Exam technique for SDD (1 Viewer)

[Stuzul]

So pretty much, wondering if anyone has any advice on exam technique for SDD, or any info for what the markers are lookign for in particular questions?
I have struggled at this in recent times in most of my subjects (except maths, of course) and spent a fair while working on it, but the only subject i had no information on was SDD
would really appreciate any help
Cheers
Stu

 

[onedaysnotice]

My teacher is a judge marker and exam writer (she did some questions on the 2012 CSSA paper), and she says:

-Answer every question even you have absolutely no clue, because chances are that'll you get a mark or two along the way. Seriously. My teacher hated me for this at the half yearlies. xD

-They want to give you all the marks they can. The usually won't penalize you for adding incorrect content, your marks are based on what you get right. Usually, lol. This is only pertinent to written responses, btw. Need to ask teacher about this again

-For algorithms, as long as they can see that the logic is sound, and that you've written/drawn it correctly, then you're gonna get good marks. So don't stress about the specifics, just worry about the main logic (but I don't mean completely basic algorithms are fine, it still has to be substantial). However, for the more weighty algorithms, specifics may be necessary.

-Use as much SSTs (subject-specfic terminology) as you can. E.g. for the fetch-execute cycle, use ALU, CU, registers, accumulator, program counter, etc; in addition to the regular fetch, decode, execute, store.

-Be as specific as you can, general answers can only get you so far.

-For DFDs, make sure you label every flow line with the data flowing through it.

-Diagrams and algorithms usually only have to substantially correct to get full marks, albeit a lower-end full mark.

-Make sure you read the questions thoroughly. At the half yearlies I wrote an (if I might so myself) absolutely epic algorithm, when the question was asking for a DFD (LOL!). And in the trials, I did the 2's complement using 6-bits, when the question specified 8-bits Dx. So yeah, read the questions properly!

-And lastly, the obligatory "Know all the syllabus dot points!"

-oh and also, UNDERSTAND THAT A PROGRAM COUNTER DOES NOT COUNT PROGRAMS!! XD you have no idea how much times my teacher has told us that xD


Btw, don't quote me any of these. Just trying to remember the stuff she said, and my memory is terrible xD. So there might a few things where I was a bit off, but you get the gist of it.

Good luck to us all.

 

[Stuzul]

Cheers for the advice
Also, do you know any tricks for say like 4 or 5 mark questions? like is it 1 key point per mark or something like that?
sorry i have no idea, my teachers a bit out of it, up until last week of school i didnt even know the difference between the types of implementation lol, nor had i seen it before, which is not totally his fault i suppose

 

[SpiralFlex]

Excellent advice onedaysnotice

I'm a bit surprised at the second point, I would think if you contradict yourself you'd get no marks because you're essential writing two answers for eg,

BEGIN
a=6
b=1
PRINT a+b
END

So if I write a bunch of random numbers somewhere on my page and one of them was 7 I get It correct?

 

[onedaysnotice]

Cheers for the advice
Also, do you know any tricks for say like 4 or 5 mark questions? like is it 1 key point per mark or something like that?
sorry i have no idea, my teachers a bit out of it, up until last week of school i didnt even know the difference between the types of implementation lol, nor had i seen it before, which is not totally his fault i suppose

I'd say that's a good system, probably even better just to do one extra just to be safe aha. But usually, 1 or 2 marks are reserved for specificity and the like so make sure you use as much SSTs and don't just pad your responses. Make sure every sentence has a reason, otherwise you're just wasting your time lol. Like e.g. there was a fetch-execute cycle question that we went through. It was out of 3 marks, but only 1 mark was for actually describing the cycle. The rest was on specificity and how you wrote it lol.

Excellent advice onedaysnotice

I'm a bit surprised at the second point, I would think if you contradict yourself you'd get no marks because you're essential writing two answers for eg,

BEGIN
a=6
b=1
PRINT a+b
END

So if I write a bunch of random numbers somewhere on my page and one of them was 7 I get It correct?

Oh I forgot to say that that doesn't apply for algorithms xD It's more applicable for written responses, like e.g. you are asked to describe some debugging techniques. So you talk about debugging output statements, flags, program traces, single line stepping, etc; but then you also describe a data flow diagram. You are not gonna get penalized for that wrong last bit, but only get marked on what you got right. I'm basically saying that it's not like math where if you get all the working out right, but then for one reason or another, you get the answer wrong, then you are penalized. Frkn math. Ahahahahahhahahaaa...... TT^TT

 

[atar90plus]

I don't believe this is true. For my prelims I added a bit of incorrect content in a define question but my response was exactly the same as the textbook definition (except for the small part of incorrect content. The teacher deducted one mark because of this and the reason is because I added that bit of incorrect content eventhough my response which very similar to the textbook definition

My teacher is a judge marker and exam writer (she did some questions on the 2012 CSSA paper), and she says:-They want to give you all the marks they can. The usually won't penalize you for adding incorrect content, your marks are based on what you get right. Usually, lol. This is only pertinent to written responses, btw.

 

[onedaysnotice]

I don't believe this is true. For my prelims I added a bit of incorrect content in a define question but my response was exactly the same as the textbook definition (except for the small part of incorrect content. The teacher deducted one mark because of this and the reason is because I added that bit of incorrect content eventhough my response which very similar to the textbook definition

My teacher is a judge marker and exam writer (she did some questions on the 2012 CSSA paper), and she says:-They want to give you all the marks they can. The usually won't penalize you for adding incorrect content, your marks are based on what you get right. Usually, lol. This is only pertinent to written responses, btw.

Hmmmm, not sure then xD Gotta ask my teacher again. :/

 

[ahdil33]

Technically they shouldn't take marks off, unless it's blatantly wrong/contradictory I believe, it just won't add any. But most SDD teachers aren't qualified unfortunately.

The exam technique for SDD is no different to any other subject. ATQ - Answer the question. RTS - Relate to the damn scenario. Year in year out, morons keep talking about points without relating to the scenario, i.e., if a teenage girl is making a game for her friends(lol HSC's examples) then talk about issues relating to HER (inexperienced, low costs, unprofessional) , not general ones. It's always in the marker's feedback. I'll say it again, answer the question, relate it to the scenario.

Other than that just read the textbook, and know the damn syllabus, and honestly SDD short answer's aren't challenging at all. They pretty much ask you to "expand on areas of the syllabus and use common sense".

What can be challenging though is the algorithms/diagrams. There's only one thing to do for these, and no amount of cramming will help, it's just about practicing these and making the errors until you can produce them flawlessly.

Why are you studying for SDD now? It's on the second last day

.

Also I lol'ed in real life when I heard a program counter counting programs LOL hahaah

 

[crazymamma]

Does anybody have any SDD summary notes they can share or I can buy

 

[sddmoustache]

Does any1 recomend learning both optonal topic and tehn seeing which 1 is better the exam???