[Year 12 IT Apps] VITTA Practice Exams Indiscrepancies

[Mark KELLY]

Hi Benn. Remember that no textbook is the ultimate authority: the study
design is. And it defines the mandated data types as follows:

ITA = text (string), number, date, currency, logic (Boolean)
Units 1+2 = string, character, integer, floating point
SD = string, character, integer, floating point, Boolean

So 'number' would be correct for ITA, even if your kids knew other more
suitable types like currency or single precision. I bet real VCAA markers
would have accepted those alternatives since they're very common in many
languages. The VITTA solution may just have chosen to be conservative and
sticking to what the types that the study design lists.

(Dog only knows why they're different for each study... it reminds me of
the multiple problem solving models we had before the SDLC was given the
toss.)

CamelCase and Hungarian Notation are the two main naming conventions. They
may not be listed in the study design, but they are commonly accepted in
the industry, and the study design often does not list examples or mandated
types of things.
As always, we have to be careful using any non-VCAA document - even VITTA's
- because (as far as I know) no commercial text, assessment task etc is
officially given a VCAA seal of approval.  The closest we get is outcomes
that pass auditing.

But then again, vetting texts and tasks might be an excellent service that
VCAA could offer authors to ensure VCE materials are top-notch...

Mark

On 18 October 2012 11:53, POLLOCK, Benn(POL) <POL at wantirnacollege.vic.edu.au
> wrote:

> Hello All,
>
> A few queries regarding the practice exams from the VITTA. My students
> and I have had quite some debate over quite a few of the answers
> provided to the exams in the 2012 Exam Pack.
>
> In a response to one of the questions, it asks for the student to fill
> in the table with the correct data type. The field name is
> "ProductCost($)". All my students put "Currency" as the appropriate data
> type, however the VITTA answers sheet lists the correct answer as
> "Number", however I believe that Currency is listed as a Data Type in
> the text.
>
> Also, another sub question to this was to identify the naming convention
> used. The correct answer provided was CamelCase or CamelBack. I can't
> seem to find these naming conventions anywhere within the text, or
> remember covering them with my students throughout the year. There is
> also a multiple choice question in the same practice exam which ask
> students to choose the correct naming convention used - the responses
> include, Camel Case, Camel Back, Hungarian Notation and Positional
> Notation. Once again, can't see to find any reference to any of these in
> the texts. Have I missed something? If it's not in the text, how can
> students expect to answer these questions? These are just some of the
> recent discrepancies I've had with these VITTA practice exams.
>
> Cheers,
> Benn
>
> ___
>
-- 
Mark Kelly - 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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