VCE IT Helpdesk

[Athomas]

yeh i think i will, thanks
im the complete opposite, i love pencil
did u do ur methods exam in pen?

Sure did. apart from the MC.

and msea404 I know, I always have too much time!

[excal]

is it a bad idea to do the entire exam in pencil, cause it doesnt say anywhere that we can't?
or would it just be logical sense to write section B in pen?

Do it in pen - it's more legible.

That said, if you need to draft, do it in pencil. I highly doubt you'll be asked to, but it's not out of the question that you'd be asked to draw a flowchart.

if theres a question listing a bunch of examples and we have to respond with a data type eg string, integer, could you please clarify this
- date
- currency
we used a lot of access for databases and i know that you can have the date as a date and currency as currency but in general theory would they be strings or integers?
im guessing currency would be floating point and date would be string?
btw i like your maple skills, pirate next week

Most people will have done Access, so I think the examiners will be forgiving of that. In Oracle, an enterprise DBMS, you'll find that there is a DATE datatype, but no currency. The general case would be to use a FLOAT-like type with validation for currency and let the form / application using the database handle the formatting.

In other words, you should be fine calling 'Date' and 'Currency' as data types.

[ell]

What is the difference between an organizatioanl goal and an orgnizational objective? I always get confused by this and the VITTA trial exam didn't really explain it =/

Objectives work towards achieving a goal. A simple example is: your goal is to get a high ENTER, and objectives to achieve this are to study more, do more practice exams etc.

[micaa]

usually an objective has a figure in it like 2% increase, or something like that
i read that of mark kelly's website

[Athomas]

yeh exactly.

But bit pointless discussing it now? ahah

[excal]

yeh exactly.

But bit pointless discussing it now? ahah

The Software Development exam is on Thursday.

[Athomas]

yeh exactly.

But bit pointless discussing it now? ahah

The Software Development exam is on Thursday.

Ahhh valid point.

My first ever 3/4. haha and I got under 68/90 for that exam... *sigh*.

[excal]

yeh exactly.

But bit pointless discussing it now? ahah

The Software Development exam is on Thursday.

Ahhh valid point.

My first ever 3/4. haha and I got under 68/90 for that exam... *sigh*.

That's still a good mark, don't fret too much. Once you get your study score, you will be more the wiser as to how much effort you need to put into your subjects in Year 12.

[excal]

The helpdesk is Open for questions for the IT:A exam 2009.

If you have any trial exam questions or questions about concepts leading into this exam, please feel free to post it here and one of the friendly moderators or ex-students will be more than happy to help you out.

[Rockim]

Would you have any tips for answering case study type questions? i find them overwhelming...........

[ell]

Would you have any tips for answering case study type questions? i find them overwhelming...........

Don't forget - case study questions are just normal IT theory questions dressed up in a scenario. They're no different to your short answer questions really!

They're generally all the same, but with a different scenario/organisation. Often the scenario they give you has a lot of useless information, so reading the questions first and then searching for the answer is a good idea.

Also remember when answer case study questions to relate it back to the original scenario i.e. mention the organisation/stakeholder in your answer.

[ell]

im having trouble studying for my upcoming end of year it applications exam. im not sure which area's to focus more on???

unit 3
chapter 1 - problem solving
chapter 2 - developing a solution using database software
chapter 3 - network information systems
chapter 4 - using networks
unit 4
chapter 5 - organisation and information needs
chapter 6 - supporting information products and reviewing decisions
chapter 7 - storage, communication and disposal of data and information
chapter 8 - security measures

can someone please help?

Those topics are a bit broad. I would say to not stress too much over chapters 3 and 4 (i.e. the network ones) because there won't be many questions from that area. I'll give you a list of the important stuff:

- Know your problem solving methodology inside and out (all the stages and what they entail)
- Re: databases - make sure you know your data types, what makes a good primary key, relationships between tables (i.e. one-to-one, one-to-many etc)
- Practice Excel formulas. This might help: http://vcenotes.com/forum/index.php/topic,18072.0.html
- Project management (e.g. Gantt and PERT charts)
- Know your Acts and their years. I think that might be in chapter 7 of your book.

[Vadnal]

Cheers ell!

[excal]

PS ell - feel free to edit my post.

[RainerWolfram]

Hey,

I've encountered a q in an exam that ask you to write a validation rule that forces users to type in exactly 8 chactacters. Do you think I would get marks for writing this:

Like "8 question marks"  (I tried typing 8 ?'s but it comes out like ?)

Or this one for 8 digits only:

Like "########"

That's the actual syntax of it

Or how else would you write it?

Thanks

Daniel