ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Technology => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Computing: Data Analytics => Topic started by: Lasercookie on August 27, 2011, 10:31:07 pm
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Less than 80 days left until the exam, wondering where everyone is up to in class and with their exam prep.
We finished our U4O1 sac last week and started on outcome 2. I've finished the 'test your knowledge questions' a while back, still got a few of the 'apply your knowledge' questions to do. I'm hoping I'll be able to get the practice exams that are available on the Nelson website soon, but my teacher doesn't have access to it for some reason :(
I've done VCAA 2009 and the 2011 sample exam questions. I intend on writing up my post-trial exam analysis (since this is IT, might as well follow the PSM and call it evaluation) of the 2009 and sample exam questions sometime this week. That's really just to pinpoint the errors I made (marking as harshly as possible), writing down my thought process, putting in the notes from the Assessor/Mark Kelly reports and also summarise all the information provided in that exam (e.g. providing a definition for pretty much everything mentioned). I figure if I do that for every IT apps exam, I should end up having a damn good understanding of the course. I might upload them on here if they end up being coherent.
I don't plan on doing anymore exams until September 24th, upon which I plan on doing a trial exam a day until the exam (I'll redo exams once I run out). I've been scouring VN for as many practice exams as possible (doesn't seem to be much out there). Mainly been finding ~2008 ones, hopefully there'll be new study design ones (unlikely I'll get any from the school though :().
Before that date, I'll be finishing off my study design notes and reading vceit.com religiously. Basically trying to cram the course over the next ~4 weeks before the end of term. It's good that U4O2 is a theory-based one, it won't mean having to waste time studying up on the intricacies of Excel or Access when it could be spent doing exam revision.
So yeah, that's my plan. What's everyone else's plan?
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We finished U401 last week as well. As you said, it's great how the last SAC is a written test because it kicks me into gear for exam preparation. My plan is to basically finish my study design notes and spam any prac exams I can find. It sucks that there's hardly any out there (it's even worse for Software Development).
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We finished U401 last week as well. As you said, it's great how the last SAC is a written test because it kicks me into gear for exam preparation. My plan is to basically finish my study design notes and spam any prac exams I can find. It sucks that there's hardly any out there (it's even worse for Software Development).
So the previous IT Applications study design was 2007 to 2010?
Before that was IPM - which is apparently a lot easier than Apps and not worth bothering with those exams.
I've got a few 2007 to 2009 exams, but no 2010 or 2011 exams :/
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Correct. IPM and the old course is not worth it. Reading Mark Kelly's tips though are beneficial since VCAA still employ similar tricks in their questions.
I'm just glad that 10 period SACs are over.
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Correct. IPM and the old course is not worth it. Reading Mark Kelly's tips though are beneficial since VCAA still employ similar tricks in their questions.
I'm just glad that 10 period SACs are over.
I feel that.
So sick of making 30 page documents. -.- (Relating to VET I.T though.)
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Correct. IPM and the old course is not worth it. Reading Mark Kelly's tips though are beneficial since VCAA still employ similar tricks in their questions.
I'm just glad that 10 period SACs are over.
I'm still going to go through the old course exams - due to my teachers suggestion. There is a lot of similarities between the 2007-2010 course and the new one. You just have to ignore any questions that aren't on the new course, particularly the GANNT/PERT chart ones. Since I never did the old course, I just have to skip any questions that are on stuff I never learnt about (which I guess is the advantage of study design notes, you get a damn good understanding of what is on course).
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Here is a sample exam/questions by vcca 2011+
relevant to this 2011+ study design.
more exam prep resources will be up soon.
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http://www.vitta.org.au/students/asset_id/43/cid/12/parent/0/t/students/title/resources-from-the-student-exam-revision-lectures
I just found this. It's the lecture notes from the VITTA IT Applications session (I didn't go - it was a massive rip off, $35 for 1 hour). Take a look at the IT Applications powerpoint. It lists stuff that is new on the study design and also stuff that has been taken off. Also goes through a couple of questions and discusses changes to the type of questions that will be asked.
