[Year 12 SofDev] practice exams

[Claudia Graham]

Hi Andrew,

As Mark indicated if a term is not in the study design that would suggest it can't be referred to directly, like your example of boundary value analysis.

Like you I assumed I knew what it meant but had not heard or taught that term to students - had I taught about testing boundary conditions, yes of course. I like to teach six tests for a range, e.g. If value between 1-10 - I would test 0,1,2 and then 9,10, 11 - but could be a little OTT and with some that are not required. But it does of course depends on data, data type and logic conditions e.g. 1-10, you could be testing 10.1 if that is more appropriate.

My students did the examination you referred to last week and the term you indicated was not the only one that I believe (and they questioned) did not fall into the scope of the study (I'm sure I'll be corrected if wrong) - but the exam included questions such as hash functions, and the differences between CSV format and XML, TCP/IP, agile and linear development and pros and cons of beta testing. It's not that they are not appropriate for SD students just that there is no expectation that all students should know these and be able to discuss/describe/explain based on the way the current study is written.

Some may argue that practice exams should stretch students - agree as long as they meet the exam specifications as set out by VCAA and are informed by the study design

I think there are practice SD exams from DLTV, QATS, CSE, TSSM and Adrian Janson publishing and in checking them all against the study design - as we should all do for all purchased SACs/Exams, a majority of these sample examinations have questions that I would be concerned about and have indicated to students not to do.

I did not want students running home creating pages of notes on topics that were just not relevant, which they could easy do if they worked through some of these exams without guidance.

I will focus more time on the sample exam from VCAA for new areas of the study and 2011-2015 papers for areas of study that are the same or similar.

What are other going to be doing during their revision period? - I only have the first week of term for revision so only a couple of classes to get all key messages across.

Regards
Claudia
**********************************************************
Claudia Graham
VCE Coordinator
@ClaudiaG_Aus
9334 0049 (direct)

From: <sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au>> on behalf of "Andrew net>" <shortell at get2me.net<mailto:shortell at get2me.net>>
Reply-To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>>
Date: Thursday, 22 September 2016 at 5:31 PM
To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>>
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] practice exams

hi all
I am enjoying my break from classes unlike some of my students who are actually practising for the exams (not all)
While I was outside fencing (no I was not counting cows correctly OR accurately just bloddy rabbits and rabbit holes and ant nests) i was thinking about work things.

In teh Janson practice exam 1 there is

c 11 a   What is boundary value analysis

I deduce that it is testing  just outside the boundary and if < then on teh boundary and if <= then one above the boundary?

I went looking through the study design last night and the term Boundary value is not explicitly mentioned (as far as I found .... )
of course my better students complained that I had not taught them about it

that led me to think about test table values - how precisely on teh boundary do they need to be in the exam?
when is close enough good enough? etc...

Any advice?


Andrew

Andrew Shortell
Educator
CRC Melton


shortell at get2me.net<mailto:shortell at get2me.net> (This List)
@acsbear8 (twitter)






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