[Year 12 IT Apps] ITA exam - B10b (i)

[Savage, John L]

Vlookup(value, products_list, picture_column)?

Laurie Savage

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Wednesday, 6 November 2013 5:27 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] ITA exam - B10b (i)

Hi all. I'm nearing the end of the post mortem, but this is turning into one of the dodgiest ITA exams I've seen in some time.

Take this delight hiding in section B, Q10b part (i)...

"i.         Describe how the manager can identify and display on a web page the cheapest fruit available."

I'd like you all to pause for a moment and plan an answer to that in your heads. I'll wait.

Finished? Are you sure?

"Yes, a quick =MIN(C2:C5) formula," you say.

But have you noticed the words "and display on a web page"?

Try answering it now.

Assuming that someone doesn't just look at the price onscreen and type it into a webpage manually with a webpage editor, do the examiners want kids to explain some ColdFusion, DDE link, SQL, or PHP code to magically extract a value from a spreadsheet/database and inject it into a dynamic web page?

And even if we did just use the MIN function, it would only display the value of the lowest price, not the name of the cheapest fruit... that's an achievable, but very different kettle of fish.

And it's worth all of 2 marks!

Beyond belief.

I'm dying to see what the examiner's report gives as a model answer...

--
Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

Day 19, I have successfully conditioned my master to smile and write in his book every time I drool.- Pavlov's Dog


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