Information Processes and Technology 2016 HSC exam pack (archive)
2016 Information Processes and Technology HSC exam paper
Marking guidelines
Marking guidelines are developed with the exam paper and are used by markers to guide their marking of a student's response. The table shows the criteria with each mark or mark range.
Sample answers may also be developed and included in the guidelines to make sure questions assess a student's knowledge and skills, and guide the Supervisor of Marking on the expected nature and scope of a student's response. They are not intended to be exemplary or even complete answers or responses.
Marking feedback
Select from the sections below to view feedback from HSC markers about how students performed in this year’s exam.
Use the feedback to guide preparation for future exams. Feedback includes an overview of the qualities of better responses. Feedback may not be provided for every question.
Feedback on written exam
Question 21
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- identifying both hardware and software (part a)
- making reference to the scenario (part b)
- describing uses of VoIP and issues in relation to the given context (part c)
- providing valid examples to support responses (part d).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- providing more than one reason a CMP would be required (part b)
- describing the features of VoIP - in either technical terms or operationally (part c)
- explaining the issues associated with a globally dispersed team, in particular showing cause and effect relationships of factors that impact effective management of a project team (part d).
Question 22
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- identifying potential risks associated with modifying a website (part a)
- identifying a characteristic of agile development (part b)
- naming volume, simulated or live as a type of test data (part c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- providing more than just a feature of why agile development is appropriate for scenarios related to website modifications (part b)
- understanding the terminology ’test data’ and not confusing it with implementation methods (part c)
- distinguishing between the three types of test data (part c)
- understanding why certain types of test data best suit specific situations (part c)
- understanding the difference between the terms outline, explain and justify.
Question 23
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- illustrating a logical path that shows relevant conditions and actions (part a)
- understanding that decision trees require branches to progress to the next condition (part a)
- organising data in a diagram (part b)
- identifying the four components used in SQL syntax (part c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- proving a diagrammatic representation of a decision tree that shows all conditions and possible action (part a)
- demonstrating a logical understanding of conditions and actions in a simple diagram (part b)
- distinguishing between a primary key and a foreign key (part b)
- identifying relevant relationships between key fields (part b)
- normalising data in a table (part b)
- demonstrating knowledge of relational and logical operators to building accurate SQL criteria statements (part c)
- identifying relevant fields when displaying data (part c).
Question 24
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- identifying a feature of a server's operation (part a)
- identifying transmission media, for example, satellite media (part b)
- demonstrating an understanding of analysing and processing (part c).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- understanding the term client (part a)
- understanding the terminology ’client-server architecture‘, the hardware and processes involved (part a)
- understanding the term media (part b)
- analysing the system in terms of the processes (part c).
Question 25
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- explaining why data validation is important in a TPS and indicating the consequences of it not being present (part a)
- giving an example of an RFID tag (part b)
- designing appropriate data entry screens (part e ii).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- demonstrating a clear understanding of real-time and batch processing in relation to the scenario (part c)
- explaining backup procedures that could recover data and relating these back to the scenario (part d)
- describing the data needed to be collected by the virtual shopping app in relation to the scenario (part e i).
Question 26
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- clearly explaining how data mining can be used in a specified situation (part ei)
- outlining how charts can be used in decision making (part c)
- identifying issues related to the decision support system (part eii).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- explaining how management information systems support decision-making (part a)
- differentiating between relative and absolute referencing and providing relevant examples of each (part b)
- describing different types of charts relevant to decision-making (part c)
- explaining the roles of the knowledge base and the inference engine in the development of an expert system (part d)
- distinguishing between participants and users in a specified situation (part e ii)
- reading the question carefully to determine what is required.
Question 27
Candidates showed strength in:
- understanding how CAD/CAM is used in an automated manufacturing system (part a)
- explaining the difference between batch and discrete processing and providing reasons (relating cause and effect) why the production of mobile phone cases were a combination of batch and discrete processing (part c)
- explaining how sensors and actuators are used in a parcel delivery robot (part e ii).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- understanding the features of a human-centred system and showing the relationship between automated mail sorting and a human-centred system (part b)
- understanding the correct symbols that are used in drawing a block diagram and linking a block diagram to the scenario (part e i)
- representing the interaction of the information technology within the parcel delivery robot to a block diagram (part e i).
Question 28
Candidates showed strength in these areas:
- understanding storyboards and providing appropriate reasons for their use
- identifying elements including navigation paths, organisational structure and media types (part a)
- outlining morphing and providing examples
- describing leisure and entertainment multimedia in an educational setting
- outlining and giving examples of multimedia applications in education, citing interactivity and engagement as significant factors (part c)
- identifying less significant skills, including soft skills and technical skills (part e i).
Candidates need to improve in these areas:
- understanding distorting differentiating between morphing and distorting (part b)
- identifying essential skills developers need to produce the design and layout for the virtual care clinic kiosk (part e i).
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