Assessment types explained - FAQ

When building your school's assessment criteria, you will need to use the subject specifications tool. Choose which type of assessments you would like to publish on your grade reports. You can even restrict certain assessment types to be for internal use only.

When adding new assessment types, please always open the advanced options using the blue cog icon. Even if there are no parameters or you don't need to change anything then press save to validate the choices available. 

Subject specifications

Subject specifications are available to users who have the Manage scheme of work permissions. It should be available in grade reports/advanced options section. 

Open the assessment configuration tab, and click on the list icon to start adding your assessment criteria.

The cog, allows for advanced configuration options in some cases, the arrow is used to reorder the list, and the red cross to delete the assessment type from the current build. 

If you remove an assessment type from an existing build which has grades, then these grades will be deleted.

Please note there is a maximum of 50 assessment fields available for each subject. 

Assessment types listed

1) Grade (Score)

This is a simple numeric grade entry (An out of score). Change the assessment type label to describe the score. Open the cog for more advanced options.

a) Applicable terms

Choose into which assessment (is exam) term this grade entry should appear. If you wish to show historic grades in future terms then use a stated term grade assessment type instead. If you select All terms then the same field will be repeated across all terms, however, it will not be available for stated term grades or formula calculations.

b) Internal use only

Check this box to only show the grade on the assess and review pages, but not publish to the final report PDF. This can be used for historic stated term grades, or hidden grades which are included in a final formula.

c) Assessment section groups

Assessments can be grouped on the MySchool assessment report PDF. They will appear as a sub header enabling schools to group assessment types together. It will also allow for the separation of Learning outcomes and scored assessments if both are used. It will only categorise these in the assessment report builder.

d) Hide if blank in the report

If no grade has been entered on assess or review this box is checked. The assessment will not show on the PDF.

e) Field mapping

This is an extremely important field, and should not be modified. It assigns an assessment field for that particular entry. The system will automatically assign the next field available. 

f) Scale

This is the maximum 'Out of'. Users will NOT be able to enter grades that are above the amount entered here. It can also be used in conjunction with the formula fields to add grades together. 

g) Decimals

Determine if you wish to show 1, 2 or 3 decimal points. Enter the number of decimal points required.

h) Is contribution required

If this field is checked then an entry will required. This will stop users from confirming a course as 'reviewed and complete' unless a grade is entered.

i) Additional values

You can enter non-numerical values that are accepted as null scores (no value). This is commonly used for Exc (excused) and Abs (Absent), or * (exempt). On the assessment grid, the Teacher will be prompted with the accepted scale and additional values allowed. Make sure your teachers know the correct spelling for these.

If you wish to use an additional value and apply a 0 value then enter 0|Na in front of the applicable value. This means that if this is entered into a numeric scale field, which is included in a formula, then the entry of Na will be included in the formula with a value of 0 instead.

You must enter the list with a comma and NO space between the alternatives e.g. Na,Abs,Exc,*

2) Assignment sum

This is a calculated field allowing users to sum assignment scores for the term period. If you leave the terms as 'all periods' then all assignments from all terms will be added together and represented as a non-editable calculation. No normalisation of assignment grades will take place on the assessment grid.

Here you have the option to reduce the score to show in one or more terms. There is no override or additional value options for this assessment type.

3) Assignment average/Override

The assignment average is a common assessment type. Schools that use the Assignment module can pull the total average for a period from the grade grid and show this either as a stand-alone assessment criterion or include it in an end-of-year formula. If you choose the override option then Teachers can enter a different score in the Assess grid and add other values, such as NA,EX,ABS.

The assignment average type is applied on a subject level. The same advanced options as Grade type appear if you open the cog icon.

If you wish to reduce the final normalised assignment average score (i.e. reduce the scale to be out of max. 50). Adjust the scale field and the score will be recalculated. This is used commonly when 4 Assignment averages are required to be summed at the end of the year to represent a score out of 100.

In the below example, the average is out of 100%. The student has a term average of 50%. When we reduce the scale field in the assignment average assessment type to be out of 50, the average is shown as 25. 

NB: You can refine the average to just certain types of assignments.

4) LO assignment average/Override

If you use learning outcomes as part of your subject specifications, then you can calculate a normalised average based on achievement result scores. 

Important to note that the achievement scale must be configured with points assigned in assignment configuration. Each Learning outcome would also need a point assigned within subject specification. 

5) Continuous assessment

With our new continuous assessment module, the average calculated can be pulled into subject specifications so that it can be included in your assessment build. This is different to the LO average. You can also override the numerical score or why not convert to a calculated scale field?

6) Scale

Achievement scales can also be used to create ad hoc questions. Examples would be ' Did the student submit homework in a timely manner?', Yes/No. 'What level of participation did the student have in group activities? High/Moderate/Low.

