General Advice for IT Applications

[jsimmo]

Thanks ELL and Jsimmo

Jsimmo: can you check that link again? It's not working for me. Thank you

AHH sorry!

Try this: http://notes.vcenotes.com/?step=downloader&download=190

[transgression]

Great tips! Very useful advice; and well done ell for being the new moderator.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

I would say don't rely on those IPM sample exams, those things are way easier than IT Apps. Learn how to write perfect Excel formulas (not in IPM), and learn how to answer those damn ethics questions

[xvce2009]

I would say don't rely on those IPM sample exams, those things are way easier than IT Apps. Learn how to write perfect Excel formulas (not in IPM), and learn how to answer those damn ethics questions

Agreed, don't waste your time on IPM exams when exam period is coming up. Only go through them if you have finished every other revision material you already have in your huge pile of practice exams and booklets.

Formulas, definitely. That includes: SUM, COUNT, COUNTIF, MAX, MIN, and importantly the VLOOKUP and IF formulas. It is highly unlikely that all of these will come up in the end of year exam, but there is bound to be one placed in there, as did the VLOOKUP and IF did for this year.

However, what I reckon is the most important thing for the final exams is to answer the question as required by the information problem. I cannot stress that enough. If the information problem is about a Primary School you produce an answer which will relate to a primary school. This maybe common sense, but you would be surprised how many people just write an answer which doesn't relate back to the information problem.

Finally, use common sense and sometimes don't think too much about the question. In this year's exams there were a couple dodgy questions (as with nearly ALL IT Applications exams and practice exams). There is likely to be a couple of questions where course knowledge cannot be applied, hence you must think on your feet and answer the question as appropriately as possible. For example, there was a question in this years final exam which asked you to organize web-pages into the correct categories for a school website. This is something examiners expect you to know through common sense. Personally I believe there are many ways to answer such an ambiguous question similar to this, and such questions shouldn't be included in the final exam. Nevertheless, in the end it is down to how you determine the question yourself, and of course answering it in a logical sense for examiners to credit you for the mark.

Well that's all I can think of now, I may post some more advice later. And if there's any other questions I'll be happy to help.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

I would also say IT Applications is not about who can remember the most information, because really, there isn't that much to remember. Anyone can remember all the information required, the (lack of) thickness of the textbooks shows this. What it's all about is how well you can interpret questions, and as the above post says, common sense and relating back to the case studies presented.

I remember there was a multi choice question about a school chess club, and they wanted to know what type of network they needed. They required a secure network that enabled them to put in results anywhere. Some people in my class jumped at the word secure, and instantly put down Ethernet, ignoring the fact that they wanted access anywhere, which pretty much guaranteed wireless. If you get things like this wrong you'll be so pissed afterwards.

Ethics questions are not cool. From what I see, they seem to always be weighing up the benefits to society to individual benefits.

Check out examiner reports/Mark Kelly's post mortems and learn why the state did so badly on particular questions. Don't look at your exam post mortems after you finish exams, it's seriously depressing. It's still depressing.

[xvce2009]

100% agree with above post. How much knowledge you have is nearly irrelevant. I made the mistake of trying to learn everything possible, including all the fine details. In the end, I probably only used 30% of that knowledge. This is why I sometimes find subjects such as IT Applications a bit stressing. It's unlike maths where the more you study and practice, the more you will benefit greatly and acquire faster solving speeds and methods. And the fact in maths the answer is either wrong or right, nothing else. In IT Applications, I feel there is almost a bottleneck where learning more facts isn't going to dramatically increase your chances of a high study score. It's more a common sense based subject, and applying that knowledge to the best of your abilities. After coming out of the end of year exam, I was quite surprised of how many ambiguous and slightly irrelevant questions were included, as you will find with many of the practice exams when you come to them at the end of the year.

But of course, this is not to say that you should stop studying and not try at all. It is still important to acquire ample knowledge of the course and the study design, especially the fact that they are likely to throw in some things you may have never learned in class before. Haha yes the ethics questions in the 2008 exam were pretty random. That's the kind of concept I'm talking about.

[ell]

Great points guys - I'm a big advocate of using your common sense which, amongst all this advice, is the key to doing well ITA.

I might add those points to the original post (somewhat paraphrased) since I think they're quite important and something I overlooked while writing it.

[xvce2009]

Thanks ell. Adding to what already is a great guide.

[kurrymuncher]

Is microsoft access a very important part of the exam. I havent done year 11 IT, so I have no idea how to use Access. Does anyone have any tutorial websites or notes.

[Flaming_Arrow]

Is microsoft access a very important part of the exam. I havent done year 11 IT, so I have no idea how to use Access. Does anyone have any tutorial websites or notes.

its self explanatory

[ell]

Is microsoft access a very important part of the exam. I havent done year 11 IT, so I have no idea how to use Access. Does anyone have any tutorial websites or notes.

Not for the exam, but for your SACs (if your school is using Access). For the exam you need to know basic database concepts common to all database software like setting up queries/rules, relationships (one to one, one to many etc), that sort of thing.

As for Microsoft Access tutorials - a Google search will give you heaps, but Access is fairly easy to use. Just use the wizard if it's the first time you're using it.

[methodsboy]

Is microsoft access a very important part of the exam. I havent done year 11 IT, so I have no idea how to use Access. Does anyone have any tutorial websites or notes.

Shouldn't be hard to learn as long as you can learn new things quickly... sers, i didnt listen that much to the doughnut butch and i got it. But MAKE SURE you learn it ! Even if it's just one SAC, it can make a huge difference in terms of ranking. If you don't get it, chill, like u said urself "ITA is probably not going in my top 4" <----> (that quote was not 100% accurate, i based it on my short -term memory)

[Glockmeister]

I was ranked at "the bottom half" of my cohort, and ended up with the 3rd highest score.

[excal]

I was ranked at "the bottom half" of my cohort, and ended up with the 3rd highest score.

tl;dr - all in the exam

Is microsoft access a very important part of the exam. I havent done year 11 IT, so I have no idea how to use Access. Does anyone have any tutorial websites or notes.

In the past, the exam was technology neutral (and that the SACs were the means to test your technical knowledge). With IT:A, Excel has managed to creep into the exam - but databases seem to be still fairly neutral (with an Access or Filemaker bias).

[billz1508]

Technical, Operational, Economic, Social

these are contraints and factors.. but where are these in the ita nelson book.. :S??