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Thanks laseredd for the powerpoint, will be very usefull :)
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55 Days left until the exam.
I did a bit of looking into with Trial exams.
The available 2011 IT Applications trial exams are:
- 2 or 3 VITTA Exams (Priced for schools - something like $140)
- 2 QATs Exams (also priced for schools, $55 each)
- Insight (Only sells to schools)
- TSSM ($7 for the student paper)
- Kilbaha ($20 with Student discount [email them for the code])
- CSE/IARTV (Only sells to schools, hardcopy only)
- The 2 exams from the Nelson textbook (teacher access only).
My teacher will be giving us the Insight and QATS exams. I don't think he was able to get access to the Nelson ones for some reason (even though he booklisted the textbook).
I'll probably buy the TSSM paper, and possibly consider the Kilbaha paper as well.
I emailed Mark Kelly about the quality of these, and he said that TSSM "is not too bad" but deviates from VCAA style at times. He also said that he has heard that the Kilbaha exam is "generally ok".
If you looked at the PowerPoint I linked to, they say that ""Insight Publications exams are not valid for the current course." I'm not sure what was meant by that.
I'm not sure about the quality of VITTA. They seem to have the best reputation. I wouldn't mind obtaining them, but they're way too expensive to purchase (don't think my school will be getting them either :/).
For those that have bothered to invest in Checkpoints for IT Applications, can you confirm that they have bothered to adhere to the new study design (e.g. the new exam question styles as indicated by the sample questions provided by VCAA). I'm reluctant to invest in it, seems like a pretty useless book.
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good work there laseredd
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good work there laseredd
Thanks. I think I managed to list all of them.
I ordered the TSSM one. It should be emailed to me in a couple of days. I'll post about if it's worth purchasing.
I'm probably not going to bother with Kilbaha. I can't be bothered dealing with PayPal.
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does anybody have any exam papers other than vcaa, nelson or tssm? if so, could you hook a brother up?
cheers
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http://education.theage.com.au/cmspage.php?intid=154&intversion=90
The Age exam guide for IT Applications. I love that first paragraph. Make sure you don't forget to "orient themselves towards the future" with your knowledge of spreadsheets and databases. The advice to take a look at some real websites (eBay, google etc.) is probably useful, might come in handy if we're asked to provide examples. The activities listed there seem decent, I guess it's an interesting approach to revision. I might do some of them if I can be bothered. If stuff like that is your thing, than the 'advice for teachers' section of the Study design is chock-full of suggested activities.
Mark Kelly's guide gives a better guide on how to approach the actual exam, rather than revision suggestions: http://www.vceit.com/examtips/examtips.htm
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BTW guys, having done this subject,
get a teacher to mark some of your exams for you, so you know if your written responses are exam friendly,
furthermore,
learn how to answer questions, eg, "list" questions require only dotpoints.
VITTA Exams are fairly crap, but do them anyway if u have nothing left. I found them helpful for reinforcing my design elements knowledge (is that still in the course?)
Swinburne lecture - if it's coming up, i recommend you go to it, much better than the VITTA lecture, which was a complete waste of time >>> VITTA lecture advice :
"dont waste time looking at the roof during reading time.. reading time is crucial, dont look at the walls either. If you have a watch, dont look at your watch during reading time, read the question.... (40 mins later) and that's why you shouldn't waste reading time) Now, on to some difficult questions from past exa - Oh look at that, we're out of time!"
only study the study design, the rest is irrelevant and may not be asked. You could chop up last year's IT book in half and it'd still have more information than necessary.
