The SDD course is wrong (1 Viewer)

[flex]

This is my 1st post here, but, i've been doing software design, and i beleive the course is not up to standard and neither are the teachers who teach it.

In my class of 10, i am ranked 4th
and basically the top 5 are the only people who know more about a computer than chat.

This course covers a whole text book and goes through tonnes of terminology where in the test most of it is case studies.

And besides that the figures speak for themselves, 60 people passed the course out of the thousand or so who attempted.

 

[Morgues]

whats your point?

 

[InfiniteQ]

I don't personally think it's a bad course, I remember last year when trying to work out what subjects to do in yr 11 everyone advised me not to pick SDD because it was supposedly a really dry course and being a new one you would be in a vulnerable position yadda yadda but it's honestly not too bad. I enjoy it...I don't know how you can say the course is "WRONG". If you think it's wrong, do tell us what's right?

 

[blake]

Originally posted by flex
This is my 1st post here, but, i've been doing software design, and i beleive the course is not up to standard and neither are the teachers who teach it.

In my class of 10, i am ranked 4th
and basically the top 5 are the only people who know more about a computer than chat.

This course covers a whole text book and goes through tonnes of terminology where in the test most of it is case studies.

And besides that the figures speak for themselves, 60 people passed the course out of the thousand or so who attempted.

It's putting what you know into cases, its a great idea. Instead of asking, Whats a Desk Check? Whats a Logic Error etc...

 

[SupaGloo]

60 people passed?... u got ur figures wrong boy

there were at least 150 who got band 5 or higher (80+)
not to mention the couple thousand who got band 3 or higher (60+) which is not a fail... if anything, 60 people failed

candidates just get the concept wrong... its all to do with the process of designing software, not anything else. cept the options.

from previous posts... it seems like most of you are making games/3d games/impossible programs for your major works... why i may ask?... waste of time. its like 0% graphics weighting. you shud b spending more time on the process.

 

[Morgues]

but in raw marks.........only around 60 got over 50% and only about 9 over 60%

 

[SupaGloo]

raw marks?... board doesnt give out raw marks... unless sdd made the headlines for being a crap subject

where is this info located?, i wanna read up on it thx

 

[blake]

Originally posted by SupaGloo
60 people passed?... u got ur figures wrong boy

candidates just get the concept wrong... its all to do with the process of designing software, not anything else. cept the options.

What do you mean by this? My teacher insisted that when you answer the question, you must relate it back to the question and not just stick in all your knowledge onto a piece of paper.

 

[Lazarus]

Morgues has special inside contacts who marked the exams.

The Board doesn't release the info.

 

[SupaGloo]

relate it back to the question and not just stick in all your knowledge onto a piece of paper.

i agree.... as with all other subjects. Cept with economics where if u can write damn fast, u shov it all there... voila

simply put, im tryna say, make sure your answers are detailed and backed with reasoning
But my argument mainly refers to major projects

eg: a 2d game and a 3d game... beside 2d/3d, exactly the same.
people tend to think 3d is better... maybe because it looks better or wat i dunno. but thats not the whole idea of the major project is it?.... course is called software design and development... focuses on the processes and screen + algorithm design of the project. Those in my year who wasted their time spiffying up the project din get any extra credit. You must relate your actions to the program created. Or in a case study situation, choose a specific answer and relate it to how it would best suit the problem. All the case study questions are problems thus the requirement for it to be solved to the best of your knowledge with reasoning.

Aslo... for those who havent handed theirs in yet... "its not how you do it, its what it does"
Thats also a handy tip for those of u who r gonna end of doing programming as a career.

 

[sunny]

But of course...that all changes when the marking criteria actually says the functionality of the program is worth more than the process documentation, as in my case.

 

[do0d]

wow that's odd how come u got that?
programming shouldn't be worth any more than 20% of your project

 

[sunny]

hehe...well a little misleading there...but heres the marking criteria:

Program (34 marks)
- level of difficulty (complexity of program)
- educational need
- elegance of code (not sure what this is doing here, should be counted as doco)
- screen design principles
- complete operation of final program


Documentation (16 marks)
- gantt chart
- process diary/logbook
- user manual
- installation guide
- troubleshooting guide
- technical manual (program listing, algorithms, storyboard, DFD/data dictionary)

 

[Morgues]

I would love that kind of a marking scheme sunny, my one doesn't take into the difficult of the program at all and is just a joke, get this

its out of 300

90 - LOG BOOK/GANTT CHART!
about 100 - user doco, technical doco (all the diagrams, data dictionaries etc)
60 - online help
50 - the program, but not the difficulty but whether it works, has bugs, has a good interface etc

 

[saladsurgery]

for our project the marking scheme allocated about 30% (from memory) for the enitre program (code and working program), documentation (user + technical / internal), packaging (a mock-up box and / or cd case) ... so in the end the actual application was about 10-15% : not worth coding a 3D space shooter or whatever for, unless you really want to and are prepared a more-than-significant anount of your spare time to it.

on the subject of the course, i think it is ok except for algorithms: i can do them, but can anyone point out to me exactly when we all sat down and got told the proper syntax and conventions of pseudocode? also, the candidature -- whoever said that was right -- people do it because they think it'll be a computer-intensive course )like the old 3U course), when most of the time we're just copying out notes and answering questions.

 

[do0d]

well the reason i say this is when u begin developing large applications about 20% of your time if even that will be spent on coding
coding is the easiest part unless u need to heavily optimise stuff in which case u need to be good at a particular language etc

also the reason ppl with previous programming exp do good is coz theyve done it b4 and scenarios arent new to them
programming is best learnt from mistakes or dopey and bloated ways of programming and approaching a problem

btw u got a copy of this shooter i wanna take a look
if any of u do opengl perhaps we could make a game if any of u's r up to it?
im too lazy and dun haf as much time as i used to so i know i wont finish a proper game nemore