Exam Scoring Report Formats

• Reports are sent as attachments to a message from "Testing Center."
• Your reports should arrive no later than the same hour the next business day after you submitted your scoring packets.
• Email testing@esue.ohio-state.edu or phone 688-8323 to follow up on your request.
• When you (or your designees) receive your emailed reports, your scored exams are ready to be picked up.
• Generally, additional report formats can be emailed to you without a rescan of your exams.
• Rescanning your exams is necessary if
• You want the exams rescored with a different answer key.
• You request a different sorting order for your reports.
• You change your mind about the reporting by groups option.

You can choose any combination of the following six reporting formats.

1. Alphabetical list of student scores
• This report arrives as an attachment named "emailresults.txt."
• The report is a simple list of student names and raw scores (number scored correct).
• Some basic statistics (mean, median, standard deviation, maximum score, minimum score, and number of answer sheets scored) appear at the end of the report.
• If a student seems to be missing, note that students sometimes forget to BUBBLE their names. These students appear at the top of the alphabetic list. Also check to see if the first and last names were transposed.
2. Three comma-delimited text files
• These text files are suitable for importing into spreadsheets or statistical software.
• The three reports arrive in a single email. The reports are named #####TST.txt, #####STU.txt, and #####ITM.txt, where ##### represents the 5-digit "TestID" code assigned by the scanning software to identify your batch. In general, we use the staff-assigned Request ID (3-digit request number and 1-character identifier letter) to correspond with you about your submissions. However, if you speak with the scanner operator (at 688-8323), you may be asked for the 5-digit TestID code that appears on your reports. For the sample files shown below, the Request ID is 274A, and the 5-digit TestID is 33263.
• The TST file provides "overall" statistics, including the mean, median, standard deviation, maximum score, minimum score, and number of scored answer sheets.
• The STU file provides student statistics. The file includes each student's bubbled responses, total score, z-score, and t-score.
• When importing data from the STU comma-delimited file, be aware that students' responses comprise a single field named "answers," whether your exam had 10 items or 200 items. If you wish to do your own item analysis, you will need to split the "answers" field after you import the comma-delimited file, or you can work with the fixed-column DAT file instead.
• If you see blanks in the "answers" field, the student either marked no response at all, or marked more than one response, for the blank item. (Either way, the item will not earn credit for the student, unless you bubbled all responses for that item on the scoring key.) In the DAT file (option 6 below), multiple responses marked for a single item show up as an asterisk in the field.
• If you chose reporting by groups, the report also lists the students' z-score and t-score within their particular group or "section," where "section" is defined by the specific values students bubbled in the SPECIAL CODES fields of their answer sheets.
• The ITM file provides item analyses. The analyses are the same as those included in the pdf file (option 4 below). The annotated pdf sample report provides a detailed explanation of the item analysis features.
3. Three comma-delimited text files saved to a disk
• You must provide the PC-formatted disk.
• We cannot burn your reports to a CD.
4. Adobe Acrobat (pdf) report
• This is the most reader-friendly and comprehensive report. See the annotated pdf sample report for details.
• The pdf report is not suitable for importing data into spreadsheets or statistical packages.
• The pdf report can be quite large, perhaps 1 MB or more, especially if you request reporting by groups for a large set of exams.
5. Adobe Acrobat (pdf) report printed on paper: An additional $10-per-batch fee is assessed for this option.
6. DAT file: Note that you must scroll over to see students' total scores at the far right of each line of data.
• The DAT file is a "report" only in the sense that it shows every character bubbled on the scanned sheets. No summary values are provided, but the DAT file is useful if you wish to import data to do your own analyses.
• The DAT file is a fixed-column text file with a "dat" extension.
• The DAT file arrives in a separate email. Due to the "dat" extension, you must choose a program to open the file. Notepad, Wordpad, or any word-processing software will allow you to view the file. If you rename the attachment, using the “ txt ” extension, the file will open automatically when you double-click on it.
• If you used the blue General Purpose NCS Peason Answer Sheet, Form Number 4521, this annotated form (pdf) shows where every field will appear in your dat file.
• Any column or item that was bubbled more than once causes an asterisk to appear in the appropriate position of the dat file. In the sample dat file, student Sara Scan bubbled more than one response to test item 2, and the instructor bubbled ALL responses for test item 3 in the scoring key (see page 2 of the annotated pdf sample report for the reason). Asterisks often appear in students' names due to careless bubbling.