Improving Your Balances

Under certain circumstances the "Assign Students" routine will not generate perfect balances, especially if

  • large friendship groups are allowed (If they are same-sexed friendship groups in a mixed school, the most serious effect will be on the gender balance);
  • there are many keep-aways;
  • there are many students with very tight restrictions.

However, before you resort to making manual alterations to the classes on the List sheet you could try various ways to improve the balances using the program's options. Here are some possibilities:

  • If it is just the gender balance causing difficulties it is likely you have same-sexed friendship groups in a mixed school. Go to the Factors sheet and increase the weight of the male and female categories. (An increase of just 1 will usually do the trick). Then press the "Build" button on the Utilities sheet;
  • If you have specified large friendship groups, try reducing the allowable size;
  • Try changing the type of search (Standard, Quick or Complex). Usually the 'Standard' sort provides slightly better balances but under certain conditions (connected with restrictions and student associations) the Quick or Complex sorts work better;
  • If you want to improve a particular balance, try increasing its weighting on the Factors sheet. (Don't forget to "re-build" after you have done so);
  • If there are any categories you don't really need to balance, make sure they have a weighting of zero on the Factors sheet;
  • Sometimes a certain initial arrangement of students on the List sheet can generate a poorer balance than normal. You can always run one "Assign Students" routine straight after another (and another!). This will always generate an entirely new set of classes and may result in improved

Tweaking Your Classes Manually

If you can't achieve your ideal solution using the techniques listed above, it may be time for you to make some manual adjustments to your classes. You may even want to do this if you have already achieved good balances but want to improve the way in which the friendship groups have turned out. If so, you can simply change a student's Class number on the List sheet. While doing so, keep in mind the following:

  • Use the "Friends" and "Linkview" sheets to check you aren't breaking a desired friendship
  • After making an alteration press the "Update Balances" button so that you can instantly see what effect your change had on the balances
  • By pressing the "Sort by Class" button you can instantly update your class lists.
  • If you re-assign students after carrying out manual adjustments, these manual changes will be lost.