BEST OF LUCK! I Revised the course in the term 4 two week term break :D so you should all be fine. (yr 11s)
aim for 10 exams and A+ is guaranteed, as long as u do them properly
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- 2 or 3 VITTA Exams (Priced for schools - something like $140)
- 2 QATs Exams (also priced for schools, $55 each)
- Insight (Only sells to schools)
- TSSM ($7 for the student paper)
- Kilbaha ($20 with Student discount [email them for the code])
- CSE/IARTV (Only sells to schools, hardcopy only)
- The 2 exams from the Nelson textbook (teacher access only).
Massive thankyou for this. I was having so many issues tracking down where to find everything. Its horrid being the first year of a study design. :(
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i love to upload some revision but havent got any resources yet.
Exam prep should include:
- looking at ur textbook/vceit site
-study design dot points
- vcca sample questions
- prac exams (if have)
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Multiple Choice
This isn't very useful, but still interesting. I also looked at the multiple choice sections for IT Applications.
(http://i.imgur.com/WnfPg.png)
My data included VCAA 2007 to 2010. D & B were the most common answers.
If you're going to wildly guess - though I don't see why you would need to, as it's pretty damn easy and we get two hours for the whole thing, D and B is probably your safest choice.
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Very informative thread guys!
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44 Days left - time is disappearing fast (at a rate of 60 seconds per minute in fact).
If you have not yet started your study design notes, I have attached a template that has the all the dot points. I also wrote in a few other dot points under each dot point. This is what I started off with, I then went and expanded on every single dot point. I didn't type up most of my notes though, which is why I haven't uploaded it to here. It is definitely worth putting a set together, do remember that we can be examined on everything in the course.
I am beginning to put together my second set of notes. I'm trying to keep it to four pages max, and contains what I think is the essential knowledge.
I'm also analysing ("evaluating" to be correct within the scope of the PSM) the hell out of trial exams. I start off by just listing which study design dot points each question refers to and then expand on out from there . It's pretty neat, you get an entire course summary out of each practice exam.
I got around to doing the stuff suggested in that Age article, and I think it's a pretty good way to revise the entire course. I guess IT Applications is a pretty lightweight course which is why we have more than enough time to revise the course like six times (well I do anyway, since my only other 3/4 subject is Physics).
Also, in that VITTA PowerPoint, they pointed out this: "If you require extra writing space there are blank pages at the end of the booklet. Clearly direct the assessor to another page. " I have no been able to find a VCAA source for this (though I haven't really gone out of my way to look).
While I think we should all be aiming to answer within the allotted lines, if we are provided with extra pages, they would serve well for scribblings to help figure out the clearest way to answer.
I am doubting the validity of the VITTA statements though, they explicitly claim that Insight is no good for the current study design - something that is clearly not true.
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Laseredd, I wouldn't call ITA lightweight, a lot of people called Software Development last year "light-weight" and ended up getting disastrous study scores because, as I've reiterated many times, it's a subject that tests your knowledge of what's on the study design, not what you know about IT in general
I found that Software Development ended up being quite a difficult and intricate course last year!
But I personally recommend doing the exam early and then doing them again, and again, and again, and again, and if you still have time, and again, and again, and again, and if you still have time, once more :)
Purely because there's only a certain number of questions they can ask - and all these questions would be covered during your practice exams
Every time you do an exam and mark it, try to word things better, look at the theory for questions you got wrong!
And most importantly, when you redo them, you have to get a better mark
In fact, if you're not ending up getting 100% on them, you should keep on doing them because you still have something to learn (:
I had a handful of VITTA Exams last year and I went through them again and again, it worked for me because in the end, I got a score I was happy with
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Laseredd, I wouldn't call ITA lightweight, a lot of people called Software Development last year "light-weight" and ended up getting disastrous study scores because, as I've reiterated many times, it's a subject that tests your knowledge of what's on the study design, not what you know about IT in general
Fair enough. I can see how it can mislead people into thinking it's an easy subject and end up neglecting it. I'll avoid using the term.
I guess I called it "lightweight" because that most of the concepts on the study design overlap pretty heavily with all of the area of studies, which makes revision quite a pleasant experience (as opposed to just opening up the study design and becoming overwhelmed).
