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I'm creating a grade book. I have a table that contains the scores of each graded item for all students, in all of my classes. This includes homework, quizzes, tests, final exam, labs, etc.. Each class may have a different set of graded items (some classes may not have a lab, for example). So in this table, I have a student ID, a class ID, the graded item category and the score. In a related table, I have a list of my students and on a layout I can summarize, using a portal, the total and average that each student has earned for each graded item category. No problem. What I'd like to do is create a field in my student table that will hold each of these averages separately. Each student will have 5 or 6 fields that will hold averages for each category. Somehow I need to pick up these summary fields in a formula. I need these values so I can manipulate the numbers for calculating weighted averages and projections during the semester when some categories have not been completed. Thanks in advance.

This is probably simple, but I can't seem to figure it out. I'm creating a gradebook. I have four classes of about 30 students each semester and each class has a unique set of about 60 "assignments" (which could be quizzes, homework, exams, lab, etc.). My goal is to make my gradebook.fm7 table contain a record for each grade. Each record would show the student, the class, the assignment type, the assignment number and the score for that assignment. Here's what I have so far: I have a table of all students that can be filtered by a relationship to show a specific class. I have a second table of all assignments that can be filtered to show a specific class, assignment type and assignment number. I'm doing the filtering with relationships to global fields in my gradebook.fm7 table. This is what I can't figure out: I want to either run a script that will populate my gradebook.fm7 table with every student and every possible assignment for that student up front, then as the semester goes on I will enter the score for each. Or, if it makes more sense (and if it's possible), I would like to generate records on the fly when I enter a score. However, on any given day I will be entering about 60-70 scores, so I don't want to have to click a button or navigate menus before/after each entry (so running a script up front might be a better solution).

All of my db experience is with MS Access (a number of years ago). A few weeks ago I downloaded the FM7 demo and I'm trying to decide if it's worth the price. My initial reaction is that FM is lame compared to MS Access but there's a good chance I'm just not familiar enough with FM. Of course, I'm a Mac-only guy now so Access isn't an option. Is FM as powerful as Access? Has anyone else made the transition with success/satisfaction?