How did everyone go with the exam?

[MJRomeo81]

MJ, what did you think of this years exam?

To be honest I thought this year's paper was easier than last years. MC in this year's paper had some real easy questions. Q19 was the only tricky question that caught me out and although D seems to be correct, it amazes me how they have to word it like that. Q6 seemed fair to me and although it was poorly worded, the answer was obvious if you knew the PSM.

Aside from the normalisation question the S.A. questions were not bad. I'm surprised about how many "name/state/list" questions they had though. I'm going to go ahead and say that I expect the state average for the normalisation question to be around 1.2 marks, so therefore I'm guessing that just like last year the high end scores will be determined by how you went on the 9 marker.

As stated earlier in this thread, this was a very focused exam. VCAA definitely emphasised the "Applications" component of this subject. I find this interesting since VCAA are probably sick of the rote-learning responses that are churned out for the law questions.

a.   Describe how AppsNow can make sure that the apps stored online are safe from hackers. 2 marks

Require authorised users to use a username and strong password to access the apps.
Encrypt the app files so they can't be opened even if a hacker manages to get to them.
Use SSL or TLS connections to prevent user or app details being observed in transit.
Ensure the site is protected by a router and a software firewall to prevent port sniffing and unauthorised communication port access.

Are these suggested solutions a bit iffy? It's asking how they 'can make sure' that the apps stored online are untouchable.  Wouldn't that mean something like penetration testing (even though thats from SD)?

I agree that the wording is iffy, but I think MK is on the ball with this one. I understand what you're saying about pen testing, and I find this a really thought provoking comment. Penetration testing is evaluating the security of a computer system or network by simulating an attack. So I guess the "how" part is more about what security measures to implement. But yeah then again, "...can make sure" could be interpreted as "how do we know our security is up to scratch".

VCAA's wording ("can make sure") makes it sound like these techniques are 100% safe (which they obviously aren't) but nevertheless in the ITA course I would have taken the safe option and got my 2 marks for general security principles since pen testing isn't on the course.

[Lasercookie]

Your totally right, I think the post mortem Mark Kelly  did is little to brief in some areas. Especially the last question under the Spreadsheet solution compared to his answer from last years. Hopefully it was a rushed solution and he edits/adds more in the upcoming days.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he gets something out quickly first and then refines it later on (and then after a few months adding the stuff from the assessor reports etc.)

Lasereddd and MJ, what did you think of this years exam?

I can't really come to a conclusion about if it was harder or easier than last years exam - it's always different when you're presented with the real exam you have to actually sit it. I'm not going to bother actually doing the exam so I don't know how long it'd take me to do in practice exam type conditions.

But overall, it seems like a fairly reasonable exam. Short Answer Question 7 to 12 seem pretty good.

Like MJRomeo said, I think there's too many 'name', 'identify', 'list' questions. They're boring. It's okay to have some, but too many isn't good. I much prefer questions that get you to justify or at least provide reasoning. That way you get to do a bit of thinking, and if you're slightly off the mark, you can justify why you came to such an answer. I think the exam should have more questions that actually challenged you to say why something is done the way it is.

I'm always going back and forth when I'm deciding if I like IT Applications as a subject. The majority of this exam just makes me lean towards feeling that IT Applications isn't a subject worth doing. I don't mind most of the content, but what really annoys me most is the way they decide to assess the content. They only seem to be touching on most things in a superficial way.

I don't like most of Question 4, Question 5. They should have had more of a scenario rather being all general and vaguey with their half-baked sentences. If they gave you something a bit more detailed at least you'd be able to think in a particular mind frame and be able to talk in more of a directed manner.

That said, I did like Question 2 even though it was just another general question, it gives you something fairly specific to talk about. I don't know about Question 6, but it looks like a good opportunity to provide some depth in an answer.

For the multiple choice there wasn't really any question that caught my interest.

I have a feeling they made some of the questions easier just because of having that 9 mark question AND the normalisation question. Those later questions do seem pretty different to the rest of the exam. I think the later short answer questions (about Q7 onwards) begin to make up for the lacklustre start of the exam, slowly building up to something a bit more interesting.