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What are people doing to run exams on Chrome Books Normally for exams we used windows laptops with word on them with no internet and students saved to a usb. The students are now using chrome books and looking for a way to replicate or a better option. One option might be docs offline and block internet with senso but wondering was there better options these are for in house exams I saw digiexam and trelson but not sure are they too complicated essentially we want a computer that can type and save to usb with no internet access Thanks Sean

We’re exploring banning USB sticks and although can easily allow these for our exam accounts, I wonder how others handle completed work. Do you have them save it to the account, and move/print it after? Should you allow USBs for exam accounts?

Hi All, It is very VERY common that when we are using SIMS.Net Examinations Organiser it will sometimes simply stop printing to anything, whether it be PDF, Fax or an actual printer it will do nothing. Any other application will work fine and will continue to print, but Examinations Organiser will not. This has been an ongoing issue ever since we got SIMS.Net 3 years ago, and I took the assumption that it was simply a bug that was going to be ironed out at some point which of course has not been the case. We've tried several things to try and resolve the issue such as restarting the Print Spooler service, reinstalling the printer, restarting the PC (which sometimes fixes it and sometimes doesn't) and so on but there is no definitive fix for the issue. Sometimes removing the printer, reinstalling it and then setting the printer to default and reloading SIMS.Net/Exams will fix the issue but surely this should not be common practice for someone who wants to print a simple report from Exams Organiser. Has anyone ever ran into this issue before themselves? And is there a fix for it? We've recently been rendered unable to contact SIMS.Net through their Bedford helpdesk and now have to go through our new support unit instead which is just more hassle than it should be. Whenever I ring (which has only been a few occasions) they like to make you feel like you've done something wrong by ringing them, but that's another story altogether! If anyone can help that would be great! Thanks.

Can anyone else that knows how take a look in Exams and check that their summer 2010 season is NOT available when you go to "Reports > Results > Candidate Statement of Results" & then look in the Selection box. Ours is currently defaulting to the previous season as the current one is not there. Else where Summer 2010 does appear fine so my hypothesis is that in an update it has been changed to hide any seasons with no results in. Ta

Hi Happy New Year to one and all, I am interested in completing either the MCSE or the CCNA courses, but can't decide which one is better. I could study the CCNA at my old University down the road from where I live, but they want £1800 for the 28 week course. The CCNA is very "hands on" and you learn alot more about networking principles, right from the basics to real techie nerdy stuff, which might suit me more. However, the MSCE teaches you about Active Directory, SQL Server and Polocies which (as an IT Technician in a school) is more relevant to my current post. I have seen on the DVDs on ebay for the complete MSCE course, and the MCSE appears to be very "self taught" which i might struggle with. Has anyone complete either of these courses? which would be best in the long run? Regards firefox_2006

Hi there, This is my first time setting up SIMS for a proper exam season. When attempting to import basedata for Edexcel GCSE, it gives me two file options - S6Y24_10.X01 (BTEC) and S6G24_10.X01 (GCSE). Having imported the BTEC file in first, it doesn't permit me to import the GCSE contents afterward. Evidently I'm doing something wrong, but no amount of googling has provided any results pertaining to this specific issue. Is there a workaround? Thanks for your time and any help. Pollock

I assume some schools are using this for real exams. We have used it with Chromebooks for recent mock exams but our Exams office are concerned that it doesn't quite meet the requirements set out by the JCQ ICE document (https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ICE_21-22_FINAL.pdf) and I tend to agree. I am looking at section 14.25 (page 30) of the linked document. I don't think ChromEx meets the following criteria. Strictly speaking, ChromEx does not meet this requirement because candidates will not be using an attached printer nor a portable storage medium. Their exam is printed by a member of staff, after the exam is over and the candidates then signs it before leaving the venue. The Chromebook and ChromEx by design will be connected to the internet. ChromEx therefore doesn't seen to comply with the strict letter of this rule. I think ChromEx certainly complies with the sprit of these rules, I think the problem is badly written rules that probably haven't been updated in years but I wonder if anyone has had anything in writing that says ChromEx is okay to use (or even the opposite, I suppose) from JCQ or any of the exam boards?

We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated, enthusiastic, and professional Management Information Systems (MIS) and Exams Officer. An exciting opportunity to join a professional and purposeful central IT & Data team to support the ongoing development of a successful all-through Academy. Bobby Moore Academy is an all through school, providing a world-class education for the children of east London which is transformational in its impact on their life chances. We are situated across two iconic sites on the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and our Secondary phase is now heavily oversubscribed. We are building partnerships with the new East Bank development, bringing incredible opportunities to the young people of East London. Since the school was founded in 2017, we have set ambitious academic standards backed up by exciting enrichment opportunities, whilst nurturing and caring for the wellbeing of every child. At capacity, our two sites will accommodate over 1500 pupils, including a Sixth Form opening in September 2022. We currently have over 700 pupils on roll across Reception, Year 1, Year 2, and Years 7-10 in the Secondary phase. The academy will grow year on year to reach full capacity in 2024. About the Role The strongest candidates will be committed to attaining the highest standards as Bobby Moore Academy welcomes its first cohort of Year 11s from September 2021. As a growing, thriving school based in the Olympic Park, London, we are looking for someone to make an impact in creating and running the first GCSE examination year at our school. Working as part of a nationwide Central IT & Data Team, the ideal candidate will have the full support of the team but bring in their own experience and ideas to ensure our Bromcom MIS system is fully embedded in school and remains the core system for improving children’s outcomes. The purpose of the role is to oversee the operation of the core MIS, reporting systems and data returns, ensuring these systems are effective, efficient and provide timely insights. The post holder will also coordinate the administrative and compliance elements of qualification registration, award claims and exams. You would take a strategic lead for all aspects of the school examination process. This includes implementation of new elements of Bromcom MIS. To work strategically with the Senior leadership team to use school performance data to improve standards. To comply with the policies and procedures relating to child protection, health, safety and security, confidentiality and data protection. To be successful in this role you will be proficient in the use of Microsoft Office products, experienced in processing data quickly and accurately and have a methodical and organised approach to your work. You’ll also have excellent communication skills and the ability to work under pressure and to deadlines whilst maintaining a high level of attention to detail and accuracy. Closing Date: 21/06/2021 https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/dret/displayjob.aspx?jobid=2229

