Exam point counter (Excel)

To help counting points during correction of the exams, I made some Excel VBS. When the exams are corrected, next to every error a -0,5 -1 or -1,5 is written, and these have to be substracted from the total points of every part. To make it possible to perform this little task one handed, I linked the 'h' key to -0,5, the 'j' key to -1 and the 'k' key to -1,5. Now the exams can be run through very fast and the result of every part is shown immediately. To keep track of the total points of every part for every student, I linked the 'x' key to save the result in a sheet with the totals. Finally, the 'c' key is linked to clear the contens of a column with all substractions of a part of the exam.

The exepected usage of the sheet:

• fill in the totals of every part of the exam in the top most row of the first sheet (called 'Punten teller'/'Point counter').


• (optional) if the maximum points in a part is different from the weight of that part in the complete exam, the second row in the first sheet can be used. The points will be recalculated to match the weight.


• (optional) fill in the name of every part, for example: excercises, theory, vocabulary, etc.


• select the cell in the fifth row of the first column an run through the exam. For each part of the exam, a next column should be used


• while running through a part of the exam, use the keys 'h', 'j' and 'k' for every mistake in the exam, respectively substracting 0,5 1 or 1,5 points


• when a part of the exam is finished, you can see the total points in the third row of that column


• if you want to keep that result in the totals list, press the 'x' key, the statusbar will clearly show the changes applied in the totals list (so you don't need to switch the sheets every time to verify)


• if you want to recount the points of that part again, press the 'c' key to clear the data of that column (exam part), without updating the totals list


• if you want to clear the column (part of exam) and go to the next part, use the 'n' key


• when every part is done, the points of each part will be saved in the 'Totaal'/'Total' sheet for every student, and the total is converted to a % point


• (optional) for every student, a name can be added in the second column of the 'Totaal'/'Total' sheet


• the total point of every part are rounded as for example 6.0; 6.1; 6.2 go to 6, 6.3,6.4,6.5,6.6 and 6.7 go to 6.5 and 6.8 and 6.9 go to 7


• (optional) comments for the exam of every student can be added in the 'Totaal'/'Total' sheet (last column)


• to get a nice overview of results of every student in a separate document (vakrapport/course report), a word template using Words build in MailMerge is created. It can be used in combination with a sheet based on this Excel template. The template can be updated, the result will be a separate page with points, median and comments for every individual student (a hidden sheet 'MailMerge' in the Exel template is used for this). To get best results using this template, it is advised to fill in the topics in this list marked as '(optional)'

Excel sheet template (english version, dutch 2003 version, english 2003 version) (when opening a new sheet will be created, so the template will always be kept intact)

29/03/2010: Updated template, english and 2003 versions added

04/04/2010: Updated template, added vakrapport template

Recovery tools boot USB stick

Based on Hiren's Boot CD 12 I created my personal Boot USB stick to be as complete as possible (containing more than 500 portable tools, 2,30GB). The original Hiren recovery CD contains many very useful tools to recover, tweak or patch pc's, divided into the following categories: Partition Tools, Backup Tools, Recovery Tools, Testing tools, RAM testing tools, Hard disk tools, System information tools, Master Boot Recovery tools, BIOS CMOS tools, Multimedia tools, Password tools, NTFS tools, Browser File manager tools, Other tools, Dos tools, Optimizers, Network tools, Process tools, Registry tools, Startup tools, Tweakers and Antivirus tools. A portable 'mini Windows XP' that can be run from the stick is available as well at boot time.

Many of the tools are available by booting up from the USB stick, but others need to be run into a Windows environment. These windows tools can be easily accessed by using the 'HBCDMenu.exe' tool which will be started when the cd or USB stick is started within a running Windows environment. Since the tools available within the 'HBCDMenu.exe' can be configured very easily using a 'HBCDMenu.csv' file, I created an Excel file to change the configuration an export to the csv file easier. Using this Excel it is much easier to move and rearrange the tools. Next I added all the tools I was still missing to make them available through the 'HBCDMenu.exe' tool. All tools are started using a DOS bat script and an UHARC archive. The archive is extracted in the PC's %temp% folder and started. All tools should be completely portable so no tool settings in the registry are kept after running them. I created a generic batch script to be able to run all tools in different modes: normal, just open a command window, just open an explorer windows, run the tool in Sandboxie, show online info on the tool, convert the tool into a zip file, force extraction of the uharc file. The mode is set by creating a specific file in the %temp% folder.

