Suggested IT:A Exam Answers

[excal]

Part A

1. D

2. A

3. D - it's the Information Privacy Act (Vic) 2000. Maybe I'm just being a pedant

4. A - not a particularly good question, especially when the term 'convention' is a broad one. The kind of question you have to answer by elimination.

5. B or C - I couldn't really decide as both may be best appropriate to do the job. However, wikis are ever-changing beasts, so I'm not quite sure how you would actually document the site other than keeping it continually updated. I noted Mark's comments on the question which are very valid points. However, I'm inclined to lean towards structure charts (C) as: a) wikis can be hierarchically mapped through the use of categories as grouping elements; and b) a structure "chart" (read: site map) can and is generated by some wiki software. To be honest, a site map would've been the best form of documentation. I doubt, however, you would've needed to look at wikis at such detail...

6. C - but milestones are not tasks as such, although some project management software (e.g., MS Project) considers them to be 0-length activities. Maybe that's where the idea's come along. My opinion is that milestones represent the end of a stage in the project, or a section in a work breakdown structure, where some kind of review or sign-off needs to occur.

7. C

8. B

9. A - unless you guys were allowed calculators in the exam, the whole addition exercise is kind of pointless and doesn't test the actual concept...

10. D - but what about B1:E2?

11. A - goddamn reading exercises

12. B

13. D - validation is about data error prevention, not the others

14. C - key word: effectiveness

15. A

16. D - I'll echo Mark's comments about this not being a DSS, because it isn't really. DSS are used at the tactical and, contrary to what is taught by IT:A, strategic levels, not operational. This is more akin to an expert system than anything.

17. B - While network operating systems may be capable of handling non-network functions of an operating system (because, let's face it, it has to), authentication of and controlling access to network resources is a class-defining task performed by NOS.

18. B - If I saw anyone design this, I would shoot them myself - this smells really badly of a de-normalised Category table.

19. C - An 'emergency plan' refers to what must be done during the event of the emergency, rather than the recovery steps.

20. A - a tough one  

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Part B

Q1
a. Primary keys within database tables
b. Incremental backups

Q2
a.
Input                     
Quantity
Cost        
    
Process
Multiply inputs

Output
Total

b.
(i) Quantity - non-negative
Cost - non-negative, 2d.p

(ii) Total, using manual calculations         

Q3
a. Creating accounts for each student and distributing the account details in person; or, more elegantly, tying the log-in system with the school's LDAP (and allowing only Year 12s based on a Year attribute). I doubt they'd let you do that though.

b. Consider personality rights of students in the photo (Privacy Act)
Copyright of the photos by parents

Q4
a. \\CoachServer\Reports\2009\Finance\X
/home/CoachServer/Reports/2009/Finance/X
They should accept either Windows (backslash, the former) or UNIX (forward slash, the latter) formats. Let's hope anyway.

b.
(i) \\CoachServer\Images\2009\Sport\Netball
- nice distractor with the word 'reports'

(ii) It is an image for this year (2009). Netball is a sport, and therefore a sub-category of 'Sport'. Thus, a new folder called 'Netball' under 'Sport' is appropriate.

c. Did he receive it by email? If so, scan for viruses.
1. Open File using Windows Explorer
2. Select File > Save As...
3. Type in a new file name in a known location (for example, Documents)
4. Make text changes as needed
5. Select File > Save (or Ctrl+S)
6. Using the email client, compose a new message and add it as an attachment by browsing to the new file's location.
7. Compose message and send
PS - There are a number of ways that a document can be read-only; either as a file attribute, document already in use or marked internally in Excel as 'should be viewed as read-only'. This handles for all possibilities. You can, of course, make an assumption it is the first or last scenarios on that list and abbreviate the list accordingly

d.
(i) A coach will browse to the page, click the 'Edit this Page' button and make changes. There may be procedures behind when and where edits may be made (for example, discussion on a Discuss page or similar).
(ii) An audit trail is available in case of errant edits. Information accuracy is otherwise ensured by constant review and edits by all coaches.
Note that this wiki deals only with possible rule changes (i.e., it's not a production system and, thus, iterative review is possible).

Q5
(i) Firewall
Prevents unauthorised access to a network by monitoring network traffic through the firewall

Weakness
May be compromised from the inside by a trojan horse, or other computers
May impede communication between team members if not configured correctly

(ii) Encryption
Prevents unauthorised viewing of data by scrambling it, where descrambling requires a key/password.

Weakness
Not useful when the threat is internal with knowledge of the password/key.
Weak keys can be brute forced
Complicates system development and user viewing processes

Q6
a. It is an aid to the system design process, as the design Jo wishes to implement can be reviewed to ensure it is the best layout possible at minimum cost without any programming work done. It is also useful to communicate the layout required to developers.

b. Flowcharts are particularly suited for this purpose as they are designed to represent conditional flows. They are much easier to follow in terms of nested IF branching compared to a single lined formula (or even well layed-out code).
PS - NS diagrams will work too, but probably not as well as flowcharts especially if they start branching several layers deep.

