The PC-SIG Library 10

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ The PC-SIG Library 10 / The PC-Sig Library - Shareware for the IBM PC and Compatibles (PC-SIG)(Tenth Edition Disks 1-2804)(1991).iso / PC_SIGCD / 15 / 1 / DISK1512.ZIP / MANUAL < prev next >

Wrap

Text File | 1990-06-30 | 61KB | 1,513 lines

MARK RECORD Plus V2.82 (C) Copyright Andy Phillips, 1985-90 (C) Copyright Microsoft Corp., 1985-90 (portions) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. SYSTEM SET UP 2 3. THE MAIN MENU 4 4. SETTING UP A NEW COURSE 4 5. RECORDING MARKS 7 6. EDITING MARKS 9 7. PRINTING REPORTS 14 8. OTHER OPTIONS 17 APPENDICES 1. CALCULATIONS 18 2. DATA FILE ORGANIZATION 19 INDEX 21 USER REGISTRATION 22 page 1 INTRODUCTION 1. INTRODUCTION This program, written in Compiled Basic, is intended for teachers who wish to use their computer to record and calculate their students' marks. The program has been designed to run on most IBM compatible computers with one or more floppy disk drives and at least 128K of memory. Either a monochrome or colour monitor may be used. The program is ideally suited for a hard drive system, however, it can be used effectively with either a double 5.25 floppy drive, or a single 3.5 drive system. Please take the time to read through this manual carefully before attempting to use the program. The section on SETTING UP A NEW COURSE is extremely important. Appendix 1. CALCULATIONS should be studied in detail to make certain that the program calculates student marks as you would. LIMITATIONS This program can handle up to 50 students in a given class, up to 50 sets of marks for each student, and from one to four terms per semester. It works equally well for semestered or non-semestered schools. The number of courses saved in any given data path is restricted to 50 or less. The largest possible course (50 students and 50 sets of marks) requires approximately 23K for its data, another 23K if the data is backed up, and 9K more if individual comments are saved. An average class will require approximately 15K, including back up and comments. Version 3.0 will double the number of tests and students that the program will handle. PROGRAM FILES The program itself consists of six modules, each of which handles different tasks. These are outlined below: MRS.EXE is the System module. It is primarily used to record marks. MRE.EXE is the Edit module. It allows the user to edit any information previously recorded. MRP.EXE is the Print module. This module is used to print reports and class lists. MRF.EXE is the File management module. MRV.EXE is the Utilities module. It handles all the remaining various features such as conversion tables and bar graphs. BRUN10.EXE is the module which allows a compiled program to run. It must be included to enable the other modules to run. An optional COMMENTS file may be found on your diskette. This file consists of a bank of comments used by the MRP module. It can be created or edited using any word processor that produces an ASCII text file. Each record in the file consists of four, fifty character lines. The first contains the comment number, while the remaining three contain the comment itself. Each line must begin and end with the " character. This file should reside in the same directory as your data - if not, the program will check the system directory for the COMMENTS file. page 2 INTRODUCTION The following files are included to facilitate the set-up of your system. AUTOEXEC.BAT is a batch file that will run the program automatically when the system is turned on or re-booted. MANUAL is this set of notes. The remaining files used by the program are generated by the first four modules mentioned earlier. These are: MRX is a list of the data files on the disk. MRL contains the letter grade conversion factors to be used by the program. MRO.PRT contains the printer codes for your printer. CODES.PRT is an optional printer code file for your printer. Use it if your printer requires long strings of code for various functions. *.D* holds the data for individual classes. *.V* stores backed up data for individual classes. *.P* stores the printer settings used by the MRP module. *.W* holds the category weightings for each class. *.C* are lists of comments saved for individual classes. *.L* are class list saved as files. *.S* are seating plans saved as files. *.A* are printed reports saved on disk rather that being sent to the printer. 2. SYSTEM SET-UP 1) SINGLE OR DUAL 5.25 FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM -Format a DOS 2.0 or later SYSTEM diskette and copy the M*.EXE and *.BAT files from the MASTER#1 disk onto it: A>copy A:M*.EXE B: ... Press <Enter> A>copy A:*.BAT B: ... Press <Enter> -Format a DOS 2.0 or later DATA diskette to be used to store your data files. -Copy the COMMENTS file and the BRUN10.EXE file from the MASTER#2 disk to the DATA disk. A>copy A:COMMENTS B: ... Press <Enter> A>copy A:BRUN10.EXE B: ... Press <Enter> -Place your system disk in drive A, and data disk in drive B. -When you reboot, the program will run automatically, and will use drive B for data. -If only one floppy drive is available, you will be prompted to switch diskettes whenever data is read or stored. NOTE: The file COMMAND.COM must be present on your system diskette. Also, the AUTOEXEC.BAT file must contain the line: path=A:\;B:\; (See below if you need to add this line to AUTOEXEC.BAT) page 3 SYSTEM SET-UP 2) SINGLE 3.5 FLOPPY DRIVE SYSTEM -Format a DOS 3.1 or later SYSTEM diskette and copy all of the files from the MASTER disk onto it: A>copy A:*.* B: ... Press <Enter> -Place your system disk in drive A. -Create a new AUTOEXEC.BAT file by typing: A:copy con autoexec.bat ... Press <Enter> path=A:\;B:\; ... Press <Enter> mrs ... Press <enter> ^Z ... Press <Enter> ... Press the F6 key to produce the ^Z -When you reboot, the program will run automatically, and will use drive A for data. 3) FIXED (HARD) DRIVE SYSTEM -Create a subdirectory called MRP .... C>MD\MRP -Change to this subdirectory .... C>CD\MRP -Copy all the files from the MASTER disk(s) .... C>COPY A:*.