I keep all my personal files in a secured FreeOTFE file to make sure if I ever lose the stick no personal information can be discovered.

Besides the Hiren tools I also converted the latest BackTrack 4 bootable ISO to make it boot from a USB stick and added this into the Hiren boot screen menu. This live cd linux distribution is focused on penetration testing and perfect for quick and easy WEP cracking.

On the website of Hiren, a good explanation is provided by Hiren on how to easily convert the BootCD into a bootable USB stick using Grub4Dos. I used this 'menu.lst' as boot menu so it includes the launch of the BackTrack live environment and portable Mini Windows XP. Within an Windows environment, this 'autorun.inf' file is used to make it easier to start the 'autorun.exe' tool and other commonly used tools. To keep a backup of all my configuration, I configured a specific portable Dropbox so I can access all my tools online and keep them in sync on different locations.

The USB stick with all the extra tools requires now at least 2,29GB (I use it on a 8GB stick). I also added many of my extra tools into the CD iso file, but to keep it burnable onto a 80minute CD, some of the large tools didn't fit (office portable, tor browser, skype, toad, oracle client).

Compared to the original Hiren 10 boot cd, I've added different Windows tools. In the HBCDMenu cvs creator Excel, the complete list of all the tools are ordered in comprehensive categories. Many of these tools come from Sysinternals and Nirsoft since they provide some very useful portable little tools.

Update 25/11/2009: removed long list of personally added tools
Update 3/12/2010: update for Hiren Boot CD 12

House mortgage calculator – Excel template (Flemish)

Since we recently bought a new house, I spent some time to be able to calculate the best construction for our house credit / loan / mortgage. I tried to list all costs in an Excel sheet, combined with our earnings, to get a clear global picture on what we will have to pay. Based on these calculations, I extracted an Excel template that could be used by anyone. The costs taken into account are quite specific for Belgium (Flanders) and for our case but I suppose the sheet could be used as a start for others (let me know if this is the case)…

When using this template, some data will have to be filled in, before the calculated results will be meaningful. The fields that can be filled in/changed/selected manually, are marked in the following style: 

The most important fields to fill in at start are: price, cadastral income, savings, average pay, average outlay, interest rate of the banks, etc within the ‘kosten’ sheet. Within the ‘interesten’ sheet only at the top some fields should be filled up to denote how you would like to calculate a split loan (to benefit most of the fiscal revenue). Again the same format style is used to denote these fields should be filled in. The other fields are locked on the sheet (although they can easily be unlocked without a password).

Once the basic numbers are filled in, one can start to play with the list boxes to easily compare different constructions (split loan, fixed capital payment, years, banks, etc). One can now change the control to show how much will have to be paid and gained in the selected year. This way, you can easily check if you will be able to pay all costs and still save some money.The template can be downloaded here.

The site rentevoet.be has also made a nice excel to calculate different loan payments, besides some other calculators.

Some interesting links I used to make all calculations:

• renteopdevoet.be
• Berekening hypotheeklening
• Fiscale voordelen van de woonlening
• Verzekering gewaarborgd wonen
• Simulator woonkrediet
• Tips om te besparen op woonkrediet
• Fiscale wetgeving
• FAQ Federale Belastingsadministratie: Woning kopen
• Bereken fiscaal optimale lening
• Hoeveel kost mijn huis: rekenmodules
• DefA’s woonkrediet rekenmodule
• 10 beginnersfouten bij het kopen van een huis

Update 08/10/09: extra info link

Update 05/01/10: new template download link

Update 03/12/10: link to renteopdevoet.be