Select the scale using the cog icon and build the question in the assessment label. 

In the assessment grid and review screen, the shortcode will be shown, whereas on the assessment report, you can choose whether to show the shortcode or the full label.

7) Text (Plain)

This allows teachers to enter a non-formatted comment box for feedback. The assessment type label will be the header, and in the cog icon, you can add a further description as a subheader.

Top tips: If you wish to maintain a standard format for your reports, then we recommend you use this option for comments. If Teachers copy and paste comments from other applications ( Word, Google Docs etc) then they may copy formatting which will affect the comment box, advise them to type directly into Myschool assess grid, or use Notepad to clear any formatting issues.

8) Learning outcomes

Learning outcomes are added within subject specifications. These can be applied to assignments for continuous and formative assessments (assignments), and to produce customised assessment/progress reports (Grade reports). The Teacher can use the review page to check evidence, or grade directly from the assess grid.

There are the same configuration items which apply to learning outcomes, to group or separate from normal graded sections, hide if no assessment has been entered, and the ability to carry the previously entered grade to the published PDF report. 

For example, if an LO is set to run for all terms (T1-T3), but assessments have only been entered for T1 & T2, then if no further assessment is entered in T3, and the show LO results box is checked, the assessment from T2 will be used to populate the default assessment report.

If you are using the continuous assessment type in your assignment grade grid, then you can also pull the grades to your assess grid for publishing.

9) Attendance %

If you take attendance on a course level and wish to show this on your assessment reports, then you can represent Absent/Present as a percentage or a count. it will be the attendance of the applicable term period only.

10) Stated term grade

A stated term grade allows you to pull a numerical assessment type from one term and show this entry within another. This is a very powerful tool if you wish to build an end-of-year report where all term grades are shown and needed for a final score formula field. 

The assessment types that can be used here are  :

• Grades
• Assignment averages
• Formulas

By restricting the above fields to only show in their assessment term, the scores can then be shown and used in a target terms assessment build. 

Don't hesitate to contact our support team for help in understanding this assessment type. 

11) Formula/Override

The formula field is used to calculate final/grouped assessments using the following methods : 

Sum fields with weights will add the different scores and depending on the weight and scale will represent a normalised result. In the below example, Autumn and Spring result fields are set to 25/25, whereas the half-yearly score has a weight of 50. This impacts the End of year formula calculation for the below students.

Not strict for both examples means that not all the fields in the formula need to have an entry for the final formula to calculate. If you do not select this option, then there MUST be a grade in all parts of the formula to allow the system to process this.

Teacher editable ratios allow the Teachers to control the weights for each individual course and numeric entry. In the above example, the Teacher of History 10A has chosen 25/25/50, whereas the Teacher of History 10B altered their syllabus and wants to weigh the final score as 30/30/40, then they can do so.

Average fields will take the numerical fields selected and calculate a weighted average.

Please note that a simple average can be weighed by 1, whereas if you use a sum formula then these need to be ratios based on the scale field.

12) Calculated scale

Calculated scales are used to translate a numeric value into an achievement scale. For this, there needs to be a high/low value entered into the achievement scale. MySchool will automatically calculate the correct reply when the values are entered. In the example below, we have created a simple Pass/Fail, which is to be applied to numeric values >55 would be Pass, <55 would show as Fail. Using the advanced options, we first apply a term, then select the numeric grade field in the 'Based scale on field' dropdown, and then choose the achievement scale 'Pass fail'. The system will look at the final average field and calculate the appropriate scale accordingly.

13) Select

A simpler way of adding a question and reply is to use the select assessment type. Use the assessment type label for the question, and add the options in the advanced settings. Do not add a space in the list and use a comma to separate the values. e.g (N/A,EXC,I,F)

14) Rich Text

This is used for Teacher feedback, it is a formattable open text box, with styling, alignment, and colour. It also allows hyperlinks and images. 

15) Mean/Median/Quartile calculations

You can add these to the assessment reports, where a selected numeric grade will be used to calculate mean, median and upper and lower quartiles for the course or the subject. 

Open the blue cog advanced options and determine whether it should be across the course or subject, and also determine which of the numeric grades should be used within the calculation. Don't forget to save to validate your choices.

Student self-reflections

We also provide a feature where students can give feedback on their efforts and their experiences in relation to the subject. This is subject-based, but you can create a standalone subject/course if you wish for them to give general feedback.

Please contact our support unit so we can add this to the student portal should you wish to test and use it as part of your assessment strategy.

Assessment setup

Our support team will guide you through the first steps and help you understand how each type should be configured to achieve your overall assessment aims. Our aim is to provide you with the knowledge and confidence to be able to amend and control your assessment output. The great advantage both with subject specifications and the assessment report template is that you can quickly and easily create your own assessment builds and produce a great PDF report for your school community.