ICT exams

[madasahatter]

Interesting little articlearticle discusses the state of ICT exams being used in schools.

[Rik]

Very useful exam! 

[Inactive]

Very useful exam! 

Exactly.

[madasahatter]

Very useful exam! 

I'm sure there are many more exams that are just as useful 

[Rik]

Sadly, Mad, I'm sure you're right.

[Inactive]

I'm sure there are many more exams that are just as useful 

For those that are capable of reading the question/s in the first place.

[Rik]

Good point, In. Do you think we are putting people at a disadvantage by not having the papers available in Chav and TxtSpk?

[Inactive]

I gess so.

[john]

Perhaps I'm being overly pedantic here but I thought question 1 was not ambiguous, i.e. :

Tick one box to show a disadvantage of using a software package to help work out the budget rather than using a calculator, pen and paper.

The four options are:

1. The formulae could be wrong
2. The wrong prices could be input
3. A virus may corrupt the information
4. Multiple printouts could be produced

Answers 1 and 3 are both valid answers in our opinion, but the marking scheme insists that only answer 3 is valid.

But option 1 could apply to both methods whereas they were asking for a disadvantage of a software package rather than a calculator, pen and paper'.

[Rik]

OTOH, if you use a calculator, John, you could use that wrongly too...

[john]

I took it that the calculator, pen and paper together consisted of a single alternative method Rik, Option 3 was the only one that I could see applied to using a software package (unless someone is sad enough to produce calculators with a built in virus  )

[Rik]

There's another ambiguity in that is the spreadsheet supplied, or are you supposed to write it yourself?

[gizmo71]

Along similar lines, the muppets (a.k.a. management) here are updating the "skills matrix". We're supposed to rate ourselves on a set of technologies from 1 (complete beginner) to 5 (guru).

I started with:

Java   5 (unless anyone else has said 5, in which case I'm 6, and they're liars)

The technical project manager immediately wrote back with:

****** said a 5 for Java

I knew it was going to happen. I'm gagging for the person concerned to come ask me for some Java advice now...

[Danni]

Part of the reason I only got a B in GCSE ICT was because the long question at the end was about hackers, and I wrote a long essay explaining the difference between white hat hackers and black hat hackers, the different definitions of hacking (hacking programs to improve them as well as hacking into computers) and things like that.

Funnily enough, that wasn't the answer they were looking for, though I did answer the question.

[Rik]

I knew it was going to happen. I'm gagging for the person concerned to come ask me for some Java advice now...

Do keep us posted.

[Rik]

Funnily enough, that wasn't the answer they were looking for, though I did answer the question.

The trouble is, I suspect, that the marker only knew what the answer should have been, rather than anything about the subject.