Understanding External Test Score Data Processing
Important! Test score load and other processes and components discussed in this Processing External Test Scores documentation are deprecated. It is strongly recommended that you use Prospect/Admissions Data Load (PDL) instead. For more information on PDL, see the Prospect/Admissions Data Load documentation.
The ability to receive external test score data and post it to your database is integral to recruiting and evaluating applicants. Academic institutions receive hundreds, if not thousands, of test scores each year. Using your Recruiting and Admissions application, you can receive external test score data, review the data for errors, and post the data, confident that you are not creating duplicate IDs. You can also post test score data to PeopleSoft CRM and have the post process create prospect records directly in CRM.
Recruiting and Admissions supports loading many test scores, such as the ACT, ADA, AMCAS, AP, CRS, DAT, EOS, GMASS, GMAT, GRE, LSAT/LSDAS, SAT, SSS and TOEFL. The ultimate goal in processing external test score data is to update test score data for individuals through electronic data loads. Your institution receives tapes that contain scores, bio/demo, and sometimes transcript data for individuals. For each test, you first load the data into suspense tables. Then, you ensure that you are not going to create any duplicate bio/demo or test records. (It's very hard to identify and correct duplicate records after they've been created.) Finally, you post the bio/demo and test score data to your database. (The search/match/post process posts self-reported academic information to test score candidate data tables.) You follow this process for each test.
Regardless of the test, the same components are used to load, view, and post test score data. The ID of the test that you are processing must be entered on each component. The entry of the test ID determines which fields appear on each page. The test IDs shown in the prompt are based on your test ID security. You must have test ID security defined in order to process external test scores.
To process external test score data:
Load the test score data from a file in your directory into a suspense table using the External Test Score Load Application Engine (SAD_TST_LOAD ) process.
Review and edit the data that you loaded in suspense pages.
Correct all load errors before moving on to the next step. In the search dialog page of the suspense component, enter the test ID, Error in the Edit Processing Option field and click the Search button. Access each suspense record and correct the errors until every suspense record has a value of Complete (rather than Error) in the Edit field on the Test Score Suspense Data page.
After you have corrected all of the load errors, run the Search/Match/Post Test Scores Application Engine (SAD_TEST_PST) process.
This process looks for data in your database (based on search parameters that you define on the search/match criteria pages, for example, name, social security number, and birth date) that matches the data that you are posting. For a set of parameters that suggest only a possible match (such as name and gender, for example), the process will not post the record until you can manually determine which records are actually duplicates. You can also choose to create prospect records and assign 3Cs during the post process.
You can post the test scores to either Campus Solutions or PeopleSoft CRM (if you have installed PeopleSoft CRM) . The External Test Score Mapping page indicates which test scores can be posted to CRM. You can post the following the test scores to CRM: ACT, AP, CRS, DAT, EOS, GMAT, GMASS, GRE, LSAT, SAT, SSS and TOEFL. The following the test scores cannot be posted to CRM: ADA, AMCAS, LSDAS, NCEA, OUAC, QTAC, SATAC, Studielink, UAC, and VTAC. If you post the test scores to CRM, the Search/Match/Post Test Scores process automatically creates prospect records in CRM.
View each suspense record that did not get posted and confirm that it is actually a duplicate.
In the search dialog page of the suspense component, enter the test ID, Complete in the Edit Process Option field and Perform in the Search/Match Process Option field. Then click the Search button. The search process finds only those suspense records that went through the search/match/post process but did not get posted. The reason the search/match/post process did not post the records is because it found a possible duplicate record in the database. After you access the component, find the parameters for which the process identified a match, then use Search Match to look up the bio/demo information that matches the suspense record and decide on your own whether a person who matches the incoming data already exists in the system. Then, specify whether you want the search/match/post process to add the bio/demo and test record to your database, update an existing record, or ignore the suspense record altogether.
Run the Search/Match/Post Test Scores process again.
The process posts the suspense records that you manually tagged to post. By this time, all of your suspense records should be posted to your database. When a record posts to your database, the search/match/post process assigns an ID to the person. To view a bio/demo record that the search/match/post process created, select To view a test score record that the search/match/post process created or updated, select
Purge the suspense tables.
You should purge the suspense tables as soon as all of the suspense records have been posted to the database. This helps to avoid confusion the next time that you load data into the suspense tables.
(Optional) Review test score candidate data.
When external test score loads contain additional information about the student, such as academic interests, extracurricular activities, and prior schools attended, the search/match/post process stores the data in the Test Score Candidate Data component.
The process does not store candidate data if you post the test scores to PeopleSoft CRM.
(Optional) Create prospects from tests.
Create prospects from posted test scores using query manager to define a specific population.
See Understanding Creating Prospects from Test Scores with Query.
(Optional) Create applicants from tests. Create applications for posted ADA, AMCAS, or LSAT/LSDAS tests.
See Pages Used to Create Applications from External Test Score Data.