AS 92004 Annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars consist of student evidence, with commentary, to explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

Download all exemplars and commentary [PDF, 565 KB]

Level 1 Digital Technologies assessment resources (external link) - NCEA.education

For Achieved, the standard requires the student to create a computer program.

This involves using a suitable programming language to construct a program that performs a specified task. The program needs to store at least two types of data in variables, take input, produce output; use sequence, selection and iteration control structures; and use data stored in a collection. The program must be tested and debugged to ensure it works on expected cases, and documented with comments.

This student constructed a program in Python to quiz classmates on NRL. The program has data stored in integers and strings, and accepts input from users and outputs answers and scores. ‘If’ statements and ‘while’ loops meet the requirement for using control structures. The questions and answers are stored in arrays, showing the use of collections. Only one collection is required to meet the standard.

The testing and debugging table demonstrates that the program worked on expected cases. The notes column meets the requirement for debugging and shows the changes made by the student.

The program has been documented with comments throughout the code.
For Merit, the standard requires boundary cases to be tested and debugged, and commenting should clarify code sections. For example, the program could have messages added for high, medium, and low scores, and additional testing carried out to check boundaries for the score. Commenting in the program could be amalgamated and simplified to clarify the purpose of code sections.

For Merit, the student needs to create a well-structured computer program.

This involves using succinct and descriptive variable names, documenting the program with comments that clarify the purpose of code sections, and testing and debugging the program to ensure it works on expected and boundary cases.

This student has used succinct variable names that describe what the variable is used for. For example, questions is used to store the ‘array’ of questions. Comments have been written in the program at the top of code sections to describe their purpose.

Testing has been carried out on both expected and boundary cases. For example, boundary tests of 2, 3 and 4 have been tested for the score messages. Debugging is evident from the two versions of testing and the changes that were made.

For Excellence, the standard requires conditions and control structures to be used effectively. For example, the student could reduce the repeated code by using a loop or functions.

For Excellence, the student needs to create a flexible and robust computer program.

This involves using conditions and control structures effectively and using constants, variables, or derived values in place of literals to make the program flexible. Testing and debugging the program is required to ensure it works on expected, boundary, and invalid cases.

This student has used ‘methods’ to ensure the code is structured effectively and minimise repeated code. A ‘for’ loop is used to cycle through the questions, allowing additional questions to be easily added and meeting the requirement for flexibility.

Testing and debugging for invalid values can be seen in the testing table. For example, filling the entry fields with long strings of ‘b’ and changing the program when an error was found. ‘If’ statements are used to validate input to ensure invalid cases are handled correctly.