* -To run the program, make sure that you are in the MRP subdirectory, and enter .... C>MRS NOTE: You can add the data path name as a parameter when starting the program. The format must be followed exactly or strange things may happen. Here are some acceptable examples: A>MRS "B:" (data on drive B:) A>MRS "B:\MARKS\" (data in subdirectory MARKS on drive B:) C>MRS "C:\MRP\DAT\" (data in subdirectory MRP\DAT on drive C:) The format is MRS followed by 1 blank followed by the path, which must be within quotation marks if called from a batch file. page 4 THE MAIN MENU 3. THE MAIN MENU The main menu provides you with 10 options. These are listed below together with a brief description: F1) RECORD MARKS/SET UP NEW COURSE Enter marks to be recorded. F2) EDIT MARKS/STUDENT NAMES Edit any information previously recorded. F3) PRINTED REPORTS Print individual or class reports. F4) BAR GRAPHS Display or print bar graphs of recorded marks. F5) FILE MANAGER Back up or rename files, or recover lost files. F6) CONVERSION/COMPLETION Display or print mark conversion/completion TABLES tables. F7) CHANGE DATA PATH Select a different drive or subdirectory for your data. F8) PRINT CLASS LISTS/ Print lists of student names (no marks) or SEATING PLANS seating plans. F9) CONFIGURE PRINTER/ Allows you to set your printer commands if RESET SCREEN COLOURS you have a non-Epson type printer, and to set the foreground and background screen colours. F0) EXIT Exit to DOS. To accept the default option (flashing) just press <Enter>. Pressing any digit from 0 to 9 will activate that option. The corresponding function keys may be used, or you can use the up or down cursor keys to select your option. Note: F0 refers to the F10 function key. 4. SETTING UP A NEW COURSE RECORD MARKS MENU You are offered the 5 options listed below: F1) RECORD MARKS Enter marks for courses already set up. F2) SET UP A NEW COURSE Enter the information for a new course. F3) RESET ALIAS FEATURE FROM OFF TO ON Set to OFF if you do not want to use student alias or number. F4) RESET LETTER GRADES Set the letter grades to fit your requirements. See page 13. F5) RESET CATEGORY WEIGHTS You may use this feature to arbitrarilly pre-set the category weights. These values are only used when consolidating. F0) RETURN TO MAIN MENU page 5 SETTING UP A NEW COURSE SETTING UP A NEW COURSE You will be asked for the following information relating to the course you wish to set up: (Any information that you are uncertain of may be skipped - errors and omissions can be corrected later.) A) COURSE NAME Use up to 8 characters (A to Z or 0 to 9, do not use spaces or other non-alphanumerics). B) SECTION NUMBER Use up to 2 digits. (A leading 0 will be added to single digit sections. The period number may be used if preferred.) If data for a course with this name and section number already exists, you will be given the option of entering a new course name, or of replacing the existing data with the new. A) TEACHER NAME You may include MR or MS etc. B) FLIP-FLOP Y/N If selected, this option will switch the % for the exam with the % for the term - only if it benefits the student. This option may be turned on/off for each term. The default is (N)o. C) DROP LOWEST MARK Y/N If selected, the lowest (M)ajor term test mark obtained by the student will not be counted against him. Other marks are not affected by this option. This option may be turned on/off for each term. The default is (N)o. D) MINIMUM PASSING %AGE Set to the lowest percentage that is to be considered a pass. The usual value is 50 for 50%. E) NUMBER OF TERMS The default is 2, but 1, 3 or 4 terms are allowed. A term is defined as a set of marks which are assigned a proportion of the YEAR MARK. A term must end with an EXAM MARK. (For courses with no term exam, you must create a dummy exam, giving each student an 'abs' for a mark.) F) % OF YEAR FOR TERM 1 If you have 2 or more terms, this is the percent of the YEAR MARK (ex- cluding the final exam) that the first term will count. G) % OF YEAR FOR TERM 2 If you have 3 terms, this is the percent of the YEAR MARK that the second term will count. H) % OF YEAR FOR TERM 3 If you have 4 terms, this is the percent of the YEAR MARK that the third term will count. page 6 SETTING UP A NEW COURSE Notice that F), G) and H) may be omitted depending on the number of terms. The percent assigned to the last term will be calculated automatically. Exam marks are used by the program to signal the end of a term so that a REPORT MARK can be calculated. Thus, if no actual exam is given, you will have to create a dummy exam. The data you enter for this exam is not important as long as you assign each student a 'abs' mark. If there are 2 or more terms, a YEAR TO DATE mark will be automatically calculated once the first term's exam mark has been entered. If you wish to use pre-determined category weights, you will need to consolidate and recalculate (See EDITING MARKS). Some teachers may prefer to adjust the weight assigned to term 1 on a continuing basis, as they work through term 2. This will make the YEAR TO DATE mark more meaningful, especially early in term 2 where the first test mark will actually assume the total weight assigned to term 2. It must be emphasized that the percentages assigned to each term refer to how the YEAR MARK is to be calculated. The YEAR MARK is the one averaged with the final exam to produce the final REPORT MARK. As an example, say that in a two term system, the first term REPORT MARK (an average of term tests and exam) is to be combined with the second TERM MARK (which does not include the final exam) in the ratio of 60:40. You would enter 60 at the F) prompt. Note: