Wednesday 4 July 2012

How To Design A Free Exams Marks Analysis System | Microsoft Access

How To Design A Free Exams Analysis System Using Microsoft Access 2007
So now let’s get working. You need a computer with Ms Office Access Installed. I will use Microsoft Access 2007, but you may use Ms Access 2010 or any other later system. Some of the queries and forms may not be supported in the 2003 Ms Access.

Set up the tables.
In my design, I have used various tables to store data in the database.
The main table is 
The exams table, which will contain all the results/ marks for the students.
Some of the important fields in this exams table include the examyear, term, student adm no, exam date, Subject, ExamType and Marks.

All these fields (Except Marks) get their data from lookup tables (They are not lookup fields directly at table level. The lookup is implemented in the form level) The fields are related to the tabes that hold information about those details... schoolyear, term, examtype, subject etc. The relationships are through the primary keys, so all the fields in this table are numbers... not text.

The second most important table is the Students table that holds info about the students... names, gender, date of birth adm no, etc. The Primary key is the student adm no.


Other tables maybe designed as follows:
SubjectsTable
(SubjectID, SubjectName, SubjectType, ShortName etc )

ExamDate Table
(ExamDateID, ExamDate, TermID, YearID, ExamType)

ExamType Table (ID, ExamName)... Opener, Mid-Term, End of term exams)

Term/Semester Table (TermID, TermName).. Normally just 2 or 3

SchoolYear Table (YearID, SchYear)

 Student....Class/level
(StudentID, YearID, ClassID, StreamID)... A student will be in Class1 Stream 1 a certain Year

Class (ID, Name)... In KE, Form 1,... Form 4 - I added a Leaver class to hold those who have exited the school. Very important for promotions

Stream table (ID, Stream Name, Str..ShortCode/name.

Grade Table (ID, LetterGrade, Points, MarksLow, MarksHigh)... This implements a complex system used in Kenya to calculate Mean Standard Score... as well as letter grades.
...Other tables will be implemented as you advance... Fees, stores, library etc



How To Create Database Tables in Microsoft Access 2007 Design View
We have already determined the tables we will use for our database application
  • Step 1: Click the Create Tab in Microsoft Access window
  • Step 2: Click Table Design
  • Step 3: Enter the following in the table that is created
Field Names: This will afterwards become the columns in which you will enter the data.
Data Type: This determines the kind of information that can be stored in that field. With our simple database, we will only work with Number and Text.

Needs Analysis for a Computer Based Examinations Analysis System

Needs Analysis for a Computer Based Examinations Analysis System

Having been a teacher, I have experienced the challenges of manual exams analysis. The following are some of the checklist of the things I have had to do manually in order to complete exam analysis.. This is quite typical for a Kenyan secondary school.
  1. Record student’s performance per subject
  2. Convert Student’s Marks to letter grades A, A-, B+, B-,…E
  3. Calculate total marks for each student for the exam
  4. Make a list Ranking all the students according to their performance.. a lot of work.
  5. Enter student’s name and admission number in their report book/card
  6. Enter Student’s Marks in each student’s report book/ report card
  7. Check student’s performance for last term and enter it in report cards
  8. Write down comments for the subjects
  9. Lots of unnecessary paper work you might agree with me.
  10. Aims and Objectives of this project
  11. Remove the burden of examinations analysis, report cards writing and hordes of other record keeping from the backs of Teachers. Let the Teachers Teach.
  12. Minimize the amount of time required to analyze the exams. School closing preparation shouldn’t be a tiresome experience for the teachers
  13. Make exam results very accessible.