Exam Preparation

[Lasercookie]

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.

[observer7]

Thats super, but probably tough for others with 5 year 12 subjects. Damnnn I wish I did a 3-4 in year 11.

[Lasercookie]

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 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).

[paulsterio]

Laseredd, if you're doing SD next year, remember to keep that board alive too , I'll try to help you out, posting this and that from time to time
It's as if nobody really does SD these days, well not many people on ATARNotes do! =.="

[Lasercookie]

Laseredd, if you're doing SD next year, remember to keep that board alive too , I'll try to help you out, posting this and that from time to time
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).

[MJRomeo81]

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."

[paulsterio]

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.

[Lasercookie]

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.

[Deadshot]

Where at the presentation laseredd?

[Lasercookie]

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.)

[paulsterio]

You can play the lecture back at 2x speed to help improve concentration ;P

[Lasercookie]

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.

[paulsterio]

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! LOL!

[Deadshot]

Haha, yes I did forget to use the word "you" in my sentence.

And plus 1 for that presentation being brilliant! 

[nacho]

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