How is everyone finding this year?

[Yendall]

Which code language are you studying?
How are your sacs going?

Has anyone else found that not much theory is being taught? or is my teacher just not teaching?
I'm not struggling too much, but my other classmates are. We have a joined year 11 class with Software Dev and it's incredibly disturbing. Do you guys think I could bring this up with the VCAA board/school board?

[Soul_Khan]

You can bring up with the school board.. not sure about VCAA though.

[MJRomeo81]

Has anyone else found that not much theory is being taught? or is my teacher just not teaching?

I would bring that up with the school board if that is the case. Trust me bro, I dominated the SACs last year (full marked everything, and they weren't easy SACs) yet it meant NOTHING in the exam room. The exam is 100% theory.

Now there is nothing wrong in teaching programming concepts (because that is part of the theory), but I hope your teacher isn't spending hours on how to do specific things in your selected language since that would be a waste of time (unless of course it's right before a SAC).

[Yendall]

You can bring up with the school board.. not sure about VCAA though.

Has anyone else found that not much theory is being taught? or is my teacher just not teaching?

I would bring that up with the school board if that is the case. Trust me bro, I dominated the SACs last year (full marked everything, and they weren't easy SACs) yet it meant NOTHING in the exam room. The exam is 100% theory.

Now there is nothing wrong in teaching programming concepts (because that is part of the theory), but I hope your teacher isn't spending hours on how to do specific things in your selected language since that would be a waste of time (unless of course it's right before a SAC).

Yeah I know how that feels, I studied I.T Applications last year and the exam was pure theory, with barely any theory aid throughout the year (same teacher).
My teacher is only teaching me the coding language and nothing else, and focusing a lot more on the year 11s. This really really concerns me. I'm going pretty well in all the sacs, but i'm worried that if I don't start learning every part of theory now, the exam will be horrendous. I want to take it up with a school board, because it's affected my learning and drastically affecting my other classmates learning. I pretty much teach myself everything though, which is good in a way, but it other ways very very bad. Especially when it comes to theory, because this subjects difficultly is highly underestimated.

[iamtom]

If you're worried, http://www.vceit.com is your lifeblood.

[Yendall]

If you're worried, http://www.vceit.com is your lifeblood.

I have quite a few notes from that website, it's very handy.
The end of year exam consists of theory used during the sacs yes? I should probably check out a few practice exams now.

[iamtom]

It's been a while since I looked at Software Design, but I believe the SACs constitute a lot of the theory but not all of it.

[Yendall]

It's been a while since I looked at Software Design, but I believe the SACs constitute a lot of the theory but not all of it.

U3O1 was pure theory, which will help with the exam (I just read through 2011 exam). Some of the stuff on the exam seems far beyond what I've learnt so far. I'm hoping theory will pick up a lot more during Unit 4. Just to be safe i'll complete practice exams in the coming weeks and throughout semester 2, alongside further research of the study design. It seems to me that it is based a lot around networks, algorithms, stacks, arrays, sorts and application-like questions that require solutions, alongside stages of the PSM and layering.

[iamtom]

Sounds about right, yes.

Make sure you check out VCE IT, too. Apart from the guy who wrote the course for SoftDev (why'd  I say software design? ugh), he's the best IT teacher in Victoria.

[Yendall]

Sounds about right, yes.

Make sure you check out VCE IT, too. Apart from the guy who wrote the course for SoftDev (why'd  I say software design? ugh), he's the best IT teacher in Victoria.

Yeah I heard he is really good. I think my teacher gets a lot of notes from him. I'll be sure to use vceit.com a lot for resources. A few minor things in the study design have change, like certain graphs and diagrams I think.

[MJRomeo81]

U301 & U402 are pure theory. As for the other two SACs, go through the vceit.com dot points and learn all the concepts (programming control structures, different types of searches, testing vs. validation, etc.).

As long as you are the top rank in your cohort it doesn't matter how everyone else performs.

[Yendall]

U301 & U402 are pure theory. As for the other two SACs, go through the vceit.com dot points and learn all the concepts (programming control structures, different types of searches, testing vs. validation, etc.).

As long as you are the top rank in your cohort it doesn't matter how everyone else performs.

Yeah I noticed that they are pure theory, which isn't entirely bad. A lot more mistakes can be made with programming. I'm compiling a reference book filled with everything from Unit 3 and 4 at the moment. I should be fine. I'm pretty sure i'm ranked #1 in my cohort at the moment. Or equal ranking with another guy, with 89/100 for Unit 3 (which could've been much better).

[iamtom]

Well be grateful you don't have to write code by hand in the exam - I had to write maybe 4-5 pages of code in my programming exam last week, by hand.

Was about as much fun as it sounds.

[Yendall]

Well be grateful you don't have to write code by hand in the exam - I had to write maybe 4-5 pages of code in my programming exam last week, by hand.

Was about as much fun as it sounds.

Gee that would be difficult! Did you study programming outside of school?

[ldee]

So far so good is soft dev. Finished up unit 3 last week and I'm sitting on 96/100 with rank 1, while rank 2 is about 10 marks behind and the rest are in the 60s-70s. My teacher is OK, he knows that most in the class are taking IT as a "5th subject", but he still helps those of us who want a good score.

I agree that not much theory is being taught, but i've been doing majority of my theory work through VCE IT. The exam "post mortem" is great too.