[Year 12 IT Apps] NINE mark question??

Sat Nov 17 09:47:20 EST 2012

Does the lack of opinion on Q9 mean that we are all a little unsure on what the answer might be.

If this is the case the fault lies squarely with VCAA for not providing a comprehensive definition of the Normalisation process.

A brief exploration of normalisation on the Web provides a variety of definitions.

I only hope that the Examiners provide a decent solution.

Otherwise I might have to mark papers next year (and I'm sure they won't enjoy that process)

:)

thanks
Mark Scott
Luther College

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark KELLY
Sent: Wednesday, 14 November 2012 4:24 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] NINE mark question??

I've normalised myself with a jolly nice Chardonnay, and my solution to the question is at http://www.vceit.com/postmortems/2012ita/ita2012.htm
I've yet to proofread it for howlers, but it's basically finished.

And the normalisation question was a pig to work on. It took me 30 minutes, with one or two false starts, to explain it halfway clearly. And I fear even now it's not strictly accurate.
Dog only know how even the best kids coped.

On 14 November 2012 10:35, Mark Scott <msc at luther.vic.edu.au<mailto:msc at luther.vic.edu.au>> wrote:

Peter

I would have separated the DB into three tables as part of 2NF and then got rid of the Total fee calculation field as 3NF

And students should at least show the completed Relationship Diagram.

Tricky part is explaining how each (do they mean separately?) normal form ensures the integrity of data.

But I will wait and see what the gurus have to say (you out there Mark K?)

thanks
Mark Scott
Luther College

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Peter Langham
Sent: Wednesday, 14 November 2012 10:05 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] NINE mark question??

Here's my attempt at the normalisation question

1NF - No lists of data in any cell.
Divide the data in any of the memberName, memberAddress, driverName fields.
memberAddress becomes: memberAddress becomes memberAddress and memberPostcode
E.g.
memberAddress : 2 Hill St
memberSuburb : Richmond
This allows for more specific queries. E.g. Filtering data by Suburb.

2NF - each non-key field must be fully dependent on the key
yearsWorked is dependent on driverName. Make a seperate table where driverName is the Primary Key and it is a Foreign Key in the memberName table.
Table 1: memberName, memberAddress, driverName (foreign key), carRate($), totalFee($)
Table 2: driverName (primary key), yearsWorked
This ensures data integrity as the yearsWorked data would only need to be updated in the one cell now instead of multiple cells.

3NF - every field in a table must relate directly to the primary key
carRate($) is dependent on the size of the car. I'd add a foreign key field to table1 carSize which would become a primary key field in the third table.
Table 1: memberName, memberAddress, driverName (foreign key), carSize (foreign key)
Table 2: driverName (primary key), yearsWorked
Table 3: carSize, carRate($)

This leaves us with what I beleive should be a calculated field, totalFee($).
totalFee($): [yearsWorked]*[carRate($)]

I may have 2NF and 3NF in the wrong order.

Unfortunately, I didn't go over this in a lot of depth with my students, I expected that they would have the choice of which Normal Form they solved for, like the VCAA sample exam so we focused on 1NF more heavily than the other two normal forms.

Peter Langham
Narre Warren South P-12

On Wed, Nov 14, 2012 at 9:30 AM, Mark Scott <msc at luther.vic.edu.au<mailto:msc at luther.vic.edu.au>> wrote:

Mark

It will be Q9 (the Normalisation one) that will be the one most poorly answered.

I am looking forward to seeing your solution for that one.

:)

Mark Scott
Luther College

Mark Scott
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From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Mark KELLY
Sent: Wednesday, 14 November 2012 9:15 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] NINE mark question??

I wonder what the logic was behind changing the eight mark question into a nine mark question.

Was it something like, "Let's take the question that was most poorly answered last year and make it even more difficult." ?

--
Mark Kelly - kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au<mailto:kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Phone: +613 8520 9085<tel:%2B613%208520%209085>, Fax +613 9578 9253<tel:%2B613%209578%209253>
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Visit Diigo links for ITA<http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-info-tech> and SD<http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-sd>
--
My personal best for the 100 metre sprint is 11.9 metres.

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--
Mark Kelly - kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au<mailto:kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
Manager of ICT, Reporting, IT Learning Area
McKinnon Secondary College, McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
Phone: +613 8520 9085, Fax +613 9578 9253
VCE IT Lecture Notes: http://vceit.com
Moderator: IT Applications Edulist<http://edulists.com.au/itapps/index.htm>
Visit Diigo links for ITA<http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-info-tech> and SD<http://groups.diigo.com/group/vce-sd>
--
My personal best for the 100 metre sprint is 11.9 metres.

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