      Averaging Marks and Determining Grades
      
	     AftrSkol determines a weighted average of marks
      giving the teacher a menu of options for weights and
      methods.  It then assigns letter grades according to a
      table (adjustable by the user).  The program does not
      average letter grades or their point equivalents.  It
      averages marks and then determines letter grades.
      
	 The average of the marks can be adjusted by the
      teacher as can the resulting letter grade.  This
      provision allows for revision based on various
      subjective factors and for cases that border closely
      between letter grades (as well as for just plain
      fudging).
      
      
      **Year End**/{Terms/Activities/percent or raw}
      
	     AftrSkol determines the final year end mark as the
      weighted average of the year's terms.  The teacher
      assigns the weights for each term including a weight
      for any "term" that is a final exam or paper.  The
      program will accept up to nine terms.  As for term
      averages and letter grades, program determined year
      end marks can be overridden by the teacher.  The
      override factor is also useful if an entire term is
      "excused" as the program will give it a zero value
      with the appropriate weight for that term.
      
      
      **Terms**/{Activities/percent or raw}
      
	     AftrSkol determines the mark for each term as the
      weighted average of the activities for the term.  The
      teacher assigns the weights for each activity.  If an
      entire activity is excused then the weights are
      adjusted to total 100% for the remaining activities. 
      Letter grades are determined from a teacher adjustable
      table relating average marks and letter grades. 
      Average marks and letter grades can be overridden by
      the teacher.
      
      
      **Activities**/{percent or raw}
      
           Within each term there can be three "activities"
      called "assignments", "tests", and "other".  Each of
      up to 9 terms can have 20 assignments, 9 tests and 5
      others.
      
           Within each activity any particular mark can be
      excused for a student.  It is excused for all students
      if the total possible is not entered for the teacher's
      record.  Student marks are excused by entering any
      non-numeric character other than a blank (which is
      interpreted as a 0).  Various characters can be used
      to code different excused marks and those characters
      then show on the Mark report available under the
      reports menu.  For example, P might be permanently
      excused but T might mean temporarily excused but to be
      edited back to 0 if not made up by term end (see edit
      option from main menu).
      
           The average mark for each activity can at the
      teacher's discretion be the average of the raw marks
      or the unweighted average of the percentages.  For
      example, if there were two assignments with 10 marks
      possible in the first and 20 in the second, then
      consider the average mark for assignments for a
      student with 8 on the first assignment and 10 on the
      second.
      
           Under the average raw marks approach, our example
      gives (8+10)/(10+20)=18/30=60.0%  Under the percentage
      method, the student's assignment average is
      (80.0%+50.0%)/2=65.0%
      
           If the default options offered by the program are
      selected (enter is pressed rather than changing
      values), then activities are averaged by the raw mark
      approach and the three activities within the term are
      then combined using a weighted average under the
      percentage method.  This allows the teacher to say,
      for example, that assignments will count 40% and tests
      60% without having to adjust the number of marks
      possible in each activity.
      
           If the so called "unweighted" option between
      activities is selected, then it is equivalent to
      averaging the raw marks of all activities.  If the
      student in the above example also had a mark of 80 out
      of 100 on the only exam, then with weights of 40/60 on
      the default option the term mark would be
      .4*(60.0)+.6*(80.0)=72.0%  Under the "unweighted"
      method, the term mark would be
      (8+10+80)/(10+20+100)=75.4%  Under the percentage
      method within activities as well as between
      activities, our example becomes
      .4*(65.0)+.6*(80.0)=74.0%  If the cutoff for a job or
      scholarship were in the range of 72-75%, method would
      count for a lot!
      
      
      What If?
      
           The program gives the teacher the tools to "play"
      with different averaging method and weighting schemes,
      print out the results and see what difference they
      make.  Prior to "saving the term" under the Term
      Average option, interim term marks can be calculated
      and recalculated.  Even after the term is "saved", it
      can be erased from DOS or modified from the program
      (edited student by student).
      
      
           Many of us may take our favorite averaging and
      weighting scheme as the only natural method.  The
      program makes it easy to test other methods and test
      what we've been taking for granted.  Seminars can be
      run on the advantages/disadvantages of each approach. 
      The percentage approach gives equal weight to a 5 mark
      and a 100 mark exam while the raw mark approach counts
      the former as 20% of the later.  How to determine the
      mark to letter grade table provides hours of further
      discussion.
      
      ------------------------------------------------------
          AftrSkol merely attempts to make the work easy and
      the method explicit.
      ------------------------------------------------------
