Applied ICT A Level Unit 10 - Advanced Spreadsheets
Section A & I - Timeplans:
There are 4 marks for timeplans - two in row A and two in row I.
You need to produce a detailed timeplan which:
- breaks key tasks in subtasks
- allocates time to each task
- allocates expected dates to start and complete each task
- includes both the investigation time and the 20 hours of controlled conditions
Timeplans are a fact of life in ICT courses I'm afraid. They're designed to make sure that you've developed some of the longer term planning skills that you'd need in the ICT industry (or, for that matter, any industry involving long or complex tasks). They're good skills - promise.
More importantly, they're easy marks to grab, so don't lose any of them!
Timeplan Layout:
I suggest a simple tabular layout along these lines:
| Task/Sub Task | Estimated Time | Start Date | Estimated date of completion | Actual time take | Actual date of completion | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Investigation Time | ||||||
| Planning | ||||||
| Read exam paper | 30 minutes | Nov 1 | Nov 1 | - | - | - |
| Create timeplan | 1 hour | Nov 1 | Nov 1 | - | - | - |
| Create Ongoing Timeplan | 5 minutes | Nov 1 | Nov 1 | - | - | - |
Obviously this would work best A4 landscape...
Note: your timeplan should start on November 1st - or whatever date the exam paper actually becomes available. Just because you might have started work on some of the principles for the unit a bit earlier doesn't matter - you can't officially start work on the portfolio until then!
Initial and Ongoing Plans:
Once you have an initial plan, a copy of it needs to kept. You then need to update a new copy as an ongoing timeplan to show the dates you actually completed each task.
The comments column needs to specifically deal with tasks taking more or less time or tasks which weren't completed on the set dates - this is the 2nd mark in row i of the markgrid. Comments need to be more detailed than just "completed on time" or "this took longer than I expected" if you want that second mark.
You can do this by typing during the investigation time, but you need to then print the ongoing plan and update it by hand at the end of each controlled conditions session.
Note: the chances are that time planning may be a strength, weakness and/or area for improvement that you can relate to the evaluation of your own performance (that's row J of the markgrid). It may also be necessary, to get the second mark in row I, to write an evaluation of your used of time. This could reference your other evaluation work rather than needing to repeat it.
The Markgrid:
You should probably look at That Blue Square Blog for all the really good other A Level stuff.