How to study sdd effectively? (1 Viewer)

[sig]

Hey guys just wondering...

how do you study SDD effectively for an exam. Knowing that SDD has a lot of theory work in it, is it wise to attempt to remember ALL of the terms used in all the areas of Software Developement?

Do you suggest going over the syllabus covering all the points and attempting to remember all the keywords and sdd jargon used?

I'm a bit confused on how to actually study for this subject...I feel just covering all points is still not quite enough tho since the questions can be really broad

Also any tips on how to get good with understanding algorithms and drawing diagrams? (context, data flow, flowcharts etc)

Thanks in advance

 

[Winston]

Some people can actually read the textbook and regurgitate defintions, but for me i walked in SDD expecting to make programs and that the teacher teach us, but it was sort of like that we played around with Pascal and VB, then that's it, i think for me, actual hands on work for programming had got me to understand every topic in SDD with ease, for example if you study a topic in SDD i think it's a section about programmer's tools they use during programming, which includes the use of Breakpoints, debugging, Tracing... etc all of these, you'd most likely do this if you program, thus all this hands on stuff, makes it easier to understand wtf what things mean in SDD.

 

[jason120au]

to an extent you are correct but the actual theory behind it is a bit hard to comprehend if you are just programming. For example data structure diagrams etc, you have to have a reference to be able to understand that, plus the morals and ethics chapter which I would have to say is deadly boring.

 

[Winston]

Originally posted by jason120au
to an extent you are correct but the actual theory behind it is a bit hard to comprehend if you are just programming. For example data structure diagrams etc, you have to have a reference to be able to understand that, plus the morals and ethics chapter which I would have to say is deadly boring.

Like i said it's different for everyone, but really knowing about parameters had helped me to understand about Structure Diagrams.

 

[randomdude1]

for me, i didnt properly study sd until JUST before the exams (thats why i got a crap trial mark) and ended up with 91 exam mark

wat i did was read the book thoroughly, made sure i could answer the questions in it (fowler book) and den went through all the past years hsc exmas + spec exam and a crapload of trials
this took me about 6 days

 

[Seraph]

hmmm well for SDD atm im really going through alot of the theory , yea i have been doing mainly multiple choice from trial papers

but i think i really should start attempting short answer questions esepcially involving writign algorithms.. soon..

 

[randomdude1]

yeah thats another thing
all thru school assessments i got screwed weneva algorithm questions came up
so yeah..be sure to study hard for algorithms coz they worth around 10 marks in the hsc exam

 

[jason120au]

We have been going over the 2002 exam and using the HSC standards package to look at what you needed to do to get full marks, but what I am concerned about is that we haven't been going through all the work in the classroom, we are expected to do that at home, and I don't think that is proper teaching and it does not help you to the same extend as if you were taught properly with the teacher writing notes on the board and explaining it fully.

 

[randomdude1]

jason
u'll learn that school is like that
i had to teach myself 4u maths and sdd (two very hard subjects to teach urself)

just study regularly and effectively and u'll be fine

 

[Lundy]

For me it was the algorithms that always killed me, so I made an effort to put extra focus on practicing them (practice questions are the best way of learning algorithms and diagram drawing. I know you hear this all the time but it's true). Also learning to put theory into scenarios, because the questions are often structured that way to prevent you from simply regurgitating definitions. Basically focus on your weak spots, and yeah, you never know what terms will pop up so try to have a well rounded knowledge of the whole syllabus.

 

[Li0n]

We have to teach our selves in sdd, our teacher doesn't answer our questions he just asks the programming nerds for their input and then tries to make it as if he already knew the answer so he just repeats what the nerd actually said.
Although thats mainly for algorithms though anything else is fairly easy to bullshit for in his case anyway...

 

[yc]

Originally posted by Li0n
We have to teach our selves in sdd, our teacher doesn't answer our questions he just asks the programming nerds for their input and then tries to make it as if he already knew the answer so he just repeats what the nerd actually said.
Although thats mainly for algorithms though anything else is fairly easy to bullshit for in his case anyway...

Hehe unlucky, hit with the no idea SDD teacher. Probably started when they couldn't find anyone to teach it like the other 3/4 of them. Lucky 1/2 are pretty cool people and made a fair effort to learn the course to hsc level (they can't write a line of C++ but they can still help you write an algo) so you have a very enjoyable time and manage to learn everything. 50-50 chance of striking gold

As for study techniques, for me it was simple, read the book well and proper, then do some questions, then do some hsc exam questions. All fell into place nicely. You could cover the course in 56hrs

 

[sig]

ok a bit of a dillema here when trying to summarise my notes...

