Services 
contain details about the tests and reports that have been purchased by your school. Most services contain various levels of tests, different types of tests and also a variety of reports.
Each service contains one or more subscriptions, which are each for a specific time period.
For example, within the CAT4 service you could purchase an annual subscription that contains 8 different tests (levels Pre-A to G) with up to 8 different report types.
Each subscription contains the following components:
- Tests and Reports - The tests and reports you are entitled to use.
- Credits - The number of credits that have been purchased. Credits are allocated (taken from the total number of credits available but not consumed) when a student is added to a sitting. The credit is consumed (taken from the total number of credits available and cannot be returned) as soon as the student has downloaded the test package (at the Start of the test). One credit is required for each student completing one test. Some subscriptions are sold with unlimited credits.
- Time Period - A specific time period that the subscription is valid for. Once a subscription has expired, all the credits within it are lost.
The example below illustrates a CAT 4 Service containing two subscriptions, one subscription for May 2016 and one for June 2016. Subscriptions can be for any time period, such as each term, each academic year or any other time period required, however, GL Assessment subscriptions are generally sold annually.
The tests purchased in the first subscription (1 May 2016 to 31 May 2016) are the CAT4 Level A test, the CAT4 Level B test and the CAT4 Level C test.
GL Assessment generally sell the CAT4 service with all 8 test levels included, which range from pre-A to G levels.
The reports purchased in the first subscription are Group Report for Teachers, Group Report for Parents, Individual Report for Students and a Summary Presentation. Often the reports are bundled into a large group which contains more than 4 reports.
GL Assessment have structured the costs of reports in the following way:
- CAT4 Gold - All reports are free and included in the cost of the subscription. This includes the following reports: Group Report for Teachers, Individual Student Report for Teachers, Individual Report for Students, Individual Report for Parents, Summary Report for Senior Leaders, Summary Presentation for Senior Leaders and MS Excel Report. In total, this includes 56 different reports, as there is one different report type for each CAT4 test level.
- CAT4 Bronze - Two report types are free and included in the cost of the subscription. These reports are the Group Report for Teachers and the MS Excel report. In total, this includes 16 different reports, as there are 2 different report types for each CAT4 test level.
- Post Pay (chargeable) - Reports are chargeable at the time of report creation. This includes the following reports: Individual Student Report for Teachers, Individual Report for Students, Individual Report for Parents, Summary Report for Senior Leaders and the Summary Presentation for Senior Leaders. In total, this includes 40 different reports, as there are 5 different chargeable report types for each CAT4 test level.
Each subscription contains all the tests that your students can take and all the reports that you can create.
The final component of each subscription is the number of credits that it contains. In the example, a total of 400 credits have been purchased for the CAT 4 Service. This means that 150 students will be able to take tests in May 2016 and 250 students will be able to take tests in June 2016. Additional credits can be purchased as and when required.
The number of credits within each subscription can be used in any number of configurations to your requirements.
In our example, the school that has purchased the CAT4 service with150 credits for May 2016 could use them in the following ways:
- 100 students complete the CAT4 Level A Test, 30 students complete the CAT4 Level B Test and 20 students complete the CAT4 Level B Test.
- 50 students complete the CAT4 Level A Test, 50 students complete the CAT4 Level B Test and 50 students complete the CAT4 Level B Test.
- 150 students complete the CAT4 Level B Test.
As students start their tests (by clicking the Start Test button in the Test Lobby), the number of credits available within a subscription will reduce in value. When no credits are available, your school will have to purchase more credits if you want to continue testing students using the system.
The tests you have purchased will be available for selection whenever you create a new sitting. Some reports are included as part of the cost of the subscription and some reports are charged for separately. Any reports that do include a charge are clearly marked, so that you can differentiate them from the reports that have already been paid for, as part of your subscription.
When working with Services you can: