SDD HSC Written Answer Structure Guideline

The following document aims to provide a guide to how to answer HSC questions based on the number of marks allocated to the question, and the verb/s used in the question. This is based on HSC marking criteria as well as Mr. Cox’s IPT & SDD HSC Trial marking guidelines.

This was written by Ben and isn’t any sort of guarantee (but I did get B6 🤷). The example Qs are based on IPT Qs but everything is applicable to SDD.

1 Mark:

The HSC has generally not featured a single 1-mark question. This trend indicates a lack of 1-mark questions; however, the writers have been known to throw curveballs.

The only verb to go with a one mark question is identify. NESA defines identify as “Recognize and name”.

Identify requires the student to simply name the answer, no explanation, justification or evidence is required to gain full marks.

Examples of an identify question include:

• “Identify an appropriate implementation method for the new system”

• “Identify an uncompressed file type for audio”

The answers for these questions could be:

• Direct

• WAV

It should be noted that because the markers cannot mark you on any sort of justification, you should pick the safest/most correct answer. You cannot appeal your HSC mark.

2 Mark:

Increasingly uncommon but present across the past 5 years.

Verbs that have been used in a 2-mark question:

• Outline: Sketch in general terms; indicate the main features of

• Explain: Relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident; provide why and/or how

• Describe: Provide characteristics and features

Additionally, 2 markers commonly use words such as “how” and “why” for questions, often as part of multiple part questions.

Outline/Describe:

These verbs are quite similar and should be treated as such. Both require the student to show their general understanding of a concept. To answer an outline/describe question, students should first define their answer to the question, and then give characteristics and features. If a question asks you to outline a concept in the context of a scenario/system, you should address the scenario in your answer.

The question “Outline how cyclic redundancy check (CRC) can be used in this system.” This question would require you to first define CRC, and then give characteristics that would be utilised in the new system.

The HSC sample answer to this question was: “CRC is a method of detecting errors when data is being sent or received, for example, when a driver downloads their licence to their device. If an error is detected, a request can be made for the driver’s licence to be downloaded again”

The first sentence both defines CRC (in a very basic way), and then gives an example which illustrates how CRC would be used in the system. The second sentence also gives a characteristic, and links that to the scenario. This is a surface level answer but would give you full marks. For a more assured and higher-level response, you should further define CRC, including linking to checksum, and including the idea of comparing remainders.

An comprehensive answer to a outline/describe question would take approximately 5-6 lines

Explain:

As illustrated in the NESA definition, explain is simply cause an effect. An explain question can actually be as many as 6 marks. For a 2-marker, you would expect to write 5-6 lines. In an explain, you should:

• Define the concept/issue

• Answer the question - effect

• Demonstrate why – cause (ensure to link to the answer)

The 2019 question “Explain why a user of the new system can also be considered a participant in the system” was 2 marks. The sample answer was:

Drivers are users of the new system. They can also be considered participants of the system because they carry out information processes such as retrieving and updating of licence details in the new system.”

Like all example HSC answers, this is a weak response, but would earn full marks. A higher-level answer would justify their answer with more cause and effect, e.g. Drivers also perform the information process of ___ by ___. Additionally, the better response would further define the difference between user and participant.

Why and How:

Why and How questions are fairly self-explanatory. Simply answer the question, defining the concept at hand.

An example of a Why question is “Why is the integrity of the source data important in developing a multimedia product?”

The sample answer to this was “Integrity is important in source data as it is important to acknowledge the source of media and ensure the information provided is reliable and valid.” Again, better defining the concept is important to ensure full marks.

3 Marks:

3 Markers utilise the same verbs as 2 markers. Generally, adding 3-4 lines to your answer, including going more in depth in definitions, as well as characteristics and features will net you the extra mark.

The primary verb that is utilised to 3 markers that haven’t been encountered yet are compare/contrast questions. You will only ever see one of these in a 3-mark question, i.e. the question will not ask you to both compare and contrast. Sometimes the verb used is distinguish, which is the same as contrast.

Compare questions are asking you to identify the similarities between two concepts. When the question is worth more than 3 marks, using the word compare it means it is asking for both similarities and differences. Compare questions are best answered by:

• Defining both concepts

• Providing characteristics of the concepts that are the same/similar

Distinguish is asking you to find the differences. This is often asked about similar, or often confused concepts. The structure in answering these questions is different to comparing

• Define the first concept. Give general characteristics

• Define the second concept, give different general characteristics.

The concepts will rarely be similar in nature, beyond their names, or category (e.g. OLAP vs OLTP)

When the question is 4 marks or more, you can safely combine these structures when answering similar questions.

Example: Distinguish between OLAP (Online Analytical Processing) and OLTP (Online Transaction Processing).

