Remember the nasty spreadsheet questions from the 2009 ITA exam? (See <a href="http://www.vceit.com/postmortems/2009ita/index.htm">http://www.vceit.com/postmortems/2009ita/index.htm</a> for an analysis.)<br><br>There's more.<br>
<br>Q12, the VLOOKUP question, is the culprit again. Not only are the table's cutoff values incorrectly set up so the spreadsheet would return inaccurate answers, but a little bird has pointed out that the suggested answer in the examiner's report was also wrong:<br>
<br><i>=VLOOKUP(C6, $F$8:$G$10,2) or =VLOOKUP(C6, F$8:G$10,2)<br>These were the most frequent correct responses. Other correct responses were also awarded a mark. Most students had<br>difficulty in writing this formula.<br>
</i><br>I pity any student relying on the accuracy of this authoritative answer. It should be (using the examiners' clumsy preferences for the dollar sign rubbish instead of a lovely named range):<br><br><i>=VLOOKUP(C6, $F$8:$G$<b>11</b>,2) or =VLOOKUP(C6, F$8:G$<b>11</b>,2)</i><br>
<br>The irony of the examiners' comments on the quality of students' answers is delightful.<br><br>I hope the person who wrote 2009's spreadsheet questions was not signed up again for the 2010 exam: they really were woeful.<br clear="all">
<br>-- <br>Mark Kelly<br>Manager Information Systems<br>Reporting Manager<br>IT Learning Area Manager<br><br>McKinnon Secondary College<br>McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204<br>Victoria, Australia<br>Direct line / Voicemail: +613 8520 9085<br>
Fax +613 9578 9253<br><a href="mailto:kel@mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au" target="_blank">kel@mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au</a><br><br>VCE IT Lecture Notes: <a href="http://vceit.com" target="_blank">http://vceit.com</a><br>Moderator: IT Applications Edulist<br>
<br>My cow died on this day two years ago. I know because I noted it in my dairy.<br><br><br>