the percent assigned to each exam will be entered as the weight of that exam at the time that the exam marks are being entered. At this point, you can either change the values that you have entered, or save them. NOTE: Pressing the <Esc> key will return you to the previous menu in almost all cases. Any data that has not been saved may be lost. Next, you will be required to type in the names of the students in your class. Type their surname followed by a space, or comma, followed by their given name. Do not use lower case. (You will have noticed that upper case has been automatically selected by the program, which also automatically turns on the numeric keypad -- Please do not press either the <Num Lock> nor <Caps Lock> keys while in the program.) page 7 SETTING UP A NEW COURSE If you have decided to use the ALIAS FEATURE, after each name has been entered, you will be prompted to add a 1 to 10 character 'alias' or student number. This 'alias' can be used to print class lists that can be posted and still retain the confidentiality of each student. Just press <Enter> each time if you do not wish to assign an alias to the student. If you notice any obvious mistakes in the list, press the <Tab> key (found right under the <Esc> key) to move back to the name to allow you to re-enter it. To move back down the list press <Enter>. Enter the names in any order. When the list is complete, you will be given the option of having the list sorted alphabetically. 5. RECORDING MARKS RECORDING MARKS (See SPREADSHEET on page 11 for an alternate method) Before you can record any marks you must select the appropriate course. A list of all the courses that have previously been set up will be provided. To select the course, type its number. For your convenience, the title of the last set of marks to be entered will be displayed. For each set of marks you will have to give the following information: A) TOPIC OR DESCRIPTION Give a title for the evaluation data to be entered. E.g. TEST 1 B) EVALUATION DATE Enter the date in the form mmm dd. E.g. MAY 03 (use up to 8 characters). C) CATEGORY You must select a category for the evaluation. This can be any letter from A to Z, or @ for attendance and ! for lates. Four letters, (T)erm, (Y)ear, (F)inal and (E)xam are reserved and should be avoided. If E for exam is selected, you will be warned that no other marks can later be entered for that term, so make certain that all of the term's evaluations have been entered before entering the exam mark. Use (S) as the category when setting up a seating plan - make sure you weight the mark at 0! D) MAXIMUM MARK ALLOWED This is the total number of marks available for this evaluation. You cannot enter a 0 since that would result in division by 0 when the percentages are calculated. For attendance or lates, enter any non-zero value such as 100. For a seating plan use RS where R is the number of rows and S is the number of seats in a row. Any arragement from 41 to 99 is acceptable. (56 = 5 rows, 6 seats) page 8 RECORDING MARKS E) MARK VALUE (WEIGHT) This is the weight you wish to assign this evaluation. When the TERM MARK is calculated, the weights are added to arrive at a total weight. Thus the weight you assign to any given evaluation determines its importance in the calculation of the TERM MARK. The weight assigned to an exam is the percentage of the REPORT MARK assigned to that exam. Set the weights of attendance, lates and seating plans to 0. [Note: If your department has a fixed policy assigning specific weights to given categories, such as "homework 10%", use the following procedure: 1) Select RESET CATEGORY WEIGHTS from the RECORD MARKS MENU. 2) Assign a weight to each category you intend to use. For example, set M (major tests) at 70, Q (quizzes) at 20, P (participation) at 10 and leave all the others at 0. 3) Select CONSOLIDATE from the EDIT MARKS MENU. 4) Consolidate the categories selected above, then select RECALULATE TERM MARKS from the same EDIT MARKS MENU.] Once these values have been saved, you will be asked to enter the individual mark for each student. You can enter any positive mark from 1 to 3 digits followed by an optional single character code. This code can be any printable character. E.g. 27M (for make-up test), 50* (for adjusted mark). Do not use F as it is reserved for a failing mark. F's are automatically inserted by the program. If you prefer, you may enter the letter grades A+,A,A-,...,F+,F,F-. The program will instantly convert these to the numeric values that have previously been assigned. You can redefine these values using RECORD MARKS menu. Pressing just <Enter> will assign "abs " to the student, which results in the test not being counted for that student. This has the effect of assigning an ESTIMATED MARK to that student. An abs student will not appear on a printed seating plan. Pressing the <Esc> key, while entering marks, will cause all marks not yet entered to be set to 'abs'. This feature is useful in setting up the 'dummy' exam referred to above. If you have entered a few marks for a test and have to finish later, just press the <Esc> key to save your work. Use the SPREADSHEET option of the EDIT MARKS menu to complete your mark entry. Note: Use the <Tab> and <Enter> keys to move up and down the list if you need to correct any errors. If you wish to assign decimal marks such as 23.7 you cannot use the code feature. E.g. 23.7M will not record properly. Only 1 decimal place is allowed. When @ for absences or ! for lates are selected as the category, an accumulated total will be created automatically. Previously recorded accumulated totals will be deleted. page 9 EDITING MARKS 6. EDITING MARKS After selecting the course to edit, you will be allowed to change any of the data that has been previously entered: Just press the letter corresponding to the incorrect item and type in the new value. The EDIT MARKS menu