Q7
Physical example 1- Window bars
Description 1 - Prevents physical access to the systems (and data).
Electronic example 1- Password
Description 1 - Limits access to the system to any person with knowledge of the password (which, presumably, is only the person whose account it belongs to) provided it is of sufficient strength
Biometric example 1- Iris scan
Description 1 - Limits access to the system/building based on a matching biological feature, namely the iris, which is generally unique to a person.

Q8
a. Privacy Act (Cth) 1988

b. The dealer must provide the person in which they are collecting information from a policy or statement about what they will use the information for and who they will disclose it to. This information must be relevant to what is required for the transaction. They must then store the data securely. Then, they should only use the information for the purposes that were stated earlier.

c. The most effective way is to incinerate the flash disk above a certain temperature. Not terribly efficient though...and you lose a flash disk.

An efficient way of disposing of this data is to do a swipe of the data with random bits, three times. This significantly reduces the risk of the data being recovered by a third-party through lower-level means.

PS to Mark - a hammer may not be sufficient . A person with the means may be able to reconstruct the data on the drive, and given data densities these days, recover significant amounts of information.

Q9
a. Layout
There are distinct sections in the website arranged in a logical order; title bar on top, menu below that and content below that. The website is uncluttered and easy to read.
Explanations
This makes the website easier to use and browse through in order to find the correct information

Relevance
Well, it all talks about water, right? It is information that is intended for its audience, in terms of products, services and advice.
Explanation
Irrelevant information wastes space, clutters the website and may confuse users.

b. The website is targeted at water consumers and, given the context of drought, is focused on how to save water in the home (e.g., shower heads, alternative water sources).

Q10
a.

Code: [Select]

Activity-on-Line
                                       3
                      ------ Q ------------------------
                  2  /                                 \
Start ------ P -----                                     ------- End
                     \          4         3         1  /
                      ----- R ------ S ------- T ------

PS - For the activity-on-node PERT chart, refer to Mark Kelly's answers. He's just missing the activity lengths on (or in) the nodes.

b.
(i) Tasks - P, R, S, T
Length - 10 days

(ii) Task - Q
Length - 5 days

Q11
a.
(i) Units in Stock
(ii) Units in Stock, Unit Price

b. SELECT *
FROM Podcast
WHERE Supplier = 'Bunny Podcasts';

There's probably half a million ways they will accept, as long as you note that you need to filter by Supplier.

c.
(i) SELECT *
FROM Podcast
WHERE Reorder_Level >= Units_in_Stock

(ii) Run the query. This should return no results. Then set any product 'Units in Stock' to a number below as well as equal to the Reorder level and run the query:
UPDATE Podcast
SET Units_in_Stock = 20
WHERE ProductID = 1;

UPDATE Podcast
SET Units_in_Stock = 19
WHERE ProductID = 1;

d. Mark Kelly's diagram is very similar to what I would have done, except I would have displayed the SupplierID field as a read-only field in the form. This is useful, especially if the supplier is aware of their ID number in the system.

e.
(i) How their personal information was released to UGambling. If this was permitted by their privacy policy and relevant law, then why a minor's details was passed onto a gambling company.
(ii) How their data was not checked to ensure minors were not sent out information about gambling and how they acquired the information in the first place.
(iii) What checks are in place to ensure that you don't inadvertently send material intended for adults to minors?

Q12
a. =VLOOKUP($C6, $F$8:$G$11, 2, TRUE)

b.
(i) =IF(C12>900, "ALERT: Delivery exceeds 900kg", "")
(ii) D12 - Assuming it is done in red text, it is the most logical location (as it is next to the total weight) and closest to where the eyes are most likely to be if a person is keying in delivery information sequentially.

c. =DeliveryCost!C12
PS - I concur with Mark Kelly's comments re: named ranges especially for something that will be used as an operational system (as opposed to a quickly whipped up, and disposable, DSS).

d.
(i) It should be presented (line/bar) graphically.
(ii) A graph is a easy-to-digest way to represent numerical data, especially in a time series, in order to identify trends in the data.

e.
(i) Mail merge, or VBA script to create additional Excel spreadsheets for each customer. I'd start to question whether a spreadsheet is suited for this kind of work though. Perhaps a database would be better...
(ii) These functions can use the data stored for each customer to inefficiently create personalised output.
PS - You should read Mark Kelly's comments on this question. I agree wholeheartedly...but how much less can be expect of VCAA?

[ell]

Did not end up finishing it but got the same answers pretty much, for the questions I attempted.

They could have included better questions. E.g. the "describing how information is added" to the wiki could have been rewritten to guide the student into writing the features and potential benefits of a wiki. Otherwise, saying something like "Select document to edit, add new information, save changes" would be a valid (and somewhat useless) answer in my opinion.

A bit of an odd exam. Preferred last year's much more - this year's questions seemed so tedious.

[Etherlite]

Almost got exactly the same answers also; Q7 SA was so lol. I was wondering how to get the marks it was so simple.

I also said 'Primary Key' for Q1, didn't specify the server for Q4. or create a new netball folder but it should get the marks. As for the last question, I don't even know what a mail-thingo is.

All in all I did pretty well.