I have 3 sources of information (2 textbooks and few booklets given to me)

The thing is when I try summarising syllabus dot points all 3 have generally been having VERY different perspectives to the problem, one would answer it one way, the others another approach. The points I guess are pretty ambigious so it leads to openess in response.

I have excel sdd and sam davis sdd and also booklets which are basically excel sdd rip off notes...

so when summarising should I summarise all points of perspective or decide on the better one I like and stick to that?

 

[Winston]

Originally posted by sig
ok a bit of a dillema here when trying to summarise my notes...

I have 3 sources of information (2 textbooks and few booklets given to me)

The thing is when I try summarising syllabus dot points all 3 have generally been having VERY different perspectives to the problem, one would answer it one way, the others another approach. The points I guess are pretty ambigious so it leads to openess in response.

I have excel sdd and sam davis sdd and also booklets which are basically excel sdd rip off notes...

so when summarising should I summarise all points of perspective or decide on the better one I like and stick to that?

I think Sam and the Excel textbooks was the best to be honest. Excel although made for cramming had very good succinct facts, Sam's one had thorough details for you to go in depth to further understanding of topics. Both are excellent, perhaps both of them have the same persp, but had it worded a little differently, could you possibly provide us with an example where both textbooks provide a total different persp towards a topic.

 

[sig]

well I've noticed this more in the Evolution of Programming Languages Section...

Mainly different views on the "Historical Reasons for the Development of the Different Paradigms"


A need for greater productivity - sam will go on saying that current generation languages (imperative etc.) are limiting the productivity and talking about more futuristic AI languages.


Excel will go through all the previous generations (machine, assembler) and go up to our current generation of languages and talk about how much productivity has increased over the previous generations.


there's then just a bit of others mainly with definitions and explanation of terms (heuristics, inference etc.)

 

[Winston]

They're two different points... Sam's doing a contrast between present and the need for an even more productivity in the future, where as the excel one is just saying that productivity has increased compared from present time to the past, the excel doesn't really say that present generations of languages are the best, it says its more productive over the past languages, so it leaves it a bit more opened that excel could also think that current generation languages are limiting productivity in terms of the future.

 

[sig]

ok fair enough


ok last question


HOW DO I GET GOOD @ ALGORITHMS?

I read that sticky for that algorithms help but I wouldn't mind more practice questions and if possible answers to it, i know there can be a lot of answers to 1 algorithm but do you guys know any resources that contain a chock full of algorithms for me to exercise on?

Also you guys prefer psuedocode over flowcharts right?

 

[Winston]

psuedocode is the best, flow charts are crap in terms of producing algorithms in an exam, but it does easily show the flow of control, coz its a graphical representation, but for exams, i'd advise you to do psuedocode.

For more practice of algorithsm, you have to practice to be good at mastering control structures, and following through it logically.

When you need to write an algorithm, first ask yourself, do you get what needs to be done, and also you list down all the variables your algorithm will have.

 

[sig]

Here's an annoying algorithm I have attempted but no idea on how correct it is:



Write an algorithm to calculate the cost of the tickets that the train traveller wants to buy

Part of the algorithm is to conduct a search of an array of records containing the single full fare and retur full fare for each destination. The search needs to extract fare information for the destination station selected by the train traveller.

The structure of the array of records is:

destination(index).station | destination(index).fullsingle | destination(index).fullreturn


use the variable names:

Userdest - to stand for the destination station selected by the train traveller
Single - to stand for the number of one way tickets the
traveller wishes to purchase
Return - to stand for the number of return tickets the traveller wishes to purchase
TotalFare - to stand for the total cost of all tickets
purchased

For this algorithm you may assume that there are 50 records in the array of records

no concession, child or student fares are available;


the variable single and return could be zero (if both
variable were zero then total fare would be zero)


Then it says write your algorithm...any ideas? I'm mostly stuck on the searching of the array

 

[Li0n]

" They're two different points... Sam's doing a contrast between present and the need for an even more productivity in the future, where as the excel one is just saying that productivity has increased compared from present time to the past, the excel doesn't really say that present generations of languages are the best, it says its more productive over the past languages, so it leaves it a bit more opened that excel could also think that current generation languages are limiting productivity in terms of the future. "
(i dont know how to do quotes but winston said that ^^)

Ok, well i just started doin my sdd notes, i got my half yearly exam on thursday so im pretty much screwd, but back to the point.

Sam's point seems to make more sense to me than whatever excel wrote.
But my question is which would be the 'correct' i.e band 6 response for a hsc question such as "Explain the desire to solve different types of problems", excel's one seems to make more use of bullshit jargon to which sam's one is just stating a fact.