IT App's Question Thread

[MJRomeo81]

So I haven't spent too much time on IT recently, but for the next 3 days I'm planning to go through all the dot points of the study design and go over material I don't know too well (with the assistance of VCE IT), as well as doing trials and covering the material I don't know too well there. Just wondering is that good usage of my time?

Sounds good By focusing on the stuff you don't know, you will be able to accelerate your revision.

Never feel bad when you make mistakes on prac exams. I argue that the best revision strategy is to make as many mistakes as you can. Once you identify your points of weakness, you can improve and subsequently avoid making the same mistakes on the exam.

[Yendall]

So I haven't spent too much time on IT recently, but for the next 3 days I'm planning to go through all the dot points of the study design and go over material I don't know too well (with the assistance of VCE IT), as well as doing trials and covering the material I don't know too well there. Just wondering is that good usage of my time?

VCEIT is a god send.

[Kanon]

Any recommendations interms of exam technique? Is a minute a mark a decent regulation or should I make it like 1.15 minutes per mark to try and eliminate careless errors?

[Yendall]

Any recommendations interms of exam technique? Is a minute a mark a decent regulation or should I make it like 1.15 minutes per mark to try and eliminate careless errors?

Definitely try to work consistently and don't dwell on questions. Not sure about the marks per second, but I know it's a long exam in a compressed time frame.

[Genericname2365]

1. Do we need to know coaxial cable?
2. Network topologies are not a part of the course, correct?
3. Existence, Type Check, Format check, Range check, completeness check - are they the only electronic validation techniques we need to know? Or do we need to know reasonableness + consistency as well?

Thanks.

[Kanon]

1. Do we need to know coaxial cable?
2. Network topologies are not a part of the course, correct?
3. Existence, Type Check, Format check, Range check, completeness check - are they the only electronic validation techniques we need to know? Or do we need to know reasonableness + consistency as well?

Thanks.

Coaxial cable is rarely used today due to its expense, low bandwidth capabilities aswell as its little shielding from EM interferance.  People advise NEVER to suggest and to instead mention FibreOptic, however, I always think its good to know these small things as they could come in handy someday.  So overall, not really required but good to have.  Not entirely sure if network toplogy is within the course, but it is a useful tool for describing a network. Take from that what you will

[Lasercookie]

1. Do we need to know coaxial cable?

Coaxial cable is rarely used today due to its expense, low bandwidth capabilities aswell as its little shielding from EM interferance.  People advise NEVER to suggest and to instead mention FibreOptic, however, I always think its good to know these small things as they could come in handy someday.  So overall, not really required but good to have.

Yeah I pretty much agree with what Kanon's said. I will emphasise the bit bolded there, I would try not to follow that line of thinking - more likely than not you'll fall into VCAA's traps for trick questions (especially multiple choice). It'd be easy enough to concoct a situation where fibre optic would be horribly inappropriate (in a LAN for example). You would want to be aware of coaxial, UTP, bluetooth and what not.

This goes for A LOT of things in VCE IT, but you can't just stick to rote learned knowledge, you must make sure everything you say is appropriate to the situation in question. You need to know when and where you would use a particular medium and use that to figure out why you would use it over another one etc.

3. Existence, Type Check, Format check, Range check, completeness check - are they the only electronic validation techniques we need to know? Or do we need to know reasonableness + consistency as well?

Depends what you mean by reasonableness. The purpose of validation in the first place is to check if data is reasonable, is it not?

Probably a yes to 'reasonableness' and 'consistency' though. This probably goes with what I was saying before, it depends on the context, depending on what you're trying to do you might have to do it through manual validation (i.e. get a person to check it first). But yeah, that list looks mostly it really.

[Genericname2365]

Yeah I pretty much agree with what Kanon's said. I will emphasise the bit bolded there, I would try not to follow that line of thinking - more likely than not you'll fall into VCAA's traps for trick questions (especially multiple choice). It'd be easy enough to concoct a situation where fibre optic would be horribly inappropriate (in a LAN for example). You would want to be aware of coaxial, UTP, bluetooth and what not.
This goes for A LOT of things in VCE IT, but you can't just stick to rote learned knowledge, you must make sure everything you say is appropriate to the situation in question. You need to know when and where you would use a particular medium and use that to figure out why you would use it over another one etc.

Depends what you mean by reasonableness. The purpose of validation in the first place is to check if data is reasonable, is it not?

Probably a yes to 'reasonableness' and 'consistency' though. This probably goes with what I was saying before, it depends on the context, depending on what you're trying to do you might have to do it through manual validation (i.e. get a person to check it first). But yeah, that list looks mostly it really.

It confused me as well, it was posted under here: http://www.vceit.com/pages/validation.htm
But thanks, I'll definitely keep that in mind.

The 8 mark questions have been confusing me consistently, so I realised that since we just used Libreoffice for SACs this year, I may not understand the functions very well, so I'm on VCEIT I'm starting to go over the functions listed on the VCAA site.

create tables
create relationships between tables
use a range of data types
electronic validation
create, edit and use queries
use of calculated fields
sort records or index on different fields.

But one thing that is confusing me is the 'use of calculated fields'. On the 2011 assessment report, it says for question 7: Have a Sales ($) calculated field in the Staff table and use a query (if Sales>5000) to list the staff who should receive the bonus.‟ Am I understanding the terminology wrong? I thought calculated fields were used in queries and forms, not in tables?

[Yendall]

But one thing that is confusing me is the 'use of calculated fields'. On the 2011 assessment report, it says for question 7: Have a Sales ($) calculated field in the Staff table and use a query (if Sales>5000) to list the staff who should receive the bonus.‟ Am I understanding the terminology wrong? I thought calculated fields were used in queries and forms, not in tables?

Calculated fields are used in Excel Spreadsheets. You can format certain cells to follow a set a formula. If you format it so the answer displayed is (Sales>5000) then you are fulfilling the request.

[Genericname2365]

But one thing that is confusing me is the 'use of calculated fields'. On the 2011 assessment report, it says for question 7: Have a Sales ($) calculated field in the Staff table and use a query (if Sales>5000) to list the staff who should receive the bonus.‟ Am I understanding the terminology wrong? I thought calculated fields were used in queries and forms, not in tables?

Calculated fields are used in Excel Spreadsheets. You can format certain cells to follow a set a formula. If you format it so the answer displayed is (Sales>5000) then you are fulfilling the request.

Sorry I should have specified, I was referring to databases.
"Many successful responses described a "QuantitySold‟ or a "Sales‟ calculated field and using a Sort or Order function to bring the best selling item to the top‟." Thinking about it now, are calculated fields used in the table in this example because they need to process sales data from within the tables, and aren't entering raw data?

[MJRomeo81]

Calculated fields are usually used in queries and reports for access, and obviously cells for excel. VCAA just want you to understand the basic idea of filtering raw data (the table) with a query and then creating a new field in a query (calculated field).

[redxman]

How should we attempt answering the 8 mark question?

[abraverman]

How should we attempt answering the 8 mark question?

- Reading the question multiple times
- Physically planning out your answers
- Answering with dot points under sub headings
- There is also no need to start with an introduction or end with a conclusion

[huss48]

here is a guide to handle the 8 mark question and also guide for the 8 mark question in the vcaa 2011 exam.

[Genericname2365]

here is a guide to handle the 8 mark question and also guide for the 8 mark question in the vcaa 2011 exam.

Thanks a lot; I was hoping for something like this.