[Richard Scott]

15/05/2014 at 11:58 am

I have been having a closer look at assessment Pack 2 – the portfolio approach and encountered, what I think is, an inconsistency.

On page 21 the task (or response) in exemplar 2 is described as fully covering outcome 2.1, including pre-defined functions as it uses round, pick random and join.

On p16 the task (or response) in exemplar 1is described as *not* fully covering outcome 2.1 as pre-defined functions are not evidenced; even although ‘join’ *is* evidenced and I would argue that ‘ask…and wait’ can also be regarded as a pre-defined function.

Am I missing something here?

[Peter Thoresen]

15/05/2014 at 12:30 pm

Hi Richard

From 2012 Higher Computing Marking Scheme, a function is “A (self-contained/discrete/named) module/unit/block/section of code (1 mark) which has a value/returns a single value to the calling program (1 mark)”

From 2011 Higher Computing Marking Scheme, “A function can only return a single value (1 mark). A procedure can return any number of values (1 mark). The value of a function can be assigned to a variable (1 mark) a procedure has no value (1 mark)”

You are correct, the join block is a function – it takes (two) parameters and returns a single value, and can be used in set-to blocks.

Likewise the “or” block, the “and” block”, the “<” block and the “>” block are all also functions.

I’m don’t think you can put an ask-and-wait block inside a set.-to block, so not strictly a function using above defintions – but it is debatable.

Peter

[Richard Scott]

15/05/2014 at 1:03 pm

Thanks Peter,

the ask block returns a single value which is automatically placed into the ‘answer’ variable. This ‘answer’ variable could subsequently be used within a ‘set’ block. Does the fact that it simply returns a single value not make it a function, irrespective of the fact that it automatically places the returned value into a pre-defined variable?

Whether we agree on this or not your response has also highlighted that there are other ‘pre-defined functions’ in the exemplar code on p15-16, namely, greater/less than,”and”,”or”. Should these logic and arithmetical predefined functions be accepted as ‘pre-defined functions’?