will then appear. It has the following 10 options: F1) EDIT STUDENT NAMES You can re-enter any student name. The new list can be sorted automatically. Use to add an alias. F2) EDIT ENTERED MARKS You will be allowed to change individual student marks, as well as the data for a given set of marks. F3) ADD A STUDENT New students can be added to the class list. All tests missed will be set to 'abs'. F4) DELETE A STUDENT Students can be removed from the class list. F5) RECORD ALL CHANGES All changes made are lost unless this option is selected before leaving this menu. F6) RECALCULATE TERM MARKS The term marks for students are not recalculated after editing unless this option is selected. This is to allow a teacher the privilege of adjusting term marks. F7) SPREADSHEET This is the fastest way to edit marks. Up to 10 sets of marks can be displayed at one time for up to 15 students. F8) DELETE A SET OF MARKS/UN/CONSOLIDATE Entire sets of marks can be deleted or groups of marks can be consolidated so that specific weights can be assigned. F9) RECALCULATE INDIVIDUAL TERM MARKS Use this option to select individual students for recalculation - non-selected students will not be affected. F0) RETURN TO PREVIOUS MENU page 10 EDITING MARKS EDITING STUDENT NAMES After student names have been edited you will be given the option of having them sorted alphabetically. You can include a 10 character alias or student number, so that class lists can be posted that pre- serve the confidentiality of each student. Press <Enter>, when prompted, if you do not wish to assign an alias to the edited name. This feature can be switched on or off from this menu. EDITING INDIVIDUAL MARKS This option will allow you to change any of the values that were earlier assigned to a set of marks, such as weight etc. An additional feature is the ability to change the order in which the marks are stored: Thus, if you wish to have the fifth set of marks stored as the second set, you simply change its order number from 5 to 2. The other sets of marks will be re-ordered automatically. Select this feature to scale marks, or to make a copy of a set of marks. The copy will be assigned the lower case category of the original (its ASCII value plus 32), otherwise it will be identical in every respect. SCALING If you wish to scale a set of marks, select the EDIT ENTERED MARKS option from the EDIT MARKS menu. When all the existing marks have been displayed on the screen, press S to scale. You will be warned that scaling replaces recorded marks with scaled marks, and be given a chance to abort. If you continue, you will be allowed to adjust the highest and lowest marks, the median, and the number of failures. The program will then scale the recorded marks to reflect the desired values. It is suggested that you restrict scaling to TERM or REPORT marks, since these marks can be re-calculated by the program if you are not happy with the results of scaling. ADDING A STUDENT If new students have missed any evaluations due to their late arrival, they will have an 'abs' recorded for each such missed mark. You can edit these later, if necessary, by selecting option 1) EDIT INDIVIDUAL MARKS or option 7) SPREADSHEET. After new students have been added, you will be given the option of sorting the list. To add an alias to the new student, you can first switch on this feature. When you then enter a new name, you will be prompted for the student alias. DELETING A STUDENT When students are deleted all records for those students are lost, so make sure that you have a printed record of their marks before deleting them. page 11 EDITING MARKS RECORDING CHANGES To allow the user the option of experimenting with different parameters such as weights of tests etc, changes made are not recorded to disk right away. This also gives the user a second chance to make sure that any changes are to be made permanent. Thus when you are convinced that the changes that you have made are correct, you can select this option to record them to disk. NOTE: Whenever this option is exercised, the program will automatically create a back up file before recording the changes to disk. This back up file will be named *.V*. Eg. MCA0A.D01 would be backed up as MCA0A.V01. If your new file is damaged use the option FILE MANAGER from the MAIN MENU to recover the backed up version. You will be warned if you try to leave the edit menu without first recording all changes. If you do not wish to record your changes, press <N>. The message WORKING! will appear to show that the computer's memory is being cleared of changes to that course's data. RECALCULATING TERM MARKS When marks are edited, the term marks are not automatically recalculated. This is to allow a teacher to subjectively adjust term marks where necessary. If this were not so, changing a 49 to 50 would not be possible, since the computer would automatically recalculate it as a 49. This option must be selected, however, if test marks are edited which might affect the term mark. This option only recalculates the term marks for the current term. Thus if marks for term 2 have been entered, changing individual marks from term 1 will not affect the term mark for term 1. The term mark for term 1 would have to be calculated manually and be edited itself. To recalculate the term marks for an individual student, select option F9). To recalculate the term marks of all students, select option F6). If you wish to use the pre-set category weights, you must consolidate before recalculating the term marks. USING THE SPREADSHEET A. ENTERING MARKS To use the SPREADSHEET to enter marks for up to 9 sets of tests, enter En where n is the number of tests. Each test will be assigned a weight and maximum mark of 100. These values can be edited once all marks have been entered. This alternate way of entering marks has the advantage of letting you enter marks by student rather