Subject Assessment Area Maintenance - Area bar - Formula tab

Calculation Formula

Formula used for calculating student results, operating on assessment areas within the current subject assessment. For example, the German A subject assessment used in the examples includes three areas that are assessed:

• Written Exam, also designated as A1
• Oral Exam, also designated as A2
• Homework, also designated as A3.
  
  In addition, 'assessment areas' have been added to hold the result of calculations to be:
• output on reports, such as Weighted Average, also designated as A4
• used elsewhere, such as Ranking, also designated as A5
• used elsewhere, such as Average, also designated as A6.
  
  The formula used can be a simple calculation. For example, the formula for a calculated 'assessment area' such as Average can be (A1+A2+A3)/3.
  Alternatively, the formula can use a Synergetic function. For example, @sfWeightedAverage(A1,A2,A3) is the correct function to use as it takes into account the weighting factors applied (see Weighting Factor below).

Result Type

Formatting of the calculated result.
It is recommended that you use a numeric result type for a calculated assessment area record. See Creating a numeric result type for calculated assessment areas in the Synergetic Assessments and reports manual.

Weighting Factor

Weighting factor of the current assessment area, when used in calculations by other assessment areas for the subject.
It is important to be consistent across each of the assessment areas used in the weighted calculations. For example, if you have three assessment areas that you want to weight to a result using the formula @sfWeightedAverage(A1, A2, A3), you might represent them as follows:

• Area 1 - 50% represented as 0.5
• Area 2 - 20% represented as 0.2
• Area 3 - 30% represented as 0.3
• Weighted Average - 100%, represented as 1.
  The default value is 1, which results in no weighting if all of the other areas have the same value.

Mark Out Of

Calculated result can be converted to a Mark Out Of value.
For example, if you want to have the calculated result converted to a mark out of 50, specify a value of 50.
The default is a mark out of 100. This is represented as either a 100 or a zero.

Round to Decimal Places

Type the number of decimal places to round the result to. Synergetic rounds up or down to the nearest value, based on the number of decimal places specified.
This field can be used in conjunction with the Decimal Places are Fixed field. In the following examples, the Decimal Places are Fixed field is cleared. Any integer results, such as 92, are displayed without any decimal places.
For example, if the Round to Decimal Places field is:

• set to 0, a result of 92.5 is formatted as 92 on the student report
• set to 1, a result of 92 is formatted as 92 on the student report
• set to 1, a result of 95.312 is formatted as 95.3 on the student report
• set to 1, a result of 95.296 is formatted as 95.3 on the student report
• set to 2, a result of 95.344 is formatted as 95.34 on the student report.
  By default the field is blank; this results in no rounding.

Decimal Places are Fixed

When a value is specified in the Round to Decimal Places field, you can fix the format of the values that are displayed on the student reports.
Based on the examples used above, if the Decimal Places are Fixed field is selected:

• a result of 92 is formatted as 92.0 on the student report, if Round to Decimal Places is 1
• a result of 95.312 is formatted as 95.3 on the student report, if Round to Decimal Places is 1 (the same as earlier)
• a result of 95.296 is formatted as 95.3 on the student report, if Round to Decimal Places is 1 (the same as earlier)
• a result of 95.344 is formatted as 95.34 on the student report, if Round to Decimal Places is 2 (the same as earlier).
  Any integer results, such as 92, are displayed with decimal places.

Truncate instead of Round

You can truncate the values that are displayed on the student reports. When:

• No value is specified in the Round to Decimal Places field the display value is truncated to an integer. For example, a 95.999 is truncated to 95.
• A value is specified in the Round to Decimal Places field, the display value is truncated to the highest value for the number of decimals specified. For example, a 95.999 is truncated to 95.99 if the Round to Decimal Places field was set to 2.

Areas

Areas of assessment that can be used in the Calculation Formula.
Click the field next to the required assessment area to place it in the Calculation Formula field.
Each area is designated by the letter A and suffixed by its sequence number. In the following example, the Ranking assessment area is designated A5 and included in the @sfDecileSubjectHighLow formula.
 

Note: The current assessment area, used to define the calculated result, is not displayed in the Areas field. This is to avoid recursive calculations, where the result forms part of its own input.

Functions

A range of mathematical functions are supplied with Synergetic. See Functions used when calculating student results in the Synergetic Assessments and reports manual.
Click the field next to the required function to place the function in the Calculation Formula field. Then enter the required parameters between the brackets.

Save the formula.