Exam Submissions File Format?

[LosOjos]

Hi all,

 

does anybody have any details about the format of exam submissions files?

 

I've taken a look at one in notepad and can see that it's plain text and see some logic to the layout, but could do with a sort of 'White paper' on the format.

 

In case anybody's curious, my aim is to solve the problem of having to make entries in one SIMS database from a school using two different centre numbers. If I can work out the format of the file, I'm 99% certain a fix could be made that would simply take the submissions file for one centre and 'strip out' the students that are from the other centre (using a predefined list that could be generated by a simple SIMS report for most schools) and place them in to a new submissions file, taking away the need to keep changing the centre number in Exams (which doesn't appear to help anyway as when you create the submissions file it will just use the centre number that is set at the time of creation anyway).

 

Any help will be thanked

[AndyCope]

The full details are published by JCQ

 

http://www.jcq.org.uk/attachments/published/1236/JCQ%20Formats%20%2D%20Version%2013%20Final%201.2%20%28March%202010%29.pdf

 

This doucment should answer any queries

 

Please note this is for version 13 of the basedata spec which came into operation at the beginning of September - You may therefore need to check that any 'old' files you are playing with are V13 spec...

[LosOjos]

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for

[emmaburt]

Hey LosOjos

 

did you ever get anywhere with splitting out the submission files, cos i think i've just stumbled apon a problem for my split site entries for January.

 

We need to send off entry files for both sites entries for Jan exams but as there is only one lot of base data for both pre 16 and post 16 it will only create one entry file, therefore i cant change the centre number in the school set up when i create the file as its only going to make 1 per exam board!

 

love to know if you managed to figure it out.

 

thanks

[scholarpack]

Slughtly O/T by why aren't exam submissions handled by XML/web services these days? Fiddling round with parsing text based files seems very ancient.

[powdarrmonkey]

Slughtly O/T by why aren't exam submissions handled by XML/web services these days? Fiddling round with parsing text based files seems very ancient.

 

Because you assume that exam boards are competent and proactive, and want to help their customers.

[LosOjos]

Hey LosOjos

 

did you ever get anywhere with splitting out the submission files, cos i think i've just stumbled apon a problem for my split site entries for January.

 

We need to send off entry files for both sites entries for Jan exams but as there is only one lot of base data for both pre 16 and post 16 it will only create one entry file, therefore i cant change the centre number in the school set up when i create the file as its only going to make 1 per exam board!

 

love to know if you managed to figure it out.

 

thanks

 

Hi emmaburt, we had the exact same problem and I wrote a small program that splits the file in to two separate submissions files, however it's not in a very user friendly format at the minute as I had about 15 minutes to write it before the submissions needed to be sent. I'll happily edit it a little to work for you (eventually I hope to make it easy enough to use that anybody in the same position can use it), but need to know some details from you first, I'll PM you.

 

Because you assume that exam boards are competent and proactive, and want to help their customers.

 

It doesn't help that SIMS doesn't support multiple exam centres and Capita tell you/your local support team that you will receive absolutely no support if you try to use multiple centre numbers. Somebody needs to budge, whether it's the MIS suppliers or the exam boards, one of them needs to give a little help here!

[emmaburt]

Hi josh,

 

it won't let me pm you back.

 

yes we use a similar format so student exam numbers our post 16 students are 5000 or 4000. we then don't need to split it out more than that as everything on one site is pre 16 so 7000 or 8000 and all post 16 is on the other site.

 

hope that makes sense.

 

thanks

 

Emma

[LosOjos]

I think I get it Emma, I'll alter my program in the morning and send it to you

[emmaburt]

Much appreciated!