Many schools have a marksheet like the one above – a marksheet that takes all the assessments in a single term across all the subjects offered by school. Once you have a marksheet like this, SIMS Assessment Manager makes it easy to generate various key performance indicates (KPIs) such as:
- Total GCSE Points Score
- Capped GCSE Points Score
- Number of A*-C grades
- Number of A*-C grades including English and Maths
In this article, I’ll show you how simple it is to calculate the Total GCSE Points Score and the Capped GCSE Points Score.
First, Create a Summary Marksheet
If you don’t have one already, a summary marksheet just displays all the subjects you offer. You’ll need to create one per term. When completed it will look like the marksheet above (yours might not have colours, it doesn’t matter).
Total GCSE Points Score
This calculation is quick and simple if your GCSE grades are in a gradeset that reflects the official GCSE points scores. If you’re not sure, open a marksheet that contains the GCSE grades and right click the column heading. Choose ‘Aspect Details’ from the menu and look towards the bottom of the screen displayed. You’ll see all the grades listed. Next to the grades you’ll see the points score values that SIMS will use for the grades. Make sure your school system is set up with the correct points (tip: C grades are worth 40 points!).
Note: If you offer double or half GCSE courses, each aspect should ideally be in a gradeset that reflects this. Eg a double GCSE grade C is worth 80 points and should be in a special ‘double points’ gradeset.
- Create an aspect called “Total GCSE Points Score”. It should be a marks integer aspect in the range 0 to 1000.
- Within the summary template add a ‘new column for data entry using a formula’ formula.
- Select the new “Total GCSE Points Score” aspect and choose the same resultset you are using for the other aspects (eg Year 10 Autumn Term)
- Choose the SUM formula
- Tick each of the GCSE subjects you’d like to include in the total
Capped GCSE Points Score
Also known as the ‘best 8’ points score, this KPI is just the total score of the highest eight GCSE grades. Calculating this is a little bit more complex.
- Create an aspect called “Capped GCSE Point Score”
- On the template, add a new “column for data entry using a formula”
- Use the new aspect and the same resultset as before
- We’re going to use the MAX formula to choose the highest grade over all the columns
- Create a new “column for data review using a formula” (note this a “review” column, not “data entry”)
- Call it MAX1 and use the MAX formula as per this screenshot:
- Repeat this process with a column called MAX2. This new column is exactly the same as MAX1, except the entry in the ‘Max’ box should be 2. This makes the formula return the value of the second highest grade. See below:
- Repeat this for MAX3 to MAX8
- Add a “column for data entry using a formula”
- Use the “Capped GCSE Points Score” aspect created earlier and the relevant resultset
- Use the SUM formula to add all the MAX columns together.
- Open your marksheet and press calculate.
Comments