C|Contents
01| The Results Day Survival Kit 1
Overview 1
Information Relating to Missing QANs 2
Procedures to Complete before Results Day 3
Group Performance Analysis Classes with Two Courses 3
Group Performance Analysis Printing by Course 4
Group Performance Analysis Class/Course Links 4
Group Performance Analysis Additional Option 4
Group Performance Analysis Summary Columns 4
!Unexpected End of Formula
The Format of Grades 5
Non EDI Results in PI Calculations 6
GCSE Science 8
Modern Foreign Languages 9
Key Skills Certification 9
Pass/Fail Gradesets (Gradeset M) 10
Welsh Baccalaureate 10
OCR Cambridge National Units 11
BTEC Results in Analysis Reports 11
BTSC Equivalences 11
JCQ Formats Version 14 11
The English Baccalaureate 12
English 12
Maths 12
Humanities 12
Languages 12
Science 12
Deleting Manually Entered Results 13
The Top Examinations Organiser Solutions 14
01| The Results Day Survival Kit01|The Results Day Survival Kit
Overview 1Procedures to Complete before Results Day 3
Access to Results on Download Day 5
The Format of Grades 5
Non EDI Results in PI Calculations 6
Key Skills Certification 9
Pass/Fail Gradesets (Gradeset M) 10
Welsh Baccalaureate 10
OCR Cambridge National Units 11
BTEC Results in Analysis Reports 11
BTSC Equivalences 11
JCQ Formats Version 14 11
The English Baccalaureate 12
Deleting Manually Entered Results 13
The Top Examinations Organiser Solutions 13
Overview
This document is intended to provide Examinations Officers with all the most up-to-date information to help you achieve successful Results Download Days.
The current mechanism assumes that a given grade at a given level yields a consistent value in terms of points and threshold equivalences. This is not satisfactory because the basedata for vocational qualifications does not always satisfy this assumption.
From 2013 onwards, we have revised the routines for collating and evaluating a candidate's results. Secondary schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland must import a copy of the Performance Measures file for use in PI. There are two Performance Measures files - one for schools in England and Northern Ireland only (Performance Measures ENG and NI ONLY.XML) and one for schools in Wales only (Performance Measures WALES ONLY.XML). An additional file provided by C2K can also be imported (NIEFQAN.XML). These files are available from SupportNet and can be imported via Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Import Qualification Data in SIMS.
These files contain information that has been derived from the Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ) provided by Ofqual (for schools in England and Northern Ireland) and by the Database of Approved Qualifications in Wales (DAQW, for schools in Wales).
The RRQ and DAQW comprises the details of recognised Awarding Bodies and their qualifications for England (Ofqual), Northern Ireland and Wales (Estyn), together with the unit structure of the qualifications.
Please refer to The New Course Manager handbook for more detailed information relating to the import of the applicable Performance Measures file.
Information Relating to Missing QANs
To ensure that the new routines work correctly, it is essential that each certification element for which results are to be collated, is associated with the correct QAN. This should not cause a problem for the general basedata provided by the main Unitary Awarding Bodies but there may be areas where QANs have been omitted from the basedata.
It is possible to manually enter a missing QAN in the Element Properties via Focus | Basedata, although the certification elements without an associated QAN tend to be the elements where it can be most difficult to identify the correct value.
BTEC Basedata
The BTEC basedata does not always contain QANs. You can try to identify the missing QANs by referring to the Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ) on the Ofqual website. However, this can be problematic because the entry code is not given, the title is in a different format and the level designations differ.
CIE
The Register of Regulated Qualifications (RRQ) contains references to CIE ‘Level1/Level 2 Certificates’, with grades and values equivalent to GCSEs, from which the appropriate QANs may be identified. However, these are absent from the basedata. Representations have been made to BTEC and CIE to have this omission corrected but it will not be rectified for 2013.
Once you have imported the relevant Performance Measures .xml file, you can print two new reports that enable you to check the integrity of the QANs in the basedata:
- Certification Elements without QANs - this report lists the Series Code and Description, Board, Entry Code and Title of all basedata elements without a QAN. You must enter the missing QANs via Focus | Basedata | Basedata for Season dialog to ensure the accuracy of the PI data.
