Applied ICT A Level Unit 1 - ICT and Society
Section A & N - Timeplans:
There are 3 marks for timeplans in the combined rows A and N.
You'll need two timeplans - and initial one and an ongoing one. The plans need to be detailed and show all the key tasks you need to do and:
- allocates time to each task
- allocates expected dates to start and complete each task
- includes both the investigation time and the 15 hours of controlled conditions
The ongoing plan then needs to show:
- the time you actually spent doing each job
- the date you actually finished each job
- comments which show that you used the plan to monitor your progress - in particular, dealing with reasons why deadlines were missed or tasks took longer (or less time!) than planned
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.
Take two plans into the exam?
Don't forget - you need two plans. An initial one and an ongoing one.
This example shows that the first four columns need to be filled in on the initial plan. The last three columns then get filled in on the ongoing version - these can be typed for the investigation time tasks and will need to be handwritten for the exam time tasks.
Thanks to April for sharing her timeplan as an example!
The Markgrid:
Read this. Read it really well. It's important to get used to how markgrids work. Can you see how it progresses from a basic timeplan for 1 mark, through a more detailed plan with times and dates for both planned and actual events for 2 marks?
And then how for 3 you need to have comments which show you used it to monitor your progress - and that those comments have to offer reasons for differences in times/dates? This is the main reason people don't get 3 marks in this section.
