How do you study for IPT? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter BlueGas
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astroman
Well-Known Member
yes Samuel Davis is good but is full of loads of unnecessary information that is not studied in the course, i suggest you make your notes early and understand them thoroughly since IPT is dependant on having a solid understanding on what you learn. Keep ahead on practicals where you have easy access to high marks and do past papers, IPT is not hard and pretty easy to excel in.
BlueGas
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Yeah I'll agree on IPT being easy to excel in, I chose it because I have an interest in Computing. But how do you make your own notes? Don't you use other people's notes as a base to start with?
MrInoeverthin
Well-Known Member
Ask Katsumi, he achieved a band 6 in IPT. He should be able to help you out and provide some advice.
If you have an interest in computing and you're eager to learn more, you might cruise through the course. I agree with what Astro has said about maintaining notes and continuously updating them, since IPT is solely dependant on your understanding and how you can implement real life situations within a scenario.
When you start your notes, I suggest you go off the syllabus dot points and keep a detailed summary as well as an example (since IPT is mostly example and scenario based).
Good luck with IPT
seremify007
Junior Member
I never really wrote notes or anything because I had a personal interest in the topics but the key thing is to just do the exercises properly during the year (ie. in class/homework/etc just make sure you're answering the questions). Always try to link through to modern/practical examples even if the book you have is outdated, and even better if you can name some contemporary implementation examples e.g. software names, etc. Your projects/assignments should link up to the content in such a way that you're getting practical experience to help develop your understanding of the subject matter e.g. building a database with relationship links/etc, queries, etc...
To put things in perspective I think in my class some people had answers from previous years so they just copied and pasted without ever reading the book so they could play UT/CS whereas I figured I may as well do it properly. I even did it at home so I could join in the games at school too.
I'd also recommend you try to get your hands on sample band six responses. I used this to help guide the way I answered questions particularly the long-form/extended response scenario type ones. I modelled my answers on these in the actual HSC and did quite well with that approach.
Oh, and past papers are great... but I'd save those for once you already know the whole syllabus and closer to the actual exams. Doing them too early just means you'll have tunnel vision in what content you cover rather than ensuring you really get the breadth of the subject.
To put things in perspective I think in my class some people had answers from previous years so they just copied and pasted without ever reading the book so they could play UT/CS whereas I figured I may as well do it properly. I even did it at home so I could join in the games at school too.
I'd also recommend you try to get your hands on sample band six responses. I used this to help guide the way I answered questions particularly the long-form/extended response scenario type ones. I modelled my answers on these in the actual HSC and did quite well with that approach.
Oh, and past papers are great... but I'd save those for once you already know the whole syllabus and closer to the actual exams. Doing them too early just means you'll have tunnel vision in what content you cover rather than ensuring you really get the breadth of the subject.
Lithone
Member
Samuel Davis' notes are good in the sense that they cover e v e r y t h i n g in the syllabus but does have a lot of unnecessary crap in it. Personally I found the Excel book really good in terms of content (but the sample papers they have are awful). It's probably best to make your own condensed notes though
And also always keep your social and ethical issues in mind, and all your examples for scenarios.
And also always keep your social and ethical issues in mind, and all your examples for scenarios.
Someone called?
Well first things first OP, if you have yet to read it i recommend that you check out a thread that i made around a month back containing some advice and tips that i derived from my experiences throughout the preliminary and HSC IPT courses, along with a brief study guide on the most essential stuff that you should cover throughout the course. That should help you more or less gain an understanding on how to approach the subject effectively
http://community.boredofstudies.org...information-processes-technology-student.html
In terms of studying for IPT, it largely depends on the individual to be honest. In my opinion IPT is a subject largely based around consistency, cramming will only get you so far. I recommend that you continually make notes on a regular basis and do weekly content reviews, constantly keeping the content fresh in your mind. You will find that after a while the knowledge just sticks with you and becomes more or less second nature and that really goes far when it comes to exam time. Study using the Davis Textbook and the Excel textbook. A large majority of students say that Davis is the worst textbook for the subject as it goes into things way too extensively. However his examples and activities are absolutely excellent and go a long way in allowing you to gain an in depth understanding of the content. Excel on the other-hand is great for both cramming and learning the content in a concise manner. As you may have also heard, making notes off Davis is quite hard, hence when making notes off the Davis textbook have the syllabus next to you and refer to both the "students learn about" and "students learn to" sections and highlight what is relevant. As seremify noted though, making notes is not completely essential provided that you have a good teacher and hence a good grip of the content which is taught (iirc my brother only had brief class notes and managed to score a 93 HSC mark in this subject)
While i personally wasn't too huge on notes (i did have a set of cram notes and some stuff from davis activities) i found that i constantly listened in every class and asked questions whenever i didn't know anything, i also related all of my IT content to real life situations, in my opinion doing this is absolutely invaluable and a great way to remember what is taught to you. (i.e. i remembered the information process of storing and retrieving simply by saving and loading in a video game, and expanded upon that concept in the exam room). After lessons i ensured that i could remember everything taught to me in the last 3 lessons with allowed the content to stick.
