This article is designed for Secondary Schools who are moving to Arbor from SIMs and contains key actions for exams officers to complete both before and after migration.
Important actions for before migration
Make a start on your Training
As well as the resources in our help centre, you will also have training on Arbor’s exams area with one of our Software Trainers which can be access through the Training Hub.
Ensure you log in to the Training Hub as soon as possible and start the Exams Management Learning Path.
Remove 'No-Entry' submissions from SIMS
If you are migrating from SIMS, you will need to delete any entries with a status of 'No-Entry’ prior to your final data migration. This is because they will migrate across to Arbor as 'Entered Pending Submission' and not be excluded from entries. In Arbor, this is instead handled by Withdrawing the student
If you do not delete these entries before migration, you'll find instructions on how to resolve this in Step 4 of the post-migration checklist.
Check your Exams data in the dummy site
After your dummy migration, it’s crucial to check your exams data thoroughly. If you find anything missing or incorrect, send details (with screenshots from your previous SIMs) to your support team. How to report migration issues.
- Check that entries have migrated from Students > Examinations > EDI Exports > Entries
- Check that results have migrated from Students > Examinations > Results > Raw Results. Remember to change the filters to look at previous academic years.
- Check that access arrangements have migrated from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Access Arrangements.
Important actions for after migration
Add your Centre Number to Arbor
Follow these instructions to add a Centre Number: Setting up your centre and exams
A Centre Number is mandatory as it is required to create:
- student UCI assignments - you can see more details here: Adding and editing exam candidate Unique Candidate Identifiers (UCIs)
- entry and submission files - you won't be able to click the button to mark files as approved if you don't have a Centre Number, as the file won't be in the correct naming format.
Import your Pearson BTEC Basedata
Arbor automatically downloads most exam board basedata. The one exception is Pearson BTEC, which must be imported manually. Please follow these instructions: Setting up BTEC qualifications
Note: It is only possible to migrate English basedata and not Welsh basedata. With Welsh basedata, the fifth character in the file name will be B, whereas with English basedata, the fifth character is _. For example, an English basedata file may be named 6B24_41, while a Welsh basedata file would instead be named 6B24B41.
Confirm any EDI Entries showing as Pending Submission
Sometimes, EDI entries can show as ‘Pending Submission’ following a migration, even if they were submitted to the exam board in your old MIS.
You'll need to mark them as approved from Students > Examinations > Entries > EDI Exports > Entries. Any pending submissions will appear like the screenshot below.
Check the exams data in your live site
Just as with the dummy migrations, it’s important to check your exams data thoroughly after your final migration.
If you find any data missing or incorrect, please send details (along with screenshots of the data in your previous MIS) to the Arbor Support Team if supported by Arbor, or contact your Support Partner if not supported by Arbor.
- Check that entries have migrated from Students > Examinations > Entries > EDI Candidate Entries
- Check that results have migrated from Students > Examinations > Results > Raw Results. Remember to change the filters to look at previous academic years.
- Check that access arrangements have migrated from Students > Examinations > Candidates > Access Arrangements.
If you didn't delete entries with a status of 'No-Entry’ in SIMS before your migration, these students will show as 'Entered Pending Submission’. If you have marked these entries as confirmed and approved, you'll need to withdraw these students by following these instructions: Withdrawing Candidates from EDI Qualifications
This will trigger an amendment file that may or may not include any real amendments for the awarding body, so may still need to be sent to the exam board.
Overview of key documentation
We have lots of resources in our Help Centre that can help you get started with Arbor’s Exams area.
We’d recommend bookmarking these pages:
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