[Year 12 Its] 2005 VITTA Sample paper 2 - Feedback

[Kevork Krozian]

Hi Folks,

   Hands up all those who would like to write a VITTA sample exam for this study ?  A pretty tall order isn't it ?
They are still excellent practice even though we all pick on some questions every year.

I am giving these exams to my students in Week 1 of Term 4 but have had a look at the questions raised by Frank.

Section A, Q2 :  The trouble with absolute statements in IT is that there is always a workaround. 
 http://leoville.tv/radio/pmwiki.php/ShowNotes/Show122#toc9 shows how to network a scanner on an XP network using either a software or hardware solution. The question doesn't state that we have an XP or indeed even a microsoft network, therefore perhaps a  requirement to provide an explanation with the answer would be better. Thereby  there can be more than one correct answer that would need to be justified.

Section B Q5 – this was a very unfortunate question indeed. There are a number of problems wth the code. 

 (i)   Procedure MatchID ( visitor.id )        ---- this is not correct.  

 If visitor.id is a parameter being passed into the procedure, then it needs to be formally declared eg. Procedure MatchID ( String visitor.id )  
or Procedure MatchID (Integer visitor.id )  or similar
 
  (ii)  If you are reading, writing or appending data from/to a file , you need to open the file which is not done each time.
  (iii) If you are reading data from a file, you need to show the source when you read eg. Read (file, visitor.id)  and then compare visitor.id with whatever it is you wish to.
  (iv) The fact you are using transponder.id in one part of the code and then transponder.id(position) in another is a fatal error. 
       Are we speaking of a transponder that could have relayed its ID from one of say 10 sectors in the hospital ?  Then we are looking at an array or records which would be shown as transponder(position).id  to show transponder at position 1 or 2 or 3 up to 10 .  The record is transponder and id is the field. The array refers to the record and not the field.
   (iv) I am not sure of the role of the variable position. How do you read from a file at a different line/record with the statement transponder.id(position) ?
   (vi) There is a missing Endif at the end 
   (vii) the answer in the solution is correct. If there is no match , then create a new ID
   (viii) Frank's correction is also spot on , ( line 14 of code) which should be (position+1) because of the Position = Position-1 statement just before it.
  
  Sorry for the list above, but I am inclined to skip this question altogether for my students or write another version of the code.

Best Wishes





Kevork Krozian
IT Manager , Forest Hill College
k.krozian at fhc.vic.edu.au
http://www.fhc.vic.edu.au
Mobile: 0419 356 034

>>> vandenboomfj at aquinas.vic.edu.au 09/17/05 11:25am >>>
My IS group did the 2005 VITTA Sample 2 paper the other day and I just finished correcting it, so thought I would share some brief feedback if you were considering using it.

 

Firstly, thanks to VITTA for preparing these samples. There were lots of good questions to help with revision.

 

Here are some cautions/comments/questions:

 

The space provided in the answer booklet for some questions was inadequate – this mainly involved answers presented in a table format. Tell your students not to be constrained by the table space.

 

Sec A Q 2 – Sample answers state that only one PC has access to the scanner. While I don’t think an OS like Windows XP directly supports networking of scanners connected to a PC, there is software available to allow all PC’s to get to the scanner. Don’t know about Linux etc So the correct answer could be either one PC or all.

 

Sec B Q5 – this was an unfortunate question. Far more difficult than I would expect on a Nov paper. To be honest, I did not fully understand parts of the algorithm myself, though it did not stop me from answering the questions. While I know the algorithm question is not generally handled well, I suspect this would be beyond a few of the better students as well.

Some of my kids found the missing ‘Endif’ at the end of the algorithm, so that provided a good lesson on logical vs syntax errors. I did not find the logical error given in the solution, but I think there is another one in the input statement (around line 14 of code) which has the variable ‘transponder.id(position)’. This should be ‘transponder.id(position+1)’ because of the Position * Position-1 statement just before it.

 

Sec B Q 8- I did not agree with Reason 2 in the solutions. While the statement is true, I don’t consider it a reason why the data should be removed after 21 days.

 

Sec B Q 12 - The question says ‘in addition to backup and restore procedures…” and then includes ‘how to restore all servers’ in the answers. I can only guess at what is meant by a ‘data disaster plan’. Is it the same as a ‘disaster recovery plan’?

 

Frank


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