As seremify mentioned, doing activities and past papers for this subject is also extremely important and honestly the main way i learned my content in IPT. Leading up to the HSC i did pretty much every trial and HSC past paper available to me and got them marked by my teacher the next day, this allowed me to understand what i didn't know about the subject and get a grasp of the scope of knowledge needed to answer questions (i.e. i figured out that i didn't know enough about communication systems when i constantly got 1/2 and 3/4 in most responses, however i figured out i had a good grasp of decision support systems when i was getting 20/20 in most sections), it also allows you to build exam technique which is the cornerstone of doing well in this subject. Throughout the year try doing the Davis, Excel and Powers activities and hand them into your teacher to get feedback on how good your response is and how it would do under real exam conditions, i also did this and it was extremely helpful. As MrInoeverthin mentioned "IPT is solely dependant on your understanding and how you can implement real life situations within a scenario" and activities/past papers let you learn how to do just that whilst allowing you to mentally re-enforce your content
As for how long i personally spend on study. In terms 4 and 1 i spent 2 hours a week on IPT at best (which i kind of regret in hindsight, i ended up not knowing much about the subject and consequently hating it). In term 2 i spent around 5-6 hours a week doing activities and making notes at home which sufficed, however i did dump around 100 hours in the period of 1.5 weeks into the subject when i had to do my hand in assessment task. Leading up to trials i was putting in around 20-25 hours a week (97 in CSSA Trials) and leading up to the HSC i was putting in around 20 hours per week.
Sorry if i rambled a little, i am quite tired haha.
Well first things first OP, if you have yet to read it i recommend that you check out a thread that i made around a month back containing some advice and tips that i derived from my experiences throughout the preliminary and HSC IPT courses, along with a brief study guide on the most essential stuff that you should cover throughout the course. That should help you more or less gain an understanding on how to approach the subject effectively
http://community.boredofstudies.org...information-processes-technology-student.html
In terms of studying for IPT, it largely depends on the individual to be honest. In my opinion IPT is a subject largely based around consistency, cramming will only get you so far. I recommend that you continually make notes on a regular basis and do weekly content reviews, constantly keeping the content fresh in your mind. You will find that after a while the knowledge just sticks with you and becomes more or less second nature and that really goes far when it comes to exam time. Study using the Davis Textbook and the Excel textbook. A large majority of students say that Davis is the worst textbook for the subject as it goes into things way too extensively. However his examples and activities are absolutely excellent and go a long way in allowing you to gain an in depth understanding of the content. Excel on the other-hand is great for both cramming and learning the content in a concise manner. As you may have also heard, making notes off Davis is quite hard, hence when making notes off the Davis textbook have the syllabus next to you and refer to both the "students learn about" and "students learn to" sections and highlight what is relevant. As seremify noted though, making notes is not completely essential provided that you have a good teacher and hence a good grip of the content which is taught (iirc my brother only had brief class notes and managed to score a 93 HSC mark in this subject)
While i personally wasn't too huge on notes (i did have a set of cram notes and some stuff from davis activities) i found that i constantly listened in every class and asked questions whenever i didn't know anything, i also related all of my IT content to real life situations, in my opinion doing this is absolutely invaluable and a great way to remember what is taught to you. (i.e. i remembered the information process of storing and retrieving simply by saving and loading in a video game, and expanded upon that concept in the exam room). After lessons i ensured that i could remember everything taught to me in the last 3 lessons with allowed the content to stick.
As seremify mentioned, doing activities and past papers for this subject is also extremely important and honestly the main way i learned my content in IPT. Leading up to the HSC i did pretty much every trial and HSC past paper available to me and got them marked by my teacher the next day, this allowed me to understand what i didn't know about the subject and get a grasp of the scope of knowledge needed to answer questions (i.e. i figured out that i didn't know enough about communication systems when i constantly got 1/2 and 3/4 in most responses, however i figured out i had a good grasp of decision support systems when i was getting 20/20 in most sections), it also allows you to build exam technique which is the cornerstone of doing well in this subject. Throughout the year try doing the Davis, Excel and Powers activities and hand them into your teacher to get feedback on how good your response is and how it would do under real exam conditions, i also did this and it was extremely helpful. As MrInoeverthin mentioned "IPT is solely dependant on your understanding and how you can implement real life situations within a scenario" and activities/past papers let you learn how to do just that whilst allowing you to mentally re-enforce your content
As for how long i personally spend on study. In terms 4 and 1 i spent 2 hours a week on IPT at best (which i kind of regret in hindsight, i ended up not knowing much about the subject and consequently hating it). In term 2 i spent around 5-6 hours a week doing activities and making notes at home which sufficed, however i did dump around 100 hours in the period of 1.5 weeks into the subject when i had to do my hand in assessment task. Leading up to trials i was putting in around 20-25 hours a week (97 in CSSA Trials) and leading up to the HSC i was putting in around 20 hours per week.
Sorry if i rambled a little, i am quite tired haha.
seremify007
Junior Member
Uber comprehensive there! I don't think I spent as long as you did on this subject - but I enjoyed IPT as it felt relaxing to study something where I cared about the content. The other thing with IPT was don't let other people particularly on BoS make you feel nervous about your performance or throw you off. It's a relatively smaller cohort compared to other subjects and you always seem to bump into people who got X mark or ranked X. I can say with confidence there is great disparity between schools. I also observed some people would brag how easy or basic the subject was and that threw me off a bit.