SDD notes to upload (1 Viewer)

[Minai]

Hey Admin ppls, I got SDD notes from last yr if u guys wanna put it up on your resources section, they are basically chapter summaries based on Heinemann and Excel in point format (defines and explains the main/key ideas)
who do i email them to?

 

[fatmuscle]

me!

email

MinAi_sdd@fatmuscle.cjb.net

 

[Minai]

alrighty

 

[LiL_FiLo]

hey, can i get those notes aswell plz?, thx

 

[tactic]

lil filo they will beon the site.. there is no point in sending them to you

 

[Minai]

fatmuscle's are a great set
u should grab those, filo dude

 

[LiL_FiLo]

thx braddah

 

[Big Willy]

I got SDD Notes aswell; Minai and I goto same school.

I thought we did alright in HSC (i did one year advance).
I got 75 for the HSC, which was what i aimed for, so i'm happy with that

 

[Minai]

but when u think about it, we could've done a lot better

 

[Big Willy]

Yeah i know, i was going alright throughout year but shitted the trials.

I was really suprised when i got the marks back - other people got 76 for the examination mark aswell. I dont know how ppl managed to get into the high 80's with the SDD test;
It was full of bullshit which we never covered in SDD; not so much that, but we never got thoes type of questions - i guess it caught us by suprised

 

[Morgues]

if your talking about the sdd test then no one got anywhere near high 80s in terms of %

my teacher was a senior marker and he said only around 60 people in the state passed and only 7 got above 60% raw marks

 

[Lazarus]

Only 7 got above 60% as a raw mark?

Crikey. I think only 7 were above 90 when the marks were aligned... perhaps 60 was the raw band 5/6 cutoff mark.

 

[Morgues]

Think it was 9 actually that got above 60% so yes most probably thats what determined it
He said it was mainly due to a combination of the test being hard as well as candidates not answering the easy ones properly (i.e not relating back to scenarios)

It was similar in IPT with the highest raw marks being fairly low so it is a surprise that both IPT/SDD don't get scaled that well

 

[Lazarus]

Hmm well the marks for any particular course really only have a minimal effect on the scaling for that course.

The algorithms that calculate the 'loading' factor take into account the standardised marks gained by the students in that course on all of their courses.

I guess, last year, IPT/SDD students tended not to perform quite so well in their other courses. I can understand that being the case for IPT, but I was led to believe SDD was one of the 'higher calibre' courses. And, well, although it was above average, it was beaten by biology and religion. Be interesting to see how it turns out this year.

 

[Morgues]

Ability of students is considered? Thats interesting
I really do think assesing the difficulty of a course on its own is a better way. From personal experience SDD is in no way easier then physics let alone the memory test in biology, as you said should be interesting how it gets scaled this year

How did the 3 unit computing courses go before the hsc change?
Similar scaling to SDD last year?

 

[Lazarus]

Yes - courses with high scaling had students who tended to perform well in all the courses they took, and vice versa for courses with low scaling.

I believe that, in the past (before 1986), courses were scaled according to how 'difficult' or 'easy' they were. The trouble is, such a process is completely subjective. Some courses are easier for some students whilst being harder for others. Although the current system isn't perfect, it doesn't have any subjective elements, which theoretically means fairness for all.

3u Computing Studies was scaled better than SDD in the past. It had scaled means of 29.5 and 29.2 for 2000 and 1999 respectively, whereas SDD had a scaled mean of 25.9 last year.

The syllabuses are almost identical, although I think 3u Computing Studies had a slightly greater emphasis on algorithms and programming.

I suppose I should also point out the difference in candidature now. There were 3379 students undertaking SDD last year, but 3u Computing Studies had only 1874 and 1782 students in 2000 and 1999.

Under the old HSC, only the crme de la crme were game enough to take on the 3u and 4u additional courses, and so logically those courses would have been scaled higher. Part of the new HSC reforms have been to encourage students to take on courses at the higher levels.

 

[Morgues]

Originally posted by Lazarus

The syllabuses are almost identical, although I think 3u Computing Studies had a slightly greater emphasis on algorithms and programming.

I suppose I should also point out the difference in candidature now. There were 3379 students undertaking SDD last year, but 3u Computing Studies had only 1874 and 1782 students in 2000 and 1999.

Well thats the problem right there. The course is virtually the same yet the candidature is different due to SDD being more accessible but students that would have happily done extension computing in the old hsc are getting scaled lower even though they are basically doing extension by doing SDD. No point complaining but.......sigh

 

[Lazarus]

Ahhh... I see your point.

There should be some kind of 'Computing Extension' course that is common to both IPT and SDD. Similar to what is currently done with the 'History Extension' courses.

Teachers et cetera still see SDD as being equivalent to the old 3u Computing Studies course, which is fine, but students don't, and so the 'less able' ones are more inclined to choose it. Hmmmm.

If you ever get the chance to suggest it to the Board, do so.

 

[SamD]

I agree with Lazarus, whose comments are right on the money. If only those students who would have done 3 unit had sat for SDD last year then one would expect SDD to have scaled similiarly to the old 3 unit course ie. a bit higher. In fact for these students it probably did.
It is wrong to just consider means and even standard deviations from the scaling committee as this just gives a view of the total candidature rather than individual students. Agriculture is an extreme example, the mean is low (22.5/50) yet there is a significant group of students whose marks scale really high (mainly from James Ruse and Hurlstone Ag I suspect). This is partly reflected in the large standard deviation (10.4/50) however the reality is that the graph is really bimodal, like a two humped camel.