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Fair enough. I can see how it can mislead people into thinking it's an easy subject and end up neglecting it. I'll avoid using the term.
I guess I called it "lightweight" because that most of the concepts on the study design overlap pretty heavily with all of the area of studies, which makes revision quite a pleasant experience (as opposed to just opening up the study design and becoming overwhelmed).
I agree with you there, the IT subjects - both SD and ITA have very good Study Designs - unlike Physics - which kind of has all separate areas of study, I guess I agree with that
And as far as I know you can't delete posts!
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someone make this laseredd guy an IT mod already...
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I wanna be an I.T mod! :D :D
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someone make this laseredd guy an IT mod already...
hmm... that possibly might be a useful milestone in my overall quest for world domination :P
Anyway, back on topic:
This is should give a better idea of what I meant when analysing (sorry, evaluating) trial exams. I did this for the sample questions. Note that the sample questions focused on stuff that has been changed or has been added in, so ensure that you familiarise yourself with these points well - I'd speculate that a lot of this stuff will end up on our exam.
Word document doesn't want to attach (browser still crashing out when I try to :/) so I've just typed them out here.
Summary of ideas from VCAA 2011 Sample Questions
MC
1. U3 O1 Networks The technical requirements to host a network.
2. U3 O1 Types of websites
3. ITA Problem Solving Methodology. Types of documentation.
4. U4 O2 Legislation. Human rights
5. U3 O1 Design tools (websites)
6. U3 O1 Online communities
7. U3 O2 Databases. Efficiency vs. Effectiveness. Evaluation.
8. U4 O1 Organisational management. Copyright legislation
9. U3 O2 Relational Databases.
SA.
1. U3 O1, U3 O2 Websites, Databases
a. Types of data
b. Effectiveness.
c. Acquiring data
d. Acquiring data
e. Relational database structure
2. U3 O1 The technical requirements to host a network
3. U3 O2 Databases
a. Data types (they seem to like Boolean
)
b. Normalisation
i. First Normal Form
ii. Second Normal Form
iii. Third Normal Form
c. Normalisation
4. U3 O2 Entity Relationship Diagrams
5. U3 O2 Acquiring data
a. Techniques of acquiring data
b. The value of data
c. U4 O2 Protecting the rights of customer (privacy act, human rights etc.)
6. U3 O2 Databases
a. Database structure
b. Data types
c. Data types
7. U4 O1 Information management systems
8. U3 O1
a. Open/closed access
b. U4 O2 Application of legislation
9. U4 O2 Management of data
10. U4 O2
a. Cloud computing advantages
b. Cloud computing disadvantages
c. Disposal of data
11. U3 O1
a. Types of websites
b. Design features of websites
c. Website protocols
12. U3 02 Databases (functionality and structure)
This is what I've been doing after each exam, and over the days I slowly add more and more to it (stuff about style of question and details about how my wording differed from the official wording etc.) and end up with a set of notes. Like I said earlier, this way you can see where the trial exams have their biases and allow you to find out what areas aren't covered that well on exams.
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http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vcaa/vce/exams/examcovers/Nov_2011_covers/2011itapps-cov.pdf
20 multiple choice, 11 short answer.
Nothing much to say really, trial exams have a similar number of questions - so it should be good practice for the pacing.
I'm trying to slow down and instead of finishing trial exams in less than one hour, take up the full two hours (leaving like 15 minutes for checking over). I find that when I find a mistake (or think of a better way to word things), I can't really go and cross stuff out - it ends up being too messy. Since we're given more than enough time, it's better to take the time and answer slowly.
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Most people can finish an IT Exam comfortably within 2 hours, I haven't heard of many people haggling over time yet, so I'm with laseredd in that you have to take things slowly, leave questions that you may want to think about and come back to them later. I know that I left some of my Short Answer questions in Software Development last year towards the end so that I had more time to think about them. Also note that there are going to be questions that are based on knowledge, and you have to know what to do if you don't know how to answer them. For example, on the SD Exam last year, there was a question on the differences between Viruses and Spyware, I didn't know the exact difference, so I listed properties of both and tried to explain the differences in their behaviour based on what I know.
