Setting up your centre, exams and candidates

To set up your Exams, go to Students > Examinations > Setup > Centre Setup. Click anywhere you see an arrow icon to add information. Ensure you have:

• The school’s Centre Number - The Centre number is a five-digit number that all schools (centres) entering candidates into exams need to have. It forms part of each candidate’s UCI number, a unique number allocated to all candidates that are entered for exams. Arbor only supports one Centre Number per site.
• The name of your school's Exams officer (s) - Exams Officers can be assigned to the role by giving them the Business Role of Exams Officer.
• Default sitting times
• Any text you want to display on the candidate labels

You don’t need to add Awarding Organisations, as these will appear when you add Qualifications.

 

Qualification offering

You'll need to add the awards and units your school is offering from Students > Examinations > Qualifications > Qualification Offering. Click the +Add new button to add a new Qualification.

For more information on what EDI and Non-EDI qualifications are, click here.

 

In the slide over, find the award or unit. It is easiest to search by entering the QAN code. Click on the Award/Unit drop-down and select the exam, then click the green Add Offering button.

For EDI qualifications you can also use the qualification scheme code (found on the exam specifications, for example, GCSE English Language). Find this using the Ofqual register. It is displayed as the Qualification number.

 

For Non-EDI qualifications, you can subscribe to the learning units on the next page.

 

When you click Save Changes, you can then add an assessable for each learning unit. Once you have chosen your assessables, click Create.

 

Top Tip: If you don't want to create an assessable for a learning unit right now, skip by removing the assessable code.

 

Once you have added your assessables, you will receive a message to the top-right of your screen. 

 

You can view all Qualifications under their relevant headings at Students > Examinations >  Qualifications > EDI/Non-EDI. 

 

You can add further assessables by selecting the award, selecting the unit you want to make entries in to, and clicking the green Create an Assessable button.

A new section will appear at the bottom of the unit page displaying assessable instances.

 

An Assessable Instance is an Assessable that takes place at an exact time and date. It is useful to create assessable instances if you have an exam or a piece of coursework with a definite deadline.

• You do not need to set these up for coursework components, as these can take place at any time.
• You will need to add an instance for all units assessed under exam conditions. This will ensure the Assessable shows up on a candidate’s timetable.

 

Linking orphan awards and units

Each qualification award has a corresponding set of learning unit(s). The link between the award and the learning unit(s) is defined by the awarding organisation (the exam board) in the qualification’s base data. We import basedata, so you don’t have to worry about amending it.

However, sometimes the base data doesn’t define the link between the award and the learning unit because, for example, the award is an A-Level where schools can pick and choose the learning units associated with an award. In this case, the award doesn’t have a link to corresponding learning units or the learning unit doesn’t have a link to a parent award. They become ‘orphan’ units and awards.

You can manually link orphan awards and units by going to Students > Examinations > Qualifications > Qualification Offering. Select the award, then click the green Qualification Offering button.

 

On the Qualification Offering Overview page, scroll down to the manual section and select to manually link a unit or an award. I’m in an award, so I need to link it to a unit.

 

Search for the learning unit’s code, select it from the drop-down menu, then click Add Offering.The award and learning unit will then be linked.

 

Managing candidates

Adding candidates

Candidates are added via Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates.

You can go through and assign UCIs and Candidate numbers to each candidate, if needed, by clicking the empty field.

You can also use the bulk assign functionality by ticking the boxes next to the candidates and then clicking the blue pencil to display a list of potential actions.

 

Click +Add to add candidates in a variety of ways (by name/year group/course).

 

You can add your transferred candidates in this Candidates section.

Transferred students are students who need to sit an exam at a different school to the one that entered them – because they've moved house, been in the hospital, or other exceptional circumstances. For more guidance from AQA, click here.

There can be two types of Transferred candidates, Internal or External:

• Transferred Internal candidates: these are normally Dual Subsidiary students, who are entered into exams by your centre but must sit their exams at another centre. Results included for subject analysis purposes. These students will be shown on the Internal Candidates page.
• Transferred External candidates: candidates that a centre accepts for exam sitting purposes, but whose entries are made by another centre. No results are received so no analysis is possible. These students will be shown on the External/Previous Candidates page and can also be added here.

To make entries for external candidates on Arbor, you must first create a basic student profile for them on Arbor. They should not be enrolled at your school. Once you have created the external candidate, follow the same process as for internal candidates to register them as external candidates by assigning UCIs and candidate numbers.

 

Candidate labels

Candidate labels can also be printed from the Candidates pages once candidates have been added. Just tick the boxes next to the candidate names and click the blue pencil icon to select Print Candidate Labels. You can then choose what data to include on the label.

  

Candidate UCI and Candidate numbers (UCN)

UCI

If the students do not already have a UCI, you can add them from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates. Just click on the UCI field to update the information in the slide over.

 

You can also tick the students to automatically generate a UCI for then click the blue pencil icon and select Assign UCI.

 

To delete a UCI, click the UCI then click Delete.

 

Candidate numbers

You can add candidate numbers from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Internal Candidates. Just click on the field to update the information in the slide over.

 

You can also tick the students to automatically generate candidate numbers for, then click the blue pencil icon and select Assign Candidate Numbers.

Top Tip: Group all your candidates missing a number by clicking the column header.

 

You can't delete a candidate number, but you can click the field to edit it to a new value.