BTEC IT Level 3 Unit 2 - Creating Systems to Manage Information - Advice
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So, you are beginning your controlled assessment. You have 10 hours to complete a task building a database. It all looks pretty terrifying, right.
Well, not so much.
Basically to get a Near Pass, you need 8 marks out of 66.
A Pass is 17 marks out of 66.
A distinction is 38 marks out of 66.
That's a very low pass mark. So in other words to get a distinction, you can LOSE 28 marks, and still come out on top.
What that means is that you don't have to get everything right. If some of the more difficult queries are out of your reach, don't worry - just make sure you score heavily elsewhere.
you will be assessed on the following:
Your ERD
Your table structure
Your forms and queries
Testing
Evaluation
lets look at each one in turn.....
Your ERD
this will be making sure you've got the right number of tables in your diagram
they will be linked by primary and foreign keys
you can bet that there will be at least one many to many relationship, which you'll have to break with a junction table
eg: an order can have many CD's
A CD can belong to many orders,
so you'll need a Junction table
Your table Structure
Are all your tables named correctly - e.g. tblPerson, tblCar
Does each table have a primary key, e.g. PersonID, PK_PersonID
Are your primary keys unique - i.e. autonumber?
Do all your column names make sense?
Do you have appropriate validation on each column as well as a validation text
e.g. for mandatory fields do you have IS NOT NULL as the rule, and "you must enter a value" as your text?
Have you set any appropriate input masks and lookup rules?
The more of these you do, they higher the mark you will get!!!
Your Forms and Queries
Are they titled appropriately e.g. FrmAddRcord, QryFindCustomerByAge
Have you got the correct selection criteria e.g.for dates after todayt>= Date()
Have you selected the correct tables in your query
Do you have the correct action buttons set Form operations for navigation and Record operations for Add/ Update/ Delete
Are the forms logically laid out for the user?
Don't kill yourself making your forms look pretty
Have you created a main menu screen?
You can do this in Database options OR you can do it in VBA
Testing
You will be given a test plan to follow
You will need to record the evidence in this
Each thing you test will need normal, error and extreme data
lets look at someone's Age
normal data would be 16, that makes sense
error data would be 16.4, or -16 - that's wrond
extreme data would be 999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999 , which is not possible and tests the limits of the database field.
so each test needs to be carried out THREE times.
It is OK if your database doesn't work properly.
If anything that's BRILLIANT.
It means that you have something to test, you can then recommend an improvement, and you can talk about this in your evaluation.
This will take you about TWO HOURS so plan accordingly.
Your test plan will follow the established pattern of every test plan on Planet Earth
what is the thing you are testing
what did you expect to happen
what actually happened
did it pass the test
what are you going to do to fix it?
Your Evaluation
this is where most students struggle, but if you follow some basic rules you will be fine. I can help you with this!
If you need any help with this, why not make a booking and see how I can help you? Skype tutorials mean I can help you where ever you live in the UK!
