Stage 4 tasks: Solve and review
Each task stands on its own. It says when it happens in the year, how long it takes, what you need, and what comes next. Where a task has a clip, the clip and the steps tell the same story. Where a step cannot be undone, a warning comes before it and a line after it says what to do if it was a mistake.
On this page
Solve the table
When: once the postings you must are placed and the rules checked; again after any change. About 15 minutes, nearly all of it waiting. You need: a draft with residents. It does not need saving first: the solve uses the table as it is on screen.
Check the scoring, solve, compare, preview and use a result (26 s)
Warning: a new solve replaces the last solve's result cards. To keep them, press Duplicate first: the duplicate keeps the newest solve.
- On the draft's table, press Solve this table. The page shows Solving, a moving bar, and This may take up to 15 minutes.
- Leave the page if you like. It says The result is saved when it is done, so you can leave this page.
- Come back to the draft. When the solve has finished, Latest solve shows up to five result cards.
If this goes wrong: if the solve cannot start, a sentence by the Solve this table button says why, and nothing runs (see Solve refuses to start). If it ends without results:
- These rules cannot all hold together: and a list of rules: change one of them, then solve again.
- The solve ran out of time. Solve again. or The solve stopped with a fault. Solve again.
- The solving machine did not start. Try again in a minute.
- The draft changed while it was solving, so those results were set aside. Solve again.
- No plan found in 15 minutes. Earlier results are kept.
More detail
- The solver keeps every filled box, whoever filled it, and fills only the empty ones.
- One solve runs at a time on a draft. Pressing again while one runs joins it.
- The page checks every 5 seconds. A page closed and opened again picks the solve up where it is.
- In the demo a solve takes up to 2 minutes.
- Solve this table is greyed while a solve runs, when the table has no residents, and on a look-only saved version. It is also greyed when every open box is filled: Every box is filled. Clear some boxes, or use Undo, to give the solver room.
Next: Read and compare the results.
Read and compare the results
When: after each solve. About 20 minutes. You need: a finished solve.
Press a card, read its analysis fold by fold, compare it with Result 1 (37 s)
- Under Latest solve, read each card: Result 1, its score, wishes granted 11 of 45, breaches 0, its manpower line, and the top result or differs by 298 boxes.
- Press a card. Its postings show in dashed boxes in the table's empty boxes, under the banner Previewing Result 1, not in the table yet.
- Read its analysis, headed Result 1 with its score. Press each fold to open it. The table after these steps says what each fold tells you.
- Press another card to preview that result instead, and compare.
- To end a preview, press Close preview, or press the previewed card again.
| Fold | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| The score | The three parts that add up to the score: Wishes, Fairness and Preferences. Details shows the score as a share of the best possible. |
| Wishes | Wishes granted in each year group, such as R1 5 of 15, and how many residents got nothing, with their names. Each resident lists everyone who has wishes. |
| Fairness | For each year group, the lowest, highest and average wish points after this year, earlier years included. |
| Rules | Every Must holds, or each broken Must, how often, and whom it binds. Each Prefer rule shows met or missed, the two built-in rewards among them: R1 core postings in R1 and R2 compulsory postings in R2. |
| Departments | Each department, block by block: red under its least, orange over its most. |
| Residents | Nobody ends the year owing anything., or each R3 who would graduate still owing, such as would graduate still owing Neurology 3, electives 2. |
| Boxes already in the table | How many boxes were filled before the solve, and any breach they alone cause, or No breach from them. |
| What differs from Result 1 | This is the top result., or each resident whose blocks differ, such as Jon Snow blocks 3, 4, 5. |
More detail
- A result is never in the table until you press Use this solution.
- Results can differ a little from one press to the next. That is expected, not a fault.
- Scores change with the scoring numbers, so compare scores only between results solved with the same numbers.
- What a card's figures mean: What a result card tells you.
Next: Use a result, then adjust it.
Use a result, then adjust it
When: once you have chosen a result. About 10 minutes. You need: a result previewed on the table.
Preview one on the table, then use it
- With the result previewed, press Use this solution. Its postings fill the empty boxes, and the banner reads Result 1 is in the table.
- To change one box, press it, then Change posting. Pick the Specialty and the Hospital, and press Change.
- To empty a box, press it, then Clear.
Warning: the next solve keeps every filled box, including those from the result you used. Clear the boxes you want the solver to fill again.
- Optional: press Solve this table again. It fills only the empty boxes.
- Press Save. Saved shows by the draft's name.
If this goes wrong
- The table changed since this solve.: the table changed after that solve, so its result cannot be used. Press Solve again beside the sentence.
- A newer solve replaced this one.: preview a card from the newest solve.
- Used the wrong result? Use this solution is a single Undo step: press Undo to take it all back.
More detail
- Boxes put in by Use this solution carry no corner mark. Boxes you place by hand carry it.
- The solver keeps your boxes as they are, even if they break a rule. The next result's Boxes already in the table fold names any breach.
Next: File the year in the Database, or first Try a what-if on a duplicate.
Try a what-if on a duplicate
When: when you want to compare two ways of planning, such as other scoring numbers or a new rule, without losing your draft. About 5 minutes, plus a solve. You need: a draft.
- On the draft's table, press Duplicate. A new draft of the same year opens, with the next free name and the line Copied from AY 27/28 Draft 1.
- Press the pencil and rename it for what you are trying, such as AY 27/28 more fairness. Press Done.
- Make the change you want to test: a number in Settings, a rule, or some boxes.
- Press Solve this table.
- Compare its results with the first draft's. To open the first draft, press Load previous draft on Home, then its name.
More detail
- A duplicate takes the block dates, the boxes, the rules, the scoring numbers and the newest solve from the work on screen, saved or not. The draft you duplicated stays as it was.
- A duplicate also takes a fresh look at the programme: residents, year groups, departments and Curriculum as they are today. It is how a draft catches up after the line Residents / Curriculum / Department data changed since this draft was made.
- Boxes of residents no longer in the programme are left out of the duplicate.
- Each draft keeps its own newest solve.
Next: Delete a draft you no longer need, or File the year in the Database.
Delete a draft
When: when a draft is no longer needed. About 1 minute. You need: nothing.
Warning: deleting cannot be undone. It removes the draft, both its saved version and its autosave, and its newest solve.
- On Home, press Load previous draft.
- Press Delete beside the draft. The sheet asks, for example, Delete AY 27/28 Draft 2? and says This cannot be undone. For a filed draft it adds AY 27/28 in the Database stays.
- Press Delete. The line reads Deleted AY 27/28 Draft 2.
If this was a mistake: a deleted draft cannot be brought back. A year filed from it stays in the Database. Make a new draft of that year, or duplicate another draft of it.
More detail
- Delete is also on the draft's own table page.
- A deleted draft's newest solve stays if a duplicate still uses it.