[Informatics] A Friday Reflection or two on exam rules

[Mark]

First...

Since 2002, The rules on the covers of IPM/ITA/Info exams have all
forbidden the use of "white out liquid/tape".
Since 2015, this has been changed to "correction fluid/tape".
I wonder whether the trademark owners of "WiteOut" had a quiet word with
VCAA.

Second...

A couple of years ago I was asking what would happen if a student was asked
for X items, and then provided more than X. Would the marker ignore any
answer beyond the number asked for?

The general consensus was that markers *would* read on and perhaps give
credit to superfluous information.

I've just found what caused my initial query to be sparked...

In the IPM exam of *2000*, the rules on the cover of the exam say: *"Choices
are provided within questions 3,4,11, and 13e. Answer only the state number
of choices. Any extra answers will not be awarded marks." *

I knew my nagging doubt had to come from *somewhere.*

Note - this rule was *not* repeated in any exam thereafter.

VCAA has not publicly repeated nor repudiated the policy of
reading/ignoring answers that exceed the quantity requested. It would be
good if they did.

*Fun fact 1: *In the 2000 IPM exam there was no multiple choice or case
study, and the exam was worth 60 marks.

*Fun Fact 2*: Multiple choice arrived in 2003.

*Fun Fact 3:* The 2000 IPM exam was 18 pages long. The 2016 Info exam was
29 pages long.

OK. I might be stretching the definition of "fun".

Regards,
Mark


-- 

Mark Kelly

mark at vceit.com
http://vceit.com
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