[Year 12 IT Apps] Section A and B

[Selina Dennis]

My comments on Section B:

Q1a) While D is the "best" answer, it didn't ask for the best answer.
Therefore, both A and H could theoretically be accepted as correct answers
if properly justified - A with an argument for critical importance of the
newsletter requiring it appear on the homepage, and H with an argument that
parents will automatically assume that parent information, such as the
weekly newsletter, will appear under a link entitled "parents". Hopefully
this is taken into consideration when marking.

Q1b) "Discussion" is unclear - do you discuss the legitimacy of the decision
itself, do you discuss the potential risks of the new system, or do you
discuss the benefits such a system will provide? I would hope they would be
flexible with the marking criteria here.

Q2a) As mentioned, "medium", not "media".

Q6a) Considering the dodgy question regarding VPN in the multiple choice, I
would hope that the intent for this question is for students to respond with
a comment about research teams wanting to keep their information secure.

Q6b) What exactly do they mean by design element? I would assume/hope they
are referring to the design elements such as proportion, orientation,
clarity, usability, etc., in which case I have no issue. But, if not, they
really should have made it much clearer what they were asking.

Q8c) A small business purchasing a UPS that is powerful enough to keep the
entire office up after a power outage for more than a few minutes (ala a
data center) was amusing. Realistically, you'd purchase a cheap-as-chips UPS
for your central server so that your core data does not become corrupted on
a power failure and/or surge, but linking every computer in the office to it
is a bit of a stretch for your average small business. I guess they could
purchase personal UPS systems for each employee (@ approx $US100), but
that's not what the diagram shows they have done. Ultimately, though, no big
deal, as students should be able to answer this question easily.

Q9c) Victorian postcodes are 3000-3999 and 8000-8999 if you're being really
picky. Doesn't change the answer, however, so no big deal.

Q11) This entire question is a waste of space. My Year 7s have had more
difficult questions on their Excel test. I would have preferred a question
that required students to provide evidence of their ability to problem
solve, or evidence of their ability to analyse information problems.

Q11b) The formula is incorrect. They meant VLOOKUP - take a careful look at
the THIRD argument. If they wanted to use LOOKUP with a third argument, the
correct formula would be: =LOOKUP(A7,$F$2:$F$4,$G$2:$G$4) as the third
argument in LOOKUP is a vector reference to another row or column of the
same size as the second argument. However, this is irrelevant to the
question, so it doesn't matter. I was just irked at the carelessness.

Q11d) Very poorly worded. I assume they wanted "select rows 7-18 and sort by
column A, ascending", but our students aren't psychic, and the question is
vague.

Q11e) They should have asked for three tests, not two.

That's my 2c.

Selina Dennis
Strathmore Secondary College

-----Original Message-----
From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Mark Kelly
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2007 8:58 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Section A and B

Has anyone noticed that most of our debate is about 20 multiple choice 
marks rather than the VASTLY MORE VALUABLE 80 mark section-B?

Are people either
<A> scared to tackle section B?, or
<B> happy with section B?

Only 2 options! 50/50!

Take a punt, folks... or are you one of Arnold's girly-men?

[ http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1559387,00.html ]

(Apologies in advance to girly-girls and manly-girls and manly-men happy 
with section B and - oh. I give up with the apologies)

-- 
Mark Kelly

I make trouble.  You want some?

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