Exam rules & strategy

What the paper looks like

Question	Topic	File(s)	Marks	Suggested minutes
1	Word processing	1_TownshipHubs.docx	20	24
2	Word processing	2_YouthPitch.docx (+ 2_LogoHub.png)	20	24
3	Spreadsheet	3_Incubator.xlsx	20	24
4	Spreadsheet	4_Events.xlsx	20	24
5	Database	5_StartUps.accdb (+ 5_Badge.png)	37	44
6	Web design (HTML)	6_YouthInnovate.html, 6_Info.txt, 6_PressKit.docx, 6_banner.jpg, 6_hub.jpg → 6_YISALogo.png	17	20
7	General integration	7_Dashboard.xlsx, MailMerge_Letter.docx, MailMerge_Recipients.xlsx → MailMerge_LetterMERGED.docx	16	19
Total			150	183 (leave about 15 min to check)

Time rule of thumb: 3 hours for 150 marks is about 1.2 minutes per mark. Question 5 (Access) is the biggest block, so protect its time.

The paper is built so every question is self-contained: each one opens its own file(s) and is marked independently, which is exactly why you don't have to answer in order. If Question 5 (Access, the single biggest block at 37 marks) is going badly, moving on to Question 6 costs you nothing — there's no dependency that requires 5 to be finished first. The "1.2 minutes per mark" figure is a budgeting tool, not a strict rule: it tells you roughly how long a question should take relative to its marks, so you can notice early if you're badly over time on a question worth comparatively few marks, and decide to bank the marks you can get and move on rather than losing time you can't recover elsewhere.

The 19 instructions, in plain language

• Header details (1, 2): put your examination number in the header of every document you create or save. Questions 1 and 2 also say to insert your Name and Surname in the header as the very first action. Do this first, because it is easy marks and easy to forget.
• Files (3, 4, 6): data is pre-loaded. Spare master copies are available from the invigilator if a file corrupts. Save with the exact file name given. Save often because of load-shedding.
• Scope (5, 7): seven questions, answer all. Read each question before acting and do not do more than is asked. Extra changes can lose marks.
• Hand-in (8, 9): hand in the flash disk with all answer files, or confirm they are saved on the network. The information sheet is completed after the 3 hours.
• Annexures (10, 11): an HTML tag sheet and an input mask character list are at the back. You may use program Help, but no other resources.
• Carry-on rule (12): if a later question depends on an answer you could not get, carry on anyway.
• Spreadsheets (13): use formulas or functions for every calculation unless told otherwise. Use absolute references only where needed so formulas copy correctly.
• Settings (14): regional settings = South Africa (currency R, comma decimal separator, space thousands separator, date yyyy/mm/dd). Paper is A4 portrait unless stated.
• Marking (15, 18): usually one mark per action, so a 3-mark question needs about three separate actions. Accuracy counts.
• Screenshots (16, 17): borders drawn around screenshots in the paper are for clarity only, so do not add borders unless asked. Highlighted text in the paper is the text you must change.
• Files table (19): check you have all files before starting.

Mark-hunting habit: for every sub-question, count the marks, list the actions in your head (one action = one mark), and make sure each is visibly done. For example 2.4 is 6 marks: insert, border weight, solid line, height, width, wrapping.

A few of these rules are worth understanding, not just remembering, because they explain why so many sub-questions across the whole paper are built the way they are:

Header details earns marks independently of everything else you do in a document, and is the easiest to forget precisely because it's a one-time setup step rather than part of the visible content you're editing — doing it as literally the first action in every new file, before anything else, turns it from "something I might remember eventually" into "something I always do by habit."

The carry-on rule exists because the paper is deliberately built with some later steps that use an earlier answer (a lookup table built in 3.6 feeding into a later formula, for example). If an earlier step genuinely didn't work, abandoning every later step that depends on it would cost far more marks than the one step you're stuck on — a reasonable, clearly-labelled attempt at the later step (even referencing the "wrong" earlier result) can still earn marks for the method, which markers check independently of whether the final number happens to be correct.

Regional settings aren't just trivia — they directly explain several things covered elsewhere in these notes: why a list separator in Data Validation might need to be a semicolon instead of a comma, why an Access input mask needs \- to force a literal dash rather than relying on the default separator, and why currency is formatted "R1 234,56" (comma as the decimal separator, space as the thousands separator) rather than the "$1,234.56" style common in US software defaults.

"One mark per action" is the single most useful fact on this whole page, because it turns an opaque mark allocation into a checklist: a sub-question worth 6 marks is really asking for six distinct, separately-identifiable actions — as the 2.4 example shows (insert the picture, set border weight, set the line style, set the height, set the width, set the text wrapping), each one independently checkable. Reading the marks before starting a sub-question, and mentally listing that many actions before you touch the mouse, is the fastest way to notice you've missed one of them while there's still time to go back.

Information sheet

At the end, complete: centre number, name and surname, workstation number, the Office suite used, the folder name, and tick each file you saved. Hand it in with the paper.

This sheet exists as a manual cross-check between what you believe you saved and what the marker will actually find on the disk or network folder — ticking a file you didn't actually save, or saving under the wrong name, is a mismatch the information sheet makes visible before marking even begins, which is exactly why it's completed after the three hours rather than as you go: it's a final audit of the finished work, not a running to-do list.