- Certification Elements with unmatched QANs - this report lists the Series Code and Description, Board, Entry Code, Title and QAN of all basedata elements that have a different QAN from the QAN details provided in the Performance Measures .xml file. This may be because the AB has recorded it wrongly, or because it is no longer eligible for inclusion, or because it is an omission on the part of RRQ. You must correct the QANs in the basedata to ensure the accuracy of the PI data.
NOTE: Both of these reports check the QAN information held for the past 4 years.
Pending the upgrade to the Summer release, it is also possible to run a report in Exams Organiser via Reports | Basedata | Structure, select Elements from the Result Type drop-down, and identify any Certification item that does not have a QAN. You can also run the Duplicate QAN Report via Tools | Statutory Return Tools | Duplicate QAN Report.
NOTE: There is a large amount of data involved here which Capita SIMS are not in a position to validate. If you find and report anomalies to RRQ/DAQW, please also notify other users via SupportNet forum postings.
Procedures to Complete before Results Day
- Upgrade to the latest SIMS Main Release to install the latest version of Examinations Organiser.
- Ensure that you have access to the Processing Results and Calculating PI Data in Exams Organiser handbook.
This handbook can be accessed from the Documentation Centre which is launched by clicking the Documentation button on the Home Page in SIMS. Once open, click the Handbooks button, select the required category, then click the required handbook from the Handbooks page.
- It is also suggested that you download the SIMS Guide to Importing and Analysing Examination Results from SupportNet. The current Resource Number is 19604. This guide should be read in conjunction with the latest version of the Preparing Examinations Organiser for an Exams Season handbook.
- Ensure that you have access to the Capita SIMS Exams Web Support site (http://support.capitaes.co.uk/hottopics). This site is updated as the Results Day progresses and any issues that are identified are allocated solutions, where possible, and made available immediately for all registered users.
Group Performance Analysis Classes with Two Courses
The introduction of Course Manager means that it is possible to associate a class with more than one course. The commonest example of this is where Year 11 English classes prepare some or all candidates for English Literature as well as English Language. The likeliest structure for this within Exams Organiser comprises an English Language and an English Literature award, each with its Higher and Foundation options, both linked to a course called English (GCSEF). When GPA reports on this, there is no differentiation, in either Class or Course mode, between the two ‘subjects’.
The situation can be improved by using Course Manager. If you have a subject called English Literature (perhaps for GCE purposes), create a course called English Literature (GCSEF), and save it. Link this course to any classes that deliver Literature alongside Language, save it, and run the Update Course Membership routine. In Exams Organiser, select Tools | School Setup | Awards and associate the Literature award with the new course.
When you next run the Group Performance Analysis report, the Classes mode operates as before. The results still belong to the correct classes but the Course option can now differentiate correctly between the subjects.
If you want to differentiate at class level, run the Group Performance Analysis report twice. For example, in the case of the pattern described above, where Year 11 English sets deliver both Language and Literature, run the Group Performance Analysis report once with only the Language award linked to the course, then run it again with only the Literature award linked to the course.
Group Performance Analysis Printing by Course
An issue has been detected whereby if Course mode is specified, without Expand Groups or Page per Subject, and there is only one page of the report, it sometimes fails to print in spite of a successful preview. This behaviour is due to an unidentified problem in the QuickReports utility. If this occurs, the option to Export is suggested instead.
Group Performance Analysis Class/Course Links
The Parameters screen enables you to set a class membership qualifying date. However, the date used to identify the class/course links in operation at the required point of time reflects the season start date. Therefore, successful operation requires that the courses associated with the awards were in operation on (usually) 1 May.
NOTE: The level specified in the course name is not significant for the purposes of this report.
This may cause an issue for schools that have recently revised their class levels using the Curriculum Matching wizard.