It's always important to remember to answer things properly, don't oversimplify, use full words and sentences and avoid abbreviations unless they're universally accepted, usually an examiner will award the mark if he understands what you're talking about, he won't say "oh no! you used an abbreviation so I won't give you a mark", however, you can't be guaranteed that he understands your abbreviation.
It's also important to put detail into your answer but don't beat around the bush or don't contradict yourself. If a question is worth one mark, answer it with one statement, if it is worth two, remember that you have to give two separate and relevant ideas which contribute to answer the question.
Most importantly remember the scope of the question and what is being asked, it's all well and good that you know all the different types of Info Systems and what they do, but if the question asks you what a TPS is and you tell them what a MIS is, then you're not gonna do too well :P
Also, finally, remember to read the assessment reports, once through first so you can have a laugh at the silly mistakes they talk about, but then read it through again and ask yourself which mistakes you usually make and try to rectify them :)
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2 hours is more than enough time to complete this exam. Considering that 50% of the MC questions can be answered by any well-read student, you just need to be aware of the trick questions.
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2 hours is more than enough time to complete this exam. Considering that 50% of the MC questions can be answered by any well-read student, you just need to be aware of the trick questions.
LOL! 25% of the Multiple Choice (Minimum) are really and truly just common sense that any IT-literate person can answer :P
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25 Days to go, just under 4 weeks :/
My current line of attack is to ramp the study up heavily. I've completed all the trial exams I have at least once now, so I've gone back to studying the theory. I've been going through each of the PowerPoint's on Mark Kelly's website and sort of just sitting them as if I were at a lecture (taking notes etc.). I then go and read the corresponding chapter etc.
Once I've completed that, I'm going to study each of the trial exams once more - this time writing out a full set of what I think are the ideal answers.
That should keep me occupied until next week.
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Thats super, but probably tough for others with 5 year 12 subjects. Damnnn I wish I did a 3-4 in year 11.
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Thats super, but probably tough for others with 5 year 12 subjects. Damnnn I wish I did a 3-4 in year 11.
Yeah, that's true, I can see how all the work I'm doing would be tough to manage with all the other subjects. I really just keep posting to try to keep this board alive lol (and hopefully motivate others). A lot of the stuff I'm doing is probably also unnecessary, but I'll leave that for others to decide for themselves.
Don't neglect the subject too much though :P you could probably get a fair bit done between now and the exam if you put aside a regular time block to focus on going over theory etc. (obviously would require a bit more time to do a trial exam though).
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Laseredd, if you're doing SD next year, remember to keep that board alive too :P, I'll try to help you out, posting this and that from time to time ;D
It's as if nobody really does SD these days, well not many people on ATARNotes do! =.="
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Laseredd, if you're doing SD next year, remember to keep that board alive too :P, I'll try to help you out, posting this and that from time to time ;D
It's as if nobody really does SD these days, well not many people on ATARNotes do! =.="
Sounds like a plan, Paul. We should be able to post some more interesting programming related stuff in the SD board - hopefully that will incite some more discussion. I think that's the main reason why the boards are so dead - there really isn't that much to talk about.
I'll try to think of the more interesting points with the stuff in Apps. Things like interesting tricks with excel, websites etc. (e.g. I used one of those javascript engines to get all these really easy fancy effects for U3O1 this year). I started writing this plan with post ideas etc. earlier in the year that will hopefully conspire more activity on the I.T. boards (and yes, this thread was apart of the plan lol) - I can't remember where I put it but I'm planning to put more thought into after exams - I'll pass that document onto you when I get around to typing it up.
I haven't really checked the VCAA website for the data, but I heard that SD enrollment has been increasing over the past few years actually (relative to Apps anyway).
