SDD Half yearly ... (1 Viewer)

[Casmira]

Hello everyone, since my SDD teacher was away and I couldn't get a hand of the other teachers as they "didnt know anything about the exam" i was as to curious to ask you people since i lurk here and realise how much you really do know, my exams split up like this:

Section 1 - 15 marks
Multiple choice -
15 questions on all 5 topics

Section 2 - 60 marks
3 Structured free response questions
Answer on the paper supplied, starting each question on a new page

topics:
- social and ethical issues
- applications of software development approaches
- developing a solution package
- defining and understanding the problem
- planning and design of software solutions

Planning and design may include deskchecking and the analysis, interpretation and design of algorithms that involve:
- manipulating data into an array
- reading data into an array
- printing from an array
- finding maximum, minimum values in an array
- linear searching of an array
- processing strings (extracting, inserting, deleting)
- file processing

Check the syllabus for a detailed checklist of content, particularly in the "students learn about" column. Information and skills for these and particularly in the longer questions are included in the "students learn to" column

Structured free questions (worth 20 marks each) are also basedo n all 5 areas, but require more detailed answers. All areas are included and need to be carefully prepared. You must be able to interpret pseudocode and flowchart algorithms and produce them yourself. For this exam, you will be expected to inerpret complete algorithms, but will only be asked to write sections of code, not a complete solution

One thing plagues me .. the 5 topics that we have chosen,
- social and ethical issues
- applications of software development approaches
- developing a solution package
- defining and understanding the problem
- planning and design of software solutions

Social and ethical issues - we did during class (she just hands as hsc.csu.edu.au/cambridge questions to find from the net)

applications of software development approaches - we did during homework so thats not really much of a worry

developing a solution package - this seems to worry me, we havent done this, when i look at this it reminds me of the major project ,but this is only a half yearly ..

defining and understanding the problem - we havent done any of this in class, it claims to be in exam, I really didnt have much troubles studying for it, but again it seems like alot of it is just documentation for a program

planning and design of software solutions - here is the real ball buster, the paper says to do basically all of the first dot point "standard algorithms for searching and sorting" - so does the paper, ie. file processing, including sentinel value, but we haven't done this in class, so i approached my teacher and she told me oh no you just do (stuff we've done)- now she hasnt written this exam, and for my yearlies in year 11 she gave everyone a list of what to study, and ended up having OTHER shit that shee didnt tell us would be in (she hadnt taught us, like fetch execute cycle, lucky i read that as i was studying )

in my hand is about 30 pages of study for these subjects, i got all the algorithms and stuff written out with combined effort of excel, heinemenn and that sam david book, i did them about a week ago, so what my concers are

- will we be expected to memorise the search/sort algorithms (is this expected)
- is there only one right answer for algorithms? (ie. if one person just uses a normal algorithm for a answer response, instead of the whole index=0 etc.. and still does the same thing, is that wrong?)
- now the structure of the exam confuses me, there isnt going to be short responses like "identify 2 social and ethical issues" or "define the term plagerism", doesnt 3 extended responses sound more like a 2/3 to be arrays and one on the 5 topics

it just seems really unclear for me, if someone can clear it up that'd be great, thanks in advance

 

[MedNez]

Will we be expected to memorise the search/sort algorithms (is this expected)?

Yes and no - you're supposed to know how searching and sort algorithms work, and be able to recognise them if you're given a segment of code. That is to say, they might give you a section of code, and ask you what it is doing, or expect you to write a basic search algorith.

Is there only one right answer for algorithms? (ie. if one person just uses a normal algorithm for a answer response, instead of the whole index=0 etc.. and still does the same thing, is that wrong?)

No, any way that is logically correct (to an extent) will gain you marks if written correctly in Pseudocode. As long as you're using correct terminology and your algorithm follows some sort of logical pattern, that does what the question is asking, you should be ok.

Structure

More likely than not, you have your three questions each worth ~20 marks each. The first question may be a scenario, which would ask something along the following lines (this may/may not be revevant to your topics, but close enough):

A) You will be given an algorithm
B)
i) Suggest two data types for two variables
ii) Make some changes
iii) Identify some errors
iv) What is the algorithm doing?
C)
i) Factors influencing development (eg. Feasibility)
ii) Responsibilities in the development of said solution
iii) Develop a gantt chart for it

So in essence, you'll most likely get some scenarios and asked to do a few things with each one. In your case, probably some on identifing what algorithms do, or perhaps even given a table, and asked to do a bubble sort or selection sort ascending.

So make sure you know how the sorts and searches work at least. The five topics in three questions, as you can see, will all be covered, or mostly covered by lengthy scenarios asking you to do a variety of things with them.

Hope that's of some help, but that's how our half yearlies and trials were structured, so might give you help understanding how yours may be set out.

 

[Casmira]

Thanks so much! I did the exam and took into account and helped alot, christ did they launch alot that stuff, we where not taught how to write records but luckily i realised how dodgy my teacher is and went over it, every things seem good
thanks again mednez