My file wouldn’t upload to the NFER Analysis Tool.

• Make sure that you select only the “Student Basic Details” and “SEN Information” – if, for example, assessment data is included in the CTF the upload will fail.
• When producing the file, check that only pupils from Years 1 to 6 are in the export. If pupils from other year groups are present, the upload will fail.
• Check that the name of the file you are uploading matches the name of the file you exported. If you upload a different file, it may have missing, incorrect or out of date data, causing the upload to fail.

My file produces lots of errors in the NFER Analysis Tool.

• When checking the data in the CTF, the tool makes sure that it matches what is expected. A cause of errors can be if the date selected for the CTF is in the past.
• If a piece of data is highlighted in red, the import won’t work for that student and the data must be fixed in SIMS. 
• If a piece of data is highlighted in orange / salmon pink, it is warning that it may not be correct, but the upload can continue. 

Do I need one CTF per year group or class?

• No, we recommend making just one CTF file for all the students.
• After uploading the CTF file, the Analysis Tool will recognise year groups.
• This support article explains how to put pupils into classes.

Where is my CTF file saved?

• As each school’s IT may be set up differently, there is no single answer.
• The file has you created will be stored in your usual CTF export folder. This will be an location on your computer or network, depending on your SIMS installation. 
  • The location is often “C:\SIMS\START\CTFOUT\”. 
• If you don’t have access to the location, or you are unsure where the file is saved, your local IT Support team and/or SIMS administrator will be able to support you.

I opened the CTF file and it’s very confusing / looks like computer code / etc. Can I check that it is OK before uploading?

• CTF files, “Common transfer files”, are not designed to be easily readable by humans. They are produced in a file format called XML (extensible markup language), which follows a fixed format and is easily read by computers.
• On Windows, you can check a CTF opens by right clicking on the file then picking “Open with” and then “Notepad”. You will then see something that looks similar, but different, to this:
• In the section towards the bottom of this screen shot labelled “<Pupil>”, you will see that the pupil’s data is displayed. In here, the NFER Analysis Tool will be expecting to find at least the following information:
  • UPN  
  • First name 
  • Surname 
  • DOB 
  • Gender / Sex
    • The version of SIMS you use will determine which of these fields appears. You will see one, the other or both.
  • Year group
    • If Year Group is missing, check that you did not select “Export Partial – minimal CTF” in step 1 of this help article.
• If your upload has failed, and if you are in doubt as to whether the CTF is valid, NFER can arrange a secure upload of your CTF file for our support team to double-check for you.

Is the process the same for NFER Online Assessments (NOA)?

• The process of generating the CTF file is exactly the same.

We don’t use SIMS.

• The NFER Analysis Tool will upload CTF files from any school MIS that produces them. 
• The naming of the CTF file differs between MIS providers: 
  • In Scholarpack or Arbor pick “Partial by year group”
  • In RM Integris pick “Full”
  • In iSAMS, select the pupils in “Pupil finder” and from the pink drop down (upper right corner) pick “Export CTF”
• If you use Arbor, we recommend instead that you use our integration. This directly connects your Arbor to the NFER Analysis Tool, loading the pupil data into the Analysis Tool and enabling you to view analysis of results in Arbor. You can find out more information, and set up the connection here.