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I was reading on the edulists about teachers complaining about the lack of resources for both ITs. Many teachers are unhappy with VCAA not providing suggested solutions for the sample paper. Some of the questions are really vague and it's a shame that VCAA throw teachers in the deep end. Without Mark Kelly or Adrian Janson I'd like to know how teachers actually teach the subject. One teacher basically summed it up,
"If it weren't for this list [edulist] and Mark Kelly's site, the task of teaching IT would be almost too daunting for some. Teachers shouldn't have to to guess what was in mind, when the study design and assessment guide was put together. If VCAA want to encourage teachers to do the best possible job they can, they cannot help but be in favour of publishing some suggested solutions."
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Laseredd, yep, that sounds good :)
But there's still far less people doing SD compared to ITA, I think ITA has around about 5 times more people.
But when you consider that at my school last year, in my cohort, and I do consider my school to be a relatively strong school (amongst public schools anyway) a lot of people who did SD or ITA did them because they thought that SD and ITA were bludge subjects, in that they went in thinking "oh, it's IT, I know a few things about computers" but they don't realise that IT is far harder than they actually think, the theory behind IT is quite involved and it actually has very little to do with general computer knowledge.
Like in my cohort last year I would say 2/3 of those doing SD knew nothing about programming, understood nothing about software and systems development cycles and basically didn't even know how to read a pseudocode algorithm. That compounded with the fact that we had a teacher who wasn't very knowledgeble (I contradicted her many, many times) meant that I was the only one out of around 20 kids doing SD to get above 40.
That leads to MJRomeo81's point. My SD teacher last year was an absolute dud. VCAA's study design is also vague, meaning that there is such a wide range of interpretations that can be made. I didn't find out about Mark Kelly's site until nearer to the end of the year, but I spent a lot of time reading on the internet as well as reading university level IT textbooks. One of the positives about IT, however, is that there is a lot of information on the internet, just google and you're set to find a lot of information at an appropriate level to read.
And to demonstrate how intricate SD can be, when some of my friends who are doing SD ask me questions regarding the subject, there are actually a lot of questions that still stump me and questions that I feel are open to discussion and debate.
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Swinburne has uploaded their revision lecture materials on their website now.
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/schools/resources/ita/
Presentation slides: http://prezi.com/1dorjkvs0ktb/it-applications-exam-2011/
If you registered and opted for them to email you, you should have gotten an email with the username/password for access. Seeing as they have enabled passwords, I don't think I should post the login details here on a public forum (*coughPMmecough*) or upload the materials they have put up on the page.
I watched through the recording of the lecture today, it was pretty interesting. You might feel that it's stuff you already know etc. but I felt that it was still well worth watching if you weren't able to make it to the lecture. The lecturer was Rob Mercer and he seems to know his stuff. He said that he worked on writing the current study design. It's a pity that he wasn't able to make the subject more interesting.
A few things of interest that I noted down (most of this stuff you should already know):
- 75% of the study design is stuff from the previous study design
- What to do when you notice an error in a question. If it's short answer, point it out and then answer it. The only surefire way of getting zero marks on a question is to not write down anything at all
- The number of lines you are given is enough space answer the question
- There was this table of key terms with definitions (e.g. discuss, explain identify) in the slide. - I'm not sure how to link to the specific bit in the presentation specifically, but it's towards the end of the 'General Advice' section
- Spreadsheet/Database questions will be a bit different this year. You can clearly see this in the sample exam questions, how you get an option 'SS' or 'RDBMS'.
- Any information you are given (e.g. tables, fields, values in fields etc.) are given for a reason. VCAA doesn't put stuff on the exam just for the sake of filler content, if there's a question on it, you're expected to discuss it. (this was pointed out in a question about finding the error in a database table - one was obvious and the other wasn't so obvious).
- Mnemonic for remembering validation/testing: VITO - Validate the input and test the output.