than by test. The cursor moves horizontally rather than vertically. When the last mark has been entered the program automatically allows you to edit the test information for each of the entered tests. B. EDITING MARKS To use the SPREADSHEET to edit marks, select up to 10 sets of marks to be edited. When you have made your selection, these marks for the first 15 students in your class will be displayed. Press 'S' to see the marks of more students, or 'M' to have more marks displayed. Pressing 'Q' will return you to the EDIT MENU. page 12 EDITING MARKS To edit individual marks, press <Enter>. The first student name will be highlighted (flashing), as will the top left mark. To change any mark, use the cursor keys to move around the spreadsheet (If the cursor keys don't seem to work, try 'U' for up 'D' for down 'L' for left or 'R' for right) until the mark you wish to edit is highlighted. Now press <Enter> to edit this mark. Enter the new value and press <Enter>. AUTOMATIC EDITING MODE If you have a number of 'abs' or failing marks in a given column for which you would like to enter new marks, move to the first such mark in that column and press 'A' for AUTO MODE. Now as you enter each mark, the computer will automatically go down the column until it finds the next 'abs' or failing mark. Pressing 'O' at any time will get you (O)ut of AUTO MODE. NOTE: Please do not forget to recalculate the term marks (if necessary) and to record all changes after leaving the SPREADSHEET. DELETING A SET OF MARKS/UN/CONSOLIDATING When this option is selected, a list of the recorded marks will be displayed. Select the # of the set to be deleted and press Y to delete the set or N if you have changed your mind. Remember, no changes are final until you select the option RECORD ALL CHANGES from the EDIT MENU. Thus you will have still have one more chance to change your mind. If you delete (T)erm, (E)xam, (F)inal or (Y)ear marks, you run the risk of confusing the program, which could destroy the validity of its calculations. Make certain you know what you are doing before deleting any of these categories. There are two reasons why you might wish to consolidate marks: 1) It looks like you may exceed the maximum of 50 sets of marks for each student, or 2) You wish to assign to each category of marks a certain weight to be used in calculating the term mark. When you select this option a warning will be given advising you to make certain that you have either backed up your data, or have printed out a hard copy of the marks to be consolidated. Once marks have been consolidated, the original weights are made negative so that only the consolidated marks are used when recalculating. The program assumes that no more than 26 different categories (A-Z) will be used in any one term. You will be asked to select the categories to be consolidated or press <Space> to consolidate all of them. You can consolidate any or all terms, but remember, once a new term has been started, earlier term marks can only be recalculated manually. Once consolidation has occured, you might consider deleting the old sets of marks to make room for the next term's marks. If, after con- solidation has occurred, you wish to change some recorded marks, delete the consolidated "super" totals, then select UNconsolidate, which will reset all the negative weights back to their original values. Now edit the marks as usual then re-consolidate once more. page 13 EDITING MARKS The consolidation process is as follows: 1) The first category in the current term is identified. 2) The entire current term is then searched for other marks in the same category. 3) A new set of marks is then produced which represents the average marks for that category based on the weights assigned to the individual sets of marks. 4) All the original weights in this category are set to negative values. 5) The next category is selected. 6) Steps 2), 3), and 4) are repeated until all the categories have been consolidated. Also, E, F, S, T, Y, !, and @ values are not affected by this procedure. Consolidation adds up the weights of all consolidated categories to find a total weight for each category. Use the RECORD MARKS MENU to pre-set these weights to the desired proportions, then select RECALCULATE TERM MARKS. If, after consolidation, you wish to edit individual marks, follow this procedure: 1) Delete the consolidated "super" total mark sets. 2) Select UNconsolidate. 3) Edit the required marks, re-consolidate, then re-calculate. RESETTING LETTER GRADES The program has been designed to produce a default set of letter grade values. Each user is expected to reset these values to reflect the evaluation policy of his/her department. There are two sets of letter grades: The first is the lower bound of each grade (eg. If B's lower bound is 75, and B-'s lower bound is 70, then a mark from 70 to 74 would be printed as a B-); The second is the mark value of each letter grade (eg. If B is set at 77, then entering a B as a student grade will result as a 77 being recorded.) Letter grades and absolute marks can be entered interchangeably ie, entering a 77 for the first student and a B for the second would result in both students being assigned a 77. The only legitimate letter grades are A+,A,A-,...,F+,F,F-. Any other letter might produce a mark of 100! To eliminate a possible letter grade as a choice, set its lower bound to 110. page 14 PRINTING REPORTS 7. PRINTING REPORTS If you wish to print out class lists with no marks, select item 8 from the MAIN MENU. You can then print class lists with from 0 to 35 vertical columns. These lists are suitable for recording marks or for attendance. These lists are not sorted alphabetically. When item 3 is selected from the MAIN MENU, you are once again asked to select the set of marks to be operated on. Once a set of marks has been selected, a list of the print defaults is