Nina,
The one thing I did that I don't see mentioned here is that I hard-coded it, but also checked that what I read in matches the field names and lengths for all six fields. If there is a mis-match I post a message to the Log and screen, and exit. I am just a little nervous about this, since if the
test file the examiners use has a slight difference, I am dead. But I am going to trust that they know what they are doing.