- In the first year of a study design, VCAA will put in quite a few questions to do with brand new content, to ensure that teachers are actually teaching to the new study design.
- Never mention legislation when answering an ethics question. If you're talking about privacy, copyright related ethical issues, ensure that you phrase in a way that it implies that you understand that ethics has very little to do with legislation (though obviously they go hand in hand)
- Procedures are more than one step
Areas of interest from previous VCAA exams - this list of stuff that he talks about pretty much shows the merit of doing previous study design exams.
- Backups
- Design tools vs. Design elements
- Organisational goals/descisions
- Transmission media
- Security
- Spreadsheets/Databases
- Software functions
- Validation/Testing
- Efficiency vs. Effectiveness
- Formatting and conventions
- Ethics
- Documentation (in particular, content-sensitive help)
- Network software
- Strategies (backup, testing etc.)
On new and changed stuff, he noted that:
Entity Relationship Diagrams:
- Key fields are underlined
- Entities are your table names
- Attributes are your fields
- Ensure you get your terminology right when talking about relationships
Normalisation - the sample exam indicates the level of knowledge we need to know about it. He also explained the differences between each normal form pretty simply:
- 1NF - Fields are separated properly
- 2NF - Placing data that is reused in different area in a separate table to reduce redundancy
- 3NF - Everything is dependent on the primary key
About the extended response questions we'll be getting this year:
- Choose which option you decide to talk about wisely
- Whether you should answer in dot points is being debated. VCAA doesn't have any rules that say that you can't write in dot points though. I didn't write down what his final opinion was (missed it while I was listening to it at school) and you have to reload the whole video just to listen to one small bit at the end :/
- Count the marks and ensure you have one point per mark
- Plan your answer, read the case scenario during reading time
About reading the case scenarios, I pretty much do what he outlined in the lecture. The extended response scenario is the the first thing I read when reading time starts and I re-read it before reading time ends. Of course I read it before I do the question. I also re-read it multiple times while I am completing the question (I also do this for all the other questions, just continuously looking back at what the question states).
So yeah, that's a quick summary of the most interesting stuff that I noted down when listening to the lecture.
As well as the recording of the lecture, there's also set of practice questions, the presentation slides, an excel spreadsheet with a list of the relevant questions from past VCAA exams and a few other materials.
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Where at the presentation laseredd?
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Where at the presentation laseredd?
I'm guessing that you missed the word 'you' there, so nah, I wasn't at the lecture. It'd take too long for me to travel out all the way to Hawthorn. I would have liked to go, but watching the recorded lecture is a pretty good substitute (you can pause it etc.)
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You can play the lecture back at 2x speed to help improve concentration ;P
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You can play the lecture back at 2x speed to help improve concentration ;P
Haha, nah this lecturer was actually pretty damn good, explained the stuff well and managed to inject a bit of humour in as well. I kept interest for the entire length of the video.
I should have gone though, I would have liked to ask him if he thinks the IT Applications course is dull.
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Oh right, that's good then
What I always do with boring podcasts/lectures is to play them faster, that way I concentrate more because I feel as if a greater concentration is needed to pick up everything being said, plus, it's efficient! :D LOL!
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Haha, yes I did forget to use the word "you" in my sentence.
And plus 1 for that presentation being brilliant!
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GUYS I thought it to be VERy important to mention this, but do not blindly trust solutions from exam companies.
I did the Swinburne prac Exam Two days before the real IT exam and one of the questions on it appeared on the real exam. I had carried the solutions with me into the exam venue and just remembered the answer cause I read it like 8 times, went with Swinburne's answer... Cause they were Swinburne lol. Got 0/4 marks for that question.
use what you KNOW even if it contradicts what another company/person says, unless that company is vcaa.
Gl guys
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GUYS I thought it to be VERy important to mention this, but do not blindly trust solutions from exam companies.