displayed. These are described below: A) LINES PER INCH 6/4 The default is 6. B) CHARACTERS PER INCH 10/17 The default is 10, which allows up to 10 sets of marks per student per page. 17 allows up to 20 sets/page. C) CHART FORMAT Prints class lists in chart format. D) IBM GRAPHIC CHRS Uses graphic characters to create the chart referred to in C). E) RANK STUDENTS Prints the ranking of each student in the class. F) FORMAT Abs Let % Wt Allows marks to be printed as entered (A), as letter grades (L), as percentages (P), or per weight (W). G) RANGE LOW PERCENT Set the percent of the lowest student to be printed. H) RANGE HIGH PERCENT Set the percent of the highest student to be printed. I) INCLUDE CODES Refers to the optional 1 character codes. If selected, failures will automatically be coded with an F. J) INCLUDE MEDIANS The median of each set of marks will be printed. K) INCLUDE MEANS/S.D. The mean (average) and standard deviation of each set will be printed. L) INCLUDE % FAILURE The % failure will be printed for each set of marks. M) INCLUDE MAXIMUM MARK The mark that each set is out of will be printed. N) INCLUDE WEIGHT The weight assigned to each set of marks will be printed. page 15 PRINTING REPORTS O) SELECT STUDENTS Allows you to select by name those students to be printed. P) PRINT Abs Est N/m Blank Lets you choose the code to be printed when a student is absent for an evaluation. Most options can be switched to their alternate value by simply pressing the letter that corresponds to them. The exceptions are G) and H) whose values must be entered. A) and B) allow you to select the print spacing most suited to your needs. C) and D) allow you to use lines to separate individual marks. Activate D) only if your printer is capable of printing these characters. If your chart ends up with italic characters instead of lines, set D) back to N)o. E) will assign to each student his/her rank in the class. These rankings will appear in the column to the left of the student names when class reports are printed. The rank will appear to the right of the class median when individual reports are printed. F) allows you to select the form in which the marks will be printed.: (A)bsolute will print the marks exactly as entered. (L)etter will convert them to letter grades before printing. (P)ercent will convert them to percentages before printing. (W)eight prints the mark relative to the assigned weight (eg a mark of 50% on a test weighted at 30 would print as 15). G) and H) allow you to select the range of marks to be printed. For example, setting G) to 0 and H) to 49 will print only your failing student marks. Set G) to 75 and H) to 100), and your honour list will be printed. Note: As a precaution set H) to 110 to print any student who may have over 100%. Options I), J), K), L), M), and N) allow you to generate statistics for each set of marks. If you wish to produce reports on individual students, set option O) to Y. You will be asked to select students by name. P) lets you use either (A)abs (E)est (N)n/m or (B)blank as the code for an evaluation that has been recorded as 'abs'. To force a REPORT MARK to be printed as N/M, edit the recorded report mark as 'abs' using the EDIT MENU, then select (N) here. After you have saved the print defaults, you will be asked to select the marks to be printed. You can press A to select all of them, or an individual set, or a range of marks such as 5-9. Selected sets will be flagged with an asterisk. When you have made your decision, press C to continue. page 16 PRINTING REPORTS Once all calculations have been made, a new menu will appear with the following options: M Return to the MAIN menu. C Print a class report. A Print a class report using alias names. I Print individual report cards, one for each student. D Adjust the report date, or create a message. P Print more reports. R Re-direct the output. X Exit directly to DOS. C or A will produce class reports. If more marks have been requested than can fit on one page, the program will automatically move to a new page, and print the heading on it before continuing. An FF to the left of a student's name indicates that his marks have been flip flopped. C uses actual names while A uses alias' if they have been previously recorded. If A is selected, the list will be sorted alphabetically by alias. If I is selected, you will be given the opportunity of adding comments to the report for each student. If you decline, a space can be provided on each report for you to write in any comments by hand. If you select this option, each student's marks will appear on the screen and you will be allowed to write up to three lines of comments for him/her. If you wish, you may draw on the bank of comments stored on disk: Just press the < or > key. At this point you may also edit the number of days late and absent. Use the - and + keys to move between students. (You can select any comment directly by typing its reference number.) NOTES: This option will produce a *.C* file for each class. Make sure you have at least 9K free on your disk before attempting this. If you have saved the days absent (category @) or late (category !), these will automatically be inserted into the report cards. The current date should appear as the report date. Press D to alter the date. If you press <Enter> the date of the last entered set of marks will appear, or you may enter the date of your choice. You may wish to replace the date with a message such as PERIOD #1. Pressing P will return you to the PRINT MENU so that you can print more reports. If you wish to send the ouput to a file rather than the printer, press R to redirect the output. Now you can enter a new path name for the output, eg. C:\data\. If you still wish to print the report, just type PRINTER as the path name. Output can be directed to the screen by typing SCREEN as the path name. NOTES: If your printer