1) For the angle it hits the ground at you need to consider the velocity vector, that is the direction that it is heading in. So that is
 & =2\underset{\sim}{i}-\underset{\sim}{j}+3\underset{\sim}{k}\end{alignedat})
.
Now consider the triangle this vector makes with the ground. Now to get the adjacent edge of this triangle, you will need to use pythagoras of the triangle the the

component and

component make, that is
^{2}}<br />\\ & =\sqrt{5}<br />\end{alignedat})
Then to find the angle we would have
 & =\frac{3}{\sqrt{5}}<br />\\ \theta^{o} & =\tan^{-1}(\frac{3}{\sqrt{5}})<br />\\ \theta^{o} & =53.3^{o}<br />\end{alignedat})
2) For 2D planes you normally take y as upwards and x as across. For 3D, the x-y plane becomes the ground and the z axis becomes upwards. So it depends on the question really.
3) If the vector is parallel, then changing the vector from

, to

, won't change the angle, try an example, when you do the dot product it will be different, but so will the magnitude that you are dividing by, so it ends up being the same. e.g. Try finding the angle between

and

then try finding the angle between

and

using the dot product.
4) We were told that you would lose if for forgetting it as if you don't then you are not denoting a vector. Having a look at past assesors reports they point out that it is a common problem.
Anyways hope that helps, and is right, I'm a little rusty on this.