How to pass ICAN Information Technology
ATSWA Part II level. The syllabus has 6 areas and they are not worth the same — 52% of the marks sit in just three of them. Knowing which three changes what you do tonight.
Start here, in this order
- 1
Systems development, security and issues in management of information 18% of the paper
Approaches to systems development · Legal, ethical, governance, health and environmental issues in computing · Disruptive technologies · Stages of systems development · Computer security · Cybercrime and computer viruses · Data privacy and data protection principles · Computer forensics · Computer system disaster recovery · Big data, data analytics and visualisation · Cloud computing
- 2
Information processing 17% of the paper
Information processing techniques · Computer services: user departments, information centres and bureaux · Information systems: MIS, DSS, ESS, TPS, OIS, KMS and expert systems · Public sector systems: GIFMIS, IPPIS, UTAS, ATRRS and the Open Treasury Portal · E-commerce models and electronic payment systems · Business and government revenue models
- 3
Hardware fundamentals 17% of the paper
Basic components of a computer system · Input and output devices · Storage media and their uses · The central processing unit · Input, output and storage controls
The remaining 3 areas share 48% between them. Worth knowing. Not worth the weeks that the three above deserve. Full weightings for this paper.
Then drill for speed
Information Technology is examined by objective questions answered on screen, so recall speed matters more than written argument. Drill until recognition is immediate, then work on the areas above where hesitation costs you time.
The part nobody does
Almost every candidate writes practice answers. Almost none of them ever find out whether those answers would have scored. You write, you feel it went reasonably, you move on — and the first real feedback you receive is the result, months later, when the diet is gone.
That gap is the whole reason preparation fails for people who worked hard. Not knowledge. Feedback.
What Edentos does about it
- The whole study text, in the order the marks are in.
- The official study text condensed and reorganised by examinable weighting, with every claim cited back to the page it came from — so you can check anything you doubt in one click.
- Find out now. Not when the results come out.
- Write by hand, photograph it, and have it marked against the examiner's own marking guide — with the marks broken down the way the examiner breaks them down, and the reason for each one.
- Revise where the marks are, not where the pages are.
- Every syllabus topic, ordered by the share of marks it carries, so your revision time follows the marks instead of the page count.
- A right answer with no workings is a wrong mark.
- The Institute's published solution beside your attempt, with the mark allocation visible — so you can see the marks sitting in the principle and the application, not only the final figure.