I did the Swinburne prac Exam. Two days before the real IT exam and one of te questions on it appeared on the exam. I had carried the solutions with me into the exam, and just remembered the answer cause I read it like 8 times, went with Swinburne's answer... Cause they were Swinburne lol. Got 0/4 marks for that question.
use what you KNOW even if it contradicts why another company/person says, unless that company is vcaa.
Gl guys
+1
This is a pretty important point.
I've noticed quite a few errors in the practice exams I've done (both for ITA and Physics).
On the topic of VCAA, even they make mistakes. They had a mistake with a GANTT chart last year (it was either question 4 or 5). You can normally trust them most of the time. So yeah, definitely look over every question and if something doesn't seem right to you, verify with as many sources as possible (mark kelly's website, textbook, other exam solutions, your own notes, your teacher, post here on ATARNotes etc.).
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Also remember to answer the question. I can't stress this enough, when we see a question that is remarkably similar to one that we have answered before or know the answer to, we instinctively answer it with what we have remembered. Sometimes, the question is just that little bit different, that the answer we're giving is wrong
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GUYS I thought it to be VERy important to mention this, but do not blindly trust solutions from exam companies.
I did the Swinburne prac Exam. Two days before the real IT exam and one of te questions on it appeared on the exam. I had carried the solutions with me into the exam, and just remembered the answer cause I read it like 8 times, went with Swinburne's answer... Cause they were Swinburne lol. Got 0/4 marks for that question.
use what you KNOW even if it contradicts why another company/person says, unless that company is vcaa.
Gl guys
+1
This is a pretty important point.
I've noticed quite a few errors in the practice exams I've done (both for ITA and Physics).
On the topic of VCAA, even they make mistakes. They had a mistake with a GANTT chart last year (it was either question 4 or 5). You can normally trust them most of the time. So yeah, definitely look over every question and if something doesn't seem right to you, verify with as many sources as possible (mark kelly's website, textbook, other exam solutions, your own notes, your teacher, post here on ATARNotes etc.).
ah yes - another exception to my rule is mark Kelly. The pecking order for reliability is
mark Kelly, mark kelly's stool, the dirt, vcaa
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ah yes - another exception to my rule is mark Kelly. The pecking order for reliability is
mark Kelly, mark kelly's stool, the dirt, vcaa
Mark Kelly wrote the QAT's exams I'm pretty sure. They had a couple of mistakes in them :(
I think that just proves that the man is human though. He probably did it on purpose in order to stop us from proclaiming him as the messiah.
Or perhaps QATs has been lying to us about Mark Kelly writing their stuff. It's a conspiracy!
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Mark Kelly was behind 9/11
^ too soon?
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Mark Kelly was behind 9/11
^ too soon?
I knew there was something fishy with November 9th
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The ITA exam starts in 3 Days, 12 Hours, 17 Minutes, 30 Seconds.
I'm going to look thoroughly at VCAA 2007, VCAA 2008, VCAA 2009, VCAA 2010 and the VCAA sample questions.
I'll only do the relevant study design questions, probably going off that Swinburne guy's excel spreadsheet (note he made a few typos, pretty obvious what they are though when you sit down and do the questions). In addition to that, I'll be reviewing my notes and VCEIT.com. If I do any study on the day of the exam, it'd be reading VCEIT.com for sure.
I might consider doing non-VCAA exams, but my current approach is to ignore all trial exam answers. The reason why should be evident - they suck and are filled with incorrect answers. That's probably just about the last thing you'd want to expose yourself to just before an exam. I feel confident I don't need the answers anyway, if I'm unsure I can refer back to the textbook, notes etc.
If any, I'd give priority (after VCAA) to QATS. I thought the 2011 exam 1 was quite well written. VITTA would be next and the rest would be ignored. Unlikely I'd have time to even get around to doing the VITTA exams again though.
Maybe I put too much emphasis on what is on VCEIT, but (re)read this to give yourself a refresher on general ITA exam technique: http://www.vceit.com/examtips/examtips.htm