Explain the "two SIMS systems" part. Are you entering candidates from both systems? Are they the same or a different centre number?

 

A2C looks at your EXAMOUT and EXAMIN folders on the SIMS share. If it finds an entry file in EXAMOUT and can match it to a configured exam board it'll upload the file. Results files are downloaded to EXAMIN.

[Banjo]

In Exams - you make a marksheet, put a tick against the students you want to enter for an exam and press save. The make a exams entry file, by pushing a button and then upload that to the exams board. If you remove or add a tick from the marksheet (eg a student drops out) then you make an amendment file that you upload to the exam board.

 

Results file come back to the schoool and you click on a button to import them - simple really.

 

Having said that, the Exams module can be a pain in the backside managing the basedata!

[Mellas]

Hi Pete,

thank you for your reply. Unfortunately our school is having to use two different Sims systems as we have two DFE numbers. Ideally I would like to use just one exam number to make all my entries. Is there a way that I could use sims examination organiser and A2C?

Kind regards

[Shaner88]

As pete says it depends on how many centre numbers (the 5 digit one) you have and if the same students exist in both SIMS databases.

 

If you have different students in both databases and two centre numbers, then you should be able to use Exams as normal

If you have different students in both databases and one centre number, then you may be able to use Exams but you would need to be really careful about whether your files were Entries or Amendments, and you would only receive one results file, not two.

[PeteLambert]

There is a lesser known feature of the A2C migration application that allows the use of multiple centre numbers.

 

 

Essentially, the access key provided by the Awarding Organisation has the details for the authorised centre embedded within it. The A2C Migration Application only allows a single access key per Awarding Organisation, so to support multiple centres you will need to contact the Awarding Organisation to request a "Multi-Centre Access Key" that contains both centre numbers.

 

 

I am not sure how two SIMS systems would cope with them both having the inbox and outbox configured to the same location. If I had to guess, I would assume that they only pick up EDI files with the appropriate centre number, however I could not be sure.

 

 

If you have any further questions, let me know.

[LosOjos]

I wrote a tool some time back to help with the SIMS side of this. Basically, you set up a CSV file for each centre, the name of which should be the centre number. Inside each CSV is a list of all the exam numbers (i.e. candiadates) linked to that centre. You then produce your entry files as usual in SIMS, and feed the resulting file in to my tool which splits it for you ready to upload.

 

Exam File Split - Geek Josh

 

It's been a long time since I used it, but as far as I'm aware there haven't been any changes to the file format so it should be fine. I would of course recommend testing it before using it 'for real' though!

[Mellas]

Thank you for your replies. We did have two exam centre numbers but it has been agreed that we can leave one dormant and use the other to make all the exam entries. With our sims, we have different students registered under each of the two sims systems. Currently I have to log in and then out to switch between them both.