If the changes were implemented after this date and awards re-linked, two options are available:
- restore the award links to their previous values
- while producing the report, adjust the season start date to a date after the transfer ensuring that you change it back after running the report.
Group Performance Analysis Additional Option
An additional option is available in the GPA. There is a way to calculate residuals against the Matching Qualification, so, if GCSE is selected as the qualification, only GCSEs are taken into account.
Group Performance Analysis Summary Columns
0Avge is the average score per equivalent entry for the group under analysis. The exact definition of ‘equivalent entry’ depends on the stage and qualification under analysis, but the general sense relates to whatever has been determined by the DfE as the basic ‘unit of currency’ at the particular stage. At Keystage 4, it is a GCSE Full Course; at Post-16 level it is a GCE A2 certification.
Other qualifications and levels have been assigned equivalences in this way. A GCSE/SC and a GCE/ASB count as 0.5; GCE/DA counts as 2, GCE/AAS counts as 1.5. GCSE/DA would count as 2, except that two grades are issued, each counting as 1.
For example, in a class of 20 where 12 had achieved a GCSE/FC and 8 a GCSE/SC, the denominator is 16.
If the group is expanded, the same principle applies, except that each row represents a group of one person. However, this does not mean that the denominator is always 1. For example, if the subject is RE and the candidate has achieved a B grade at SC, the actual point score is 23, but the average per entry is 46.
This approach ensures consistency when the Avge column is taken in the context of the other two columns. If a GCE candidate has achieved 3 A-Levels and 1 AS, all at grade B, the average points per entry (‘All Av’) is 240. If the AS is displayed as 120, and the All Average as 240, a residual of 0 would seem incorrect, but a residual of 120 is inaccurate.
There is some dispute over the use of the term Residual, either the difference between this result and the overall average, or the difference between this result and the average for everything else. In the interests of consistency, and because where the residual is displayed, it uses as its comparator, the value pre-calculated by the PI routine, the first of these alternatives has been adopted.
Access to Results on Download Day
There is a DfE stipulation that although the download of results can commence from midnight on the day before Results Day, access to results must be limited to Examinations Officers and the Senior Management Team until the official publication days.
Please ensure that you have used the provision to specify the required period of embargo, and the personnel authorised to access the results during this period via Tools | School Setup | Results Embargo.
The only situation where we are unable to protect results that are subject to embargo is where a Candidate Statement of Results Report has been exported to the Document Management Server via Reports | Results | Candidate Statement of Results and it is not possible to identify the affected documents.
The Format of Grades
There is a limitation in the outgoing EDI system, in that the grade field in the Results file is limited to two characters. This is satisfactory for mainstream general qualifications, except for dual certifications awarded A*A* or A*A, but it is not designed to accommodate BTEC Level 3 Extended Diplomas, which can go up to D*D*D*.The solution adopted for EDI, with D*D*D* rendered as D1, D*D*D as D2 etc., conflicts with Diplomas running up to D*D*, also rendered as D1.
The Performance Measures .xml file does not contain abbreviations and offers only ‘Distinction* Distinction* Distinction*’, which does not lend itself to a columned display. Negotiations are ongoing with the JCQ about how A2C will manage this problem, an abbreviated form of the grade has been requested, but this has not yet been resolved.
We have devised a solution to carry us across the A2C migration and have settled on a 10-character format.This enables us to distinguish between D*D*D* and D*D*, and also to distinguish between the D which is part of a scale which runs from A*-G, and the D which stands above M and P.
It is this new format which has been adopted for the Exam_PI_Result record which appears in the Edit PI Data listing of candidates’ results:
- GCSE grades are expanded so that A*A* appears in full
- Gradeset D/3 is shown as (Dist*)/Dist./Merit/Pass
- DiDA results as Dist./Merit/Credit/Pass
- Double-width BTECs as Dist*Dist*/Dist*Dist./Dist.Dist./Dist.Merit/MeritMerit/MeritPass/PassPass.
Direct Non-EDI entry offers the new-style grades, and the Candidate Statement of Results report shows the new values for results entered as non-EDI, although it retains the old values for everything else.