Nat 5 2016 computing science article

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Interesting The Herald Teachers attack 'disgraceful' computing science exam that was 'riddled with errors'

I mentioned this to ds (who sat the Nat 5 CS exam) and his response was, "Meh" - but there again, his attitude towards Computing Science (the subject) in general was "Meh" even though he is going to teach himself Java with the help of his friends over the summer

He deliberately didn't talk to any of his friends (some of whom are talented programmers) or me after the exam on the basis that it would make no difference and anyway, he's not continuing it to Higher.

There was certainly none of the "noise" straight after the exam like there was after the Maths exam (which is still riling him - not because he thought it was difficult but he is adamant that it was all in the curriculum).

Strange most of my friends children who sat it said it was ok.

DS didn't seem fussed either way but his friend (who is very into computing and programming etc) did say that there was a 2 mark question that was unanswerable by anything that was worth 2 points.

The first that ds' school knew about this "controversy" was today's articles

DS1 started 5th year today and is taking higher CS but he hasn't mentioned anything - but then he wouldn't! Apart from having to contravene the uniform rules and wear his (bright blue) trainers to school since he has massive blisters on his feet and couldn't get any shoes on, the only talk of school has been him showing me his timetable - looked boring as hell to me :o

Got a little bit of feedback from ds today about his new timetable - only because I had to pick him up and take him to a 3D imaging appointment (he's been part of a longitudinal study since he was 3 months old, imaging their faces to help understand facial growth) so he was trapped in the car with me and had to talk

He's in the Maths class he wants to be, which was his main concern, has a new Chemistry teacher which he's a bit about as he liked his old one (but she has said he's welcome to go back to her at any time if he's struggling with anything/needs additional explanation), new Physics teacher which he's ok about, the Geography teacher he expected and doesn't know who he's getting for English. He's supposed to find out tomorrow but he's away doing a Glasgow School's Adventure Race all day - apparently the very intense teacher he's had since S1 is apparently not taking any Higher classes this year.

No complaints from his Computing Science friends (who are taking it on to Higher) about the Nat 5 - I asked specifically. He said they did have concerns about bits of the SQA curriculum and some inconsistencies in marking (eg when the right answer can be as simple as "mouse" yet the answer to "what device do you use to display information to a large number of people?" is not "projector" wrong but "data projector" ) but not the exam itself.

He has a double period every afternoon but it has lunch in the middle . They do an Asymmetric day and and Asymmetric week.

"what device do you use to display information to a large number of people?"

I would have gone with large TV screen, or projector, or text message, but then I've only got 40 years in the industry

Projector which is what they all answered would have got you zero marks. You had to answer "data projector"

(I'm reporting it 2nd hand from his Prelim in December so I may have got the exact wording of the question wrong but not the ridiculous marking schedule )