HSC Software Design and Development Exam Thoughts (2 Viewers)

[Balajanovski]

Okay to all those you said it was harder than 2018 I just had a look at it.
MC:
1-15 free marks, nothing too special.
16: Did they really ask this? This exact question has been asked in a previous Hsc paper, I can't believe they just copied it.
17: Good question
18-20 felt a bit too easy for the 'final' MC questions
Overall MC was the same with 2018 in terms of difficulty. Nothing special

Section 2:
21-23(i) free marks
23(ii) I can't believe they actually asked about a System flowchart. I guess they wanted to throw people off who thought it's alright if you don't learn it.
That's the first time in over a decade..

The rest up to 27(c) is all free marks really. No algorithms so far! Which is interesting because 2018 started getting them MUCH earlier.
26(c) is really a useless question, I mean have them draw a structure chart but explain the symbols?

28) Another string algorithm like 2018 which is always fun. Pretty easy algorithm like 2018. They give you all the functions so it should literally be just a few lines.

29) Free marks. Too easy for the later part of the paper.

30) Now this is an interesting algorithm. Switching between two different types of arrays may have been a bit difficult for some. However really all your required was an O(n^2) algorithm, i.e. For/while loops nested inside one big for loop that loops through the first array. Overall probably a bit harder than the 2018 Q30 algorithm.

Section 2: Overall was an easier section than 2018. It had MUCH less algorithms and a lot of questions were giving away free marks. There weren't really questions designed to trick you as opposed to Q27 of 2018 which tricked a lot of people. Instead of drawing a Structure chart you were made to explain the symbols? Like come on.
Definitely Sec 2 felt longer but it was also easier than 2018.

Overall easier paper than 2018. On par with 2017.

Easiness is subjective. I personally find the algorithms sections easier as there are no grey areas for your answers. If its correct, its correct. The longer response questions are a bit more off putting as there are many different ways to approach them. Furthermore, even though I got that structure chart question, it was a bit off-putting how they wanted us to explain the symbols in our answer. Maybe it was the stress of exam conditions but it just felt like a strange test.

 

[Drdusk]

Easiness is subjective. I personally find the algorithms sections easier as there are no grey areas for your answers. If its correct, its correct. The longer response questions are a bit more off putting as there are many different ways to approach them. Furthermore, even though I got that structure chart question, it was a bit off-putting how they wanted us to explain the symbols in our answer. Maybe it was the stress of exam conditions but it just felt like a strange test.

I have no idea how you can find long responses hard. There is nothing to long responses. All you have to do is memorize and regurgitate the Sam D textbook. That is literally what I did lol and it gave me a good mark as well.

Most students will find algorithms the hard bit but I have yet to meet anyone irl who says the long responses are hard when all you gotta do is memorize Sam D.

Definitely was easier than 2018, I would've definitely gotten a higher Raw mark if I had this years paper as would a lot of other people

One thing MC has gotten much easier in the last few years. 2018 mc was a joke as was 2019. Back a few years the final mc were always some interesting questions that were actually decently hard.