NBME Course Comprehensive File(s) Load Process

Owned by Kautuk Gupta
Last updated: Feb 03, 2023 by Jessica Marshall
3 min read

Overview

The following guidelines are recommended for the USF Morsani College of Medicine community in uploading medical student exam test scores. These test scores are loaded to the Health Education Data Warehouse and other student information.

Location

\\tup-sapetlprod.forest.usf.edu\USMLE\NBME Course Scores\   (requires USF VPN connection http://vpn.usf.edu/ )


The above-shared drive folder has the following sub-folders:

  • Course1, Course2, Course3, Course4, Course5, Course6, Course7 - The data files need to be placed in the respective Course folder.
  • Archive - Contains the files that have been loaded to the database in the past.
  • Error Logs - Contains the following 2 files
    • NBME_Course_data_error_records.csv - Contains invalid data records in the file when data was last loaded.
    • NBME_Course_Unumber_Mismatch_error_records.csv - Contains U-number records which don't match any Health Banner students in the file when data was last loaded.
    • Error Log Archive -  Contains the archived error logs by date of run.
  • Required File Format - Please use the files in the folder as a template to generate any files that need to be loaded to the database. Course 1 file has a different format than the other Course files.
    • Course1 - Contains the required format for Course 1 file
      • Course 1 NBME Scores AYXXXX.xlsx
    • Course2_to_Course7 - Contains the common file format for Course 2 to Course 7 files
      • Course X NBME Scores AYXXXX.xlsx
  • Required Remediation File Format - Please use the files in the remediation folder as a template to generate any Remediation files that need to be loaded to the database. Remediation file has a different format than the other course files. 
    • Remediation\Course1 - Contains the required format for Course 1 remediation file.
      • Course 1 NBME Remediation Scores AY1920
    • Remediation\Course2_to_Course7 - Contains the common file format for Course 2 to Course 7 remediation files. 
      • Course X NBME Remediation Scores AYXXXX
  • Original File Archive - Contains files that were provided by the client in a different format than what is required.

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Table of Contents

Rules for Data

  • Must have a test date for each record.
  • Must have an Exam Name for each record.
  • Must have a valid Examinee Id (U-number) for a USF Health student.
  • Columns must be in the order indicated on the files in the Required File Format folder.
  • The excel sheet name should not have a '&' character.
  • File must be in .xlsx format.

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New File Loading Process

Follow these steps to provide a new NBME Course Comprehensive data file for loading to database:

  1. Go to the folder location.
  2. Go to Required File Format sub-folder. Open and check the file(s) for required format.
  3. Create/download the new NBME Course Comprehensive data file(s) and save them with the file format from step 2. 
  4. The file(s) should be named appropriately with a date appended in the end and saved as an 'Excel Workbook' (*.xlsx) to the respective course folder. 
    If there are multiple files for the same course, they can all be placed in the same location.

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Data Correction and Loading Process

Note

You will be notified if there are any data errors while loading the file(s). The email will mention the location and file name of the error log. Please note the error log will be in a .csv format and you will need to save the corrected data into a .xlsx format as indicated in the process.

Follow these steps to provide a corrected NBME Course Comprehensive data file for loading to database:

  1. Go to the folder location.
  2. Go to the Error Logs sub-folder.
  3. Locate the error log file name mentioned in the email.
  4. Open the file and check for the error records. Note that error records will not have scores provided. 
  5. Use the file course number to identify the format of the corrected data files. Create new file(s) with the corrected data in the format specified in the Required File Format folder.
  6. Rename the file(s) appropriately with a date appended in the end.
  7. Save the file(s) as an 'Excel Workbook' (*.xlsx) to the appropriate course folder.

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Load Schedule

It is important that the Excel files be closed and are not open for editing before the load process begins. When the data load begins if the file is open, then the process will error out. The load is expected to happen Saturdays at 9 am.

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