requires long strings of characters (eg some laser printers) for various functions, you must create a printer code file CODES.PRT using a word processor producing ASCII text. The file must be stored with your data. Entries must be separated by quotation marks. The following 13 codes must be included (in this order): reset, form feed, condensed on, cond. off, elongated on, elong. off, double strike on, ds off, unidirect'l on, unid. off, 4 lpi, 6 lpi, 8 lpi page 17 OTHER OPTIONS 8. OTHER OPTIONS BAR GRAPHS This feature allows you to display or print a bar graph of any set or sets of marks that have been recorded. You are required to select the course from which the data is to be taken, then you must select the set (or sets) of marks to be displayed. When more than one set is selected, each is assigned a different colour code for display purposes (colour monitors only), and a composite bar graph is produced. This may take a few minutes! The character used in the bar graph can be changed: Select CONFIGURE PRINTER/SCREEN COLOURS from the MAIN MENU. MANAGING FILES This option allows you to make a back up copy of any data file, delete any data file, rename any data file, or recover a lost or damaged data file. The back up files are named *.V* corresponding to the original *.D* filename. Thus MAL5A.D02 would be backed up as MAL5A.V02. You can back up a single file or all of them at once. Similarly, you can recover just one or all of them at once. This feature can be used to make a working copy of any file. The new copy will be named starting with an X. Thus MCA0A.D01 would be copied to XCA0A.D01. Use this option before consolidating marks. This option was designed for those users unfamiliar with the DOS operating system. If you have worked with DOS you might find it more convenient to do your file management while in DOS. CONVERSION TABLES The program will allow to to display or print sets of mark conversion tables. You simply enter the mark that the test was out of (from 1 to 200) and the mark you want it converted to (again from 1 to 200). You may select the marks to be calculated to either 0 or 1 decimal places. COMPLETION TABLES Completion tables indicate the exam mark required to attain the desired final mark given the student's current mark. Tables can be printed or displayed for various exam weightings. SEATING PLANS Enter the information as you would a set of marks. The description, course code, teacher and date will be printed at the top of the plan. Assign each student a mark of the form RS where R is their row and S is their seat. Thus 23 means second row, third seat. The maximum mark will tell the program the number of rows and the number of seats in each row. Thus 56 means 5 rows, each with six seats. Any arrangement from 41 to 99 will work. Abs students will not be printed. A class list suitable for attendance is also printed with the seating plan. page 18 OTHER OPTIONS REDIRECTING OUTPUT If the data path was not set before starting (see set up), the program automatically will use the current directory as the data directory. This option will allow you to change the data directory to the one of your choice. Here are some typical situations: System Directory Data Directory A: A: (1 drive system) A: B: (2 drive system) A: C:\DATA\ (floppy/hard) C:\MRP A: (hard/floppy) C:\MRP C:\MRP\ (hard drive) C:\MRP C:\MRP\DATA\ (hard drive) Note: The keyboard may lock up if you select a non-existent path. APPENDICES 1. CALCULATIONS The procedure by which marks are calculated is as follows: 1) Each student is considered one at a time. 2) Each test mark is divided by the maximum mark and then multiplied by the weight. 3) A TOTAL MARK is found by summing all of these test marks. 4) For each test that the student does not have an 'abs', the weights are added to produce a TOTAL WEIGHT. 5) If the DROP LOWEST MARK option has been selected, the lowest (M)ajor test mark will be removed both from TOTAL MARK and TOTAL WEIGHT. This only affects marks saved under category M. 6) The TERM MARK is then calculated by dividing the TOTAL MARK by the TOTAL WEIGHT, and rounded off as in step 10). 7) The EXAM MARK is calculated as in step 2). 8) The TERM MARK is then multiplied by (100 - exam weight) and added to the EXAM MARK to form the REPORT MARK. 9) If the FLIP-FLOP option has been selected, the weights for exam and term are reversed (but only if it results in a higher REPORT MARK for the student). 10)The REPORT MARK is then rounded off (55.5 becomes 56 while 55.4 would become 55). 11)The YEAR MARK (say for a two term situation) is found by multiplying the first term's REPORT MARK by the % for first term and the second TERM MARK by (100 - % for first term) and adding them together. 12)The FINAL REPORT mark is calculated as in step 8) but uses the YEAR MARK instead of the TERM MARK. It too is rounded off as in step 10). NOTE: You should verify that the program is producing the required results by taking the time to manually calculate a random selection of marks, using the above procedure, and comparing your answers to the computer's. Remember to round off both TERM and REPORT marks. page 19 CALCULATIONS TYPICAL PATTERNS (m represents a test mark, R a report mark T a term mark ONE TERM: m m T, m m T E F E an exam mark, and F a final mark) TWO TERMS: m m T, m m T E R, m m T E R m m T Y, m m T E R m m T Y E F THREE TERMS: m m T, m m T E R, m m T E R m m T Y, m m T E R m m T E R Y, m m T E R m m T E R m m T Y, m m T E R m m T E R m m T Y E F FOUR TERMS: similar to three terms. NOTE: The final exam is assumed to cover the whole semester's work, not just the last term's. If you are working in a two term system where the final exam only covers the second term's work, set up the course as though it were three terms - when all marks have been entered, the Y mark will be the final course mark. An alternative would be to consider the exam as just another test, weight it accordingly, but don't use E as its category. At the end of each term, enter a 'dummy' E exam to signal the computer that it is to calculate the REPORT mark. 2. DATA FILE ORGANIZATION The program stores the data in two main files: MRX and c.Ds where c represents the course name and s its section number. An example of each is given below: MRX 3 (number of courses) "MCA5A .D01" } "MAT1A .D05" } their file names "MAL5A .D03" } MCA5A.D01 "50","PHILLIPS",2,2,62.5,37.5,0,"Y","N",3 "JONES BOB " "SAMSON DONNA aka SAMMY " <-- an alias "THOMAS PAUL " "TEST #1 ","SEP 07 ","M",40,50 "30.1" " 24M" " 12 " "TERM MARK ","SEP 07 ","T",100,100 " 75 " " 60 " " 30 " page 20 DATA FILE ORGANIZATION In line 1: 50 is the minimum passing percentage. PHILLIPS is the teacher name. 2 is the number of sets of recorded marks. 