Answer: OLAP is mainly used for business reporting and data analysis, including budgeting, planning, simulation, data warehouse reporting and trend analysis, giving definite answers to queries. OLAP can only be used with a database that has been set up using correct structures. As a result of having only one data structure to query, it is faster to search. OLAP allows data to be atomised and summarised, but can only answer generic, unstructured questions. OLTP is typically used for order entry, financial transactions and retail sales. OLTP is characterised by a large number of short transactions. It typically automates daily operational functions and can run real-time reports and analysis; processes that are critical to any business. OLTP has the ability to ensure that two users cannot change the same data at the same time.

This is a good quality answer.

The other new verb found in 3 markers is Justify. This is pretty straight forward, giving answer to the question asked, and then explaining/justifying why you chose that answer. Justify is a common verb found in bigger questions, and as such can be expanded on easily.

• Answer the question

• Define your answer

• Justify, e.g. give reasons why

You can generally give (number of marks – 1) many reasons in your answer. Your reasons should be 2-3 sentences long. If you are struggling to find reasons to use, especially in 5-6 mark questions, you can often justify not using a certain method/concept as part of your justification for a concept/method.

Written 3 mark answers should be up to 12 lines long, but generally 10 is sufficient.

At 3 marks you will also see drawing/diagrammatic/SQL questions. Answering these is pretty straight forward. Ensure your answers are clearly labelled.

4 Marks:

4 markers contain widely the same verbs as 2 & 3 markers. You should aim for 15 lines for a 4 mark question.

The new verb in 4 mark questions is discuss. NESA defines discuss as “Identify issues and provide points for and/or against”. Discuss questions will almost certainly contain a scenario, and will often ask you to determine if a certain concept should be utilised in a system or not.

Structure:

• Define the concept/s

• Relate the concept to the scenario

• Reasons for and against

For a discuss question, the markers are looking for you to give pros and cons, so while you can give a final judgement, you should provide positives and negatives, and not argue for a single side. This can be done by providing social and ethical issues, or using feasibility, often economic and technical.

As the marks increase, the reasons should increase in number. A good guide for the amount of positives and negatives to include is (marks/2 for both pros and cons). Try to give a balanced amount of pros and cons. A good guide is no more than 1 extra.

Example: A medical center maintains records of its patients electronically. After each patient visit, the doctor updates the patient’s record.

Discuss the use of the grandfather, father, son back-up procedure in this medical center.

Answer:

The grandfather, father, son (GFS) rotation enables the medical center to undertake a daily, weekly and monthly backup of their data. This type of backup provides security for the medical center. Should the data be compromised then there are three versions of the backup that can be used. The recovery of the data can be restored back to any day in the last week, any week in the month or any month in the year.

The GFS backup can use a combination of full and differential backup as father and son and a full backup as the grandfather. This means the medical center can keep the long-term backups (grandfather) to be stored in an off-site storage facility and in the case of a disaster, there is a full backup of the data available.

The medical center would need to purchase large numbers of tapes for each of the GFS rotations, which can become costly. The GFS backup means the medical center would need to schedule the backup each day and weekly, as this type of backup does not permit continuous backup to take place.

It is obvious that the second and third paragraphs are pros and cons respectively. This is a good way to structure it, as it is clear to the marker what you have answered.

Something else you should consider as we move to an increased number of marks, is that including a diagram in your answer is never a bad idea. It illustrates an increased understanding of a concept and may ensure the marker givers you full.

5-6 Marks:

These are basically the same. 20 to 25 lines is appropriate. Don’t get caught up writing an essay (Wil), there are still 94 other marks in the exam, and often 2-3 of these bigger mark questions in the exam, and they are especially common in Section 3.

You will continue to see the same verbs as before, including explain, discuss, justify, draw/create, and distinguish. Just remember to expand on your answer, giving as many reasons as you can, and not being afraid to go in depth into one reason. Keep using the guides above, however you may find writing 5-6 reasons for a justify question difficult, so feel free to write a whole paragraph about a single reason.

General Comments:

It can be useful to scaffold questions in the exam, but don’t do this for every question, it can be time consuming and wasteful. Don’t do the written questions first, and the multiple choice last, as sometimes the answers to questions, or even just little reminders about concepts are in the multiple choice.

When asked to describe different types of concepts in a genre, ensure you give the same number of concepts as are in the question. I am unsure about the HSC’s opinion on this, but Mr. Cox was very adamant about this. You may feel compelled to do 3 in depth responses rather than 5 shorter ones, but imagine if the question was asking you to describe 1 concept: you wouldn’t go that in depth. Each concept is worth a single mark, so you only need to briefly define and explain.

You should always assume the marker knows nothing. If the question is worth >1 mark, always define what you are writing about. This includes in bigger broader questions. For example, if you are asked about storing and retrieval methods in a TPS that can be used for backup and recovery, define storing, retrieving, backup and recovery, and what they mean in the concept of a TPS.

This is 2100 words what am I doing with my life.

<3 Ben