Hi all. For years we've relied on a group policy for Word built on this thread, but this year exams have started requiring students to create a Powerpoint with spellchecking disabled. Our current Word policy works fine with Powerpoint except for autocorrect behaviour. "Testingg" has its extra g removed for example. I was wondering if anyone else is having to deal with locking Powerpoint down for exam purposes?

Does anyone else have exams upcoming which are needing to use Adobe Creative Cloud? How do you handle the fact that it needs a login now?

So, we run exams here and have just been advised that VTCT exams (online web based exams) now require us to monitor ALL activity on ALL exam PCs while an exam is in progress. It is up to us to determine how we do this, but it would appear all network and PC usage needs to be monitored and sent to them after each exam. Anyone else experiencing this? How the hack are you going to execute this? In anticipation...…….

Hi all Does anyone know of a place in Norfolk (or Suffolk) that does prometric exams (for Microsoft exams) I used to use Jarrolds and ActiveTalk in the past, but both of these stopped doing them - so it now looks like a long drive to Peterborough or Cambridge to do them, which sort of puts me off doing them, as was so easy being able to pop in and do one locally Thanks

At my school we are having some debate as to whether WordPad is the most appropriate software for use in public exams where spelling and grammar checkers are not permitted. The issue is that unlike Word it does not autosave work and we have had some instances where pupils work has mysteriously not been saved! What software does your school use? Wordpad Notepad Word 2010 Something else

Hi all. Has anyone got anywhere with this issue. Nightmare administering two centre numbers from one SIMS database. The only way we have managed to do this is by doing the following: 1. Enter pupils in the first site 2. Generate an entry file 3. Submit via A2C (have a multi centre licence) 4. Enter pupils for the second site 5. Change the centre number under EO to the second site 6. Generate an amendments file. Don't think you can generate another entries file for the second site. Use a small set of pupils just to get entries in to generate for the second site. 7. Amend the amendments file so it now becomes an entry file for the second site 8. Send the entry file for the second site via A2C Both sites now have an entry file sent for each centre number. 9. After that we have to do all amendments file for the first centre first and then generate the file and send that off via A2C and then do all the amendments for the second site and send that off separately. Otherwise the file will contain a mixture of the both sites! Does anybody else have a better workaround? Any help would be appreciated.

Feversham Education Trust is looking for a Data, Exams and MIS Manager to join our central team. Please apply using the link below: https://www.eteach.com/careers/fevershameducationtrust/job/data-exams-and-mis-manager-1173938?lang=en-GB

Hi all, I've got an issue where the Examinations Officer is using Microsoft Print to PDF in SIMS, this is calling the Papercut prompt to select a department whenever attempting to save the output of reports. For some strange reason, this occurs on SIMS Examinations and works on a multitude of other software. Troubleshooting: I have set Microsoft Print to PDF as the default printer It utilises the Print to File Port Driver is Microsoft Print To PDF On SIMS Printer Setup is set as Microsoft Print to PDF I am at a loss as to why Papercut would see this as a call to arms, am I missing some configuration?

Hi Everyone Basically, we (serveral schools) are part of a massive joint domain and I work across 2 of the sites. Site A and Site B. Site A is happy, SIMS works locally, Woohoo Site B is happy, SIMS Works locally, Woohoo. Data Officer at Site B runs a HTA I made to switch between Site A SIMS (S:) and Site B SIMS (T:) The HTA just copies and overwrites the connect.ini and sims.ini to the appropriate folder (x86 / x64) Depending whether she wants to connect to Site A (S:) or Site B (T:) Now the issue. Everything works until we looked at the exams module. When the connect.ini and SIMS.ini are aimed at Site B (T:), the exams module is still looking at Site A (S:), even though everything else you find in SIMS is infact for Site B (T:) as it should be. That's 2 separate Sites / Servers / Databases. My question is how is this possible? Is there some cache or other .ini file that we need to replace as the exams module is an extra I believe? Thanks Steve

Hi All, I am currently looking at locking down 2 Windows 10 laptops that need to be used for exams. I need to know how I can get rid of the A-Z apps in the start menu so it is completely blank! I also want to be able to disable any sort of spell checker and hide the C:/ drive from there user account. The only thing they can really use is Microsoft word/powerpoint and have access to a folder in which they can save there work to. Does anyone recommend any software that would do this for me? Or steps for me to be able to do this myself? Thanks, Taylor