2 is the number of terms. 62.5 is the % of the YEAR MARK for term 1. 37.5 is the % of the TERM MARK for term 2. 0 is the % of the TERM MARK for term 3. Y means that the FLIP-FLOP option was selected. N means that the DROP LOWEST MARK option was not. 3 is the number of students. In line 5: "TEST #1 " is the evaluation title. "SEP 07 " is the evaluation date. "M" gives the evaluation category. 40 is the mark the test was out of. 50 is the weight assigned to this mark. Notes: The order of the marks corresponds to the order of the student names. If, for some reason, part of your data gets destroyed, and you have not made a back up, you might try a word processor to salvage what remains. Follow the above guidelines when re- creating the file. page 21 INDEX Absence,Attendance.....8,15 Lates.....................8 Add a Student..........9,10 Letter grades..........8,13 Alias................4,7,16 Limitations...............1 Auto Mode................12 Lines Per Inch...........14 AUTOEXEC.BAT..............2 Main Menu.................4 Back-ups..............11,17 Managing Files...........17 Bar Graphs...............17 Maximum Mark..............7 Calculations..........11,18 Means....................14 Category..................7 Medians..................14 Characters Per Inch......14 Memory Requirements.......1 Chart Format.............14 Minimum Passing %.........5 Class Lists..............14 MRL.......................2 Class Reports............16 MRO.PRT...................2 Codes..................8,14 MRX.......................2 CODES.PRT..............2,16 Number of Terms...........5 Comments...............1,16 Printer codes.....2,4,15,16 Completion tables......4,17 Printing Reports.........14 Configure Printer.........4 Program Files.............1 Consolidating..........9,12 Ranking Students......14,15 Conversion Tables........17 Recalculating Marks....9,11 Copying a set of marks...10 Record Marks Menu.........4 Course Name...............5 Recording Changes......9,11 Data File Organization...19 Recording Marks........7,11 Data Path..............3,17 Redirect Output.......16,18 Dates..................7,16 Seating plans......4,7,8,17 Delete a Student.......9,10 Scaling..................10 Deleting Marks.........9,12 Section Number............5 Disclaimers..............21 Selecting Students.......15 Drop Lowest Mark..........5 Setting Up A New Course...5 Editing Marks.......9,10,11 Spreadsheet..........8,9,11 Editing Names/Alias'...9,10 Standard Deviation.......15 Estimated Marks...........8 Statistics...............15 File Manager.............17 Student Names..........6,10 Fip-Flop...............5,16 System Setup..............4 Floppy Disk.............2,3 Teacher Name..............5 Format................14,15 Unconsolidate marks......12 Graphic Characters....14,15 Weight....................8 Hard Disk.................3 Working Copy.............17 Individual Reports.......16 Year To Date Mark.........6 page 22 USER REGISTRATION The author, hereby, gives permission for anyone to copy and distribute any of the files found on this diskette for which the author holds a legal copyright. This does not include any DOS operating system files or other such files for which the author holds no legal copyright. The program files may not be altered in any way without the express written consent of the author. The author is not responsible for any damages which might result through the use of this program: Use at you own risk. Use of this program shall be considered as acceptance of these disclaimers. OTHER SHAREWARE BY THE SAME AUTHOR SCHOOL ACCOUNTANT Plus - Enables the school administrator to manage departmental accounts. TIME-TABLE Plus - Creates new student time-tables while managing class sizes. This program is intended to time-table a school of up to 2000 students (semestered or not). DEPARTMENT RECORD Plus - Creates median sheets for department exam and report marks. May be used in conjunction with MARK RECORD Plus. ATTENDANCE Plus - Creates a daily absence list. Uses a school data base to access students' phone numbers etc. MARK RECORD Plus USER REGISTRATION As a registered user you will be notified of any new versions and will be eligible for any required user support. If you wish to become a registered user, please fill out the registration form and send it together with a check or money order for $20 to the following address: W. A. Phillips 12 Beacon Avenue Hamilton, Ontario Canada L8T 2N3 phone (416) 529-7509 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MARK RECORD Plus REGISTRATION FORM CURRENT VERSION:____________ DISKETTE FORMAT (3.5 OR 5.25):_________ !!!! (VERY IMPORTANT) NAME: ___________________________ SCHOOL:_______________________ MAILING ADDRESS: _________________________________________ _________________________________________ _________________________________________ POSTAL CODE: _______________ PHONE: ( ) __________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- NOTE: No registration fee is required for any teacher employed by the Hamilton Board of Education.