How many people actually take VCE SD?

[silverpixeli]

As the title says, my question is 'how many people actually take VCE SD' each year?

I'd also like to know where I can find this information for other subjects,
I think I remember seeing a page somewhere online that had numbers for every subject but I can't find it!

Anyway, yeah, thanks!

[Lasercookie]

The page you're looking for is here http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/statistics/subjectstats.aspx

For 2012: http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Pages/vce/statistics/2012/statssect2.aspx

Grade Distributions also contain population data.

For SD 2012:
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/statistics/2012/section2/vce_software_development_12.pdf

Approximately 1000.

Previous years before that seemed to fluctuate between ~1200 and ~1300, before 2007 you're looking closer to ~1800. A decade ago you were looking at almost 3000 people.

[no steez]

I think it is gradually getting smaller from seeing the class sizes at my school. I would guess 800-1500 state wide, you have to remember there is IT applications which is slightly easier (in terms of scaling) and more popular, maybe 3000, but you would have to check!
ITSD: Even though it is considered an easier subject, than lets say methods, it fails to attract many students.
I personally think it has negative connotations attached to it. People give me a weird look or laugh when they hear I do IT.
But I love the subject and often joke about IT with my mates!

[silverpixeli]

Thanks for the replies guys,

I'm really liking Software this year.
It's kind of a shame that it doesn't have as many people, it's a great subject.

[Checkmate]

In my school, its the subject with the least people in it [8], and when compared to apps (~20-25) it certainly is the less popular one. I definitely enjoy SD, but the reason I'm doing it is honestly, I wanted a "harder" and more "hands on" IT subject than apps, but I would say that SD has shown its fair share of theory, so it somewhat betrayed my expectations a little bit.

Oh damn, now I'm wishing VCE comp science existed.

[Lasercookie]

Oh damn, now I'm wishing VCE comp science existed.

Just from the very little I've seen/heard from some of the computer science classes that others at uni are doing, it seems that those classes are quite theory and maths heavy.

What are you picturing a VCE Computer Science class to be like? Hopefully it's something like this: http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/high-schools-to-trial-uni-computer-science-in-y12-20120719-22c99.html I can't find any more information on that one though, but "academic rigour" probably indicates theory (I kind of enjoyed a lot of the theory in VCE SD, it gets much more interesting with U3O2 and U4O1 with all the algorithms, sorting etc. stuff)

[Lasercookie]

(sorry about double post, but I felt it warranted it)

Actually, found more about the VCE Computer Science thing:

https://sites.google.com/site/cs4hsvictoria/
https://sites.google.com/site/cs4hsvictoria/2012-november-workshop

http://www.cis.unimelb.edu.au/industry/cs4hs.html

http://www.monash.edu.au/news/events/show/computer-science-for-high-school-cs4hs-workshop
http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/cs4hs/

I wonder if it's similar to http://www.cs4hs.com/ since it's "Sponsored by Google Australia". Looking at the site and comparing the words they're using, I think it might be that Google curriculum or whatever it is.

[Checkmate]

http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/business-it/high-schools-to-trial-uni-computer-science-in-y12-20120719-22c99.html

Oh, how interesting to actually see a workshop like thing to promote CS. Anyway, after outcome 1, I felt the SRS stuff wasn't too bad but just not that interesting and I think what I'd like to see more of is stuff more related to programming languages as a whole, computation, etc., I noticed you mentioned algorithms which is definitely something I'm looking forward to. I guess I just feel like SD could be so much better if they left some stuff like PSM (which quite frankly has already been hammered into my head last year), to give a chance to teach some more abstract concepts. That said, SD has been enjoyable so far and I think it'll get better as I go along.

[MJRomeo81]

Oh, how interesting to actually see a workshop like thing to promote CS. Anyway, after outcome 1, I felt the SRS stuff wasn't too bad but just not that interesting and I think what I'd like to see more of is stuff more related to programming languages as a whole, computation, etc., I noticed you mentioned algorithms which is definitely something I'm looking forward to. I guess I just feel like SD could be so much better if they left some stuff like PSM (which quite frankly has already been hammered into my head last year), to give a chance to teach some more abstract concepts. That said, SD has been enjoyable so far and I think it'll get better as I go along.

The subject does get better as you progress through the units however there's still plenty of crap that should be removed from the study design. For a subject labelled "Software Development" I find it ridiculous that the following topics aren't included in the study design:

*complexity of algorithms
*different programming paradigms
*recursion
*network subnetting (isn't exactly "software development" but it's better than what's currently on the study design imo).

[no steez]

Well said boys. Whilst the course has flaws, I still find it enjoyable and unique.
But, did you guys hear?
VCAA are extending the Software Development study design. That's right, the already outdated study design is being extended. The team over at VCAA must be suffering job cuts or just feeling graciously lazy.

[Lasercookie]

Well said boys. Whilst the course has flaws, I still find it enjoyable and unique.
But, did you guys hear?
VCAA are extending the Software Development study design. That's right, the already outdated study design is being extended. The team over at VCAA must be suffering job cuts or just feeling graciously lazy.

Nah, I'm fairly sure it's Australian Curriculum related, which they're looking at implementing 2016, 2017. You'll notice that quite a few subjects have been extended to, or will end their accreditation period to 2015 or 2016 (all VCE maths, all VCE sciences, VCE English/Literature etc.).