GCSE Computing Home Page
Unit A453 Index page
Programming Techniques
 Design
Development
2.3.4 Testing and evaluation  Testing and evaluation
 Unit A453: Programming project

3.4 Testing and Evaluation

Test their solution

  •  to show functionality
  •  to show how it matches the design criteria
  •  identify success and any limitations.

Candidates should be able to:

  1. use a suitable test plan and data to test the function of the system
  2. test the system against the success criteria
  3. provide good evidence of test procedures
  4. modify the system, if required, to meet success criteria where these are not met;
  5. evaluate the system against the success criteria to establish how successful, or otherwise, their implementation has been.

Testing and evaluation (0 - 9 marks) - Each task is equally weighted.

1-3 4-6 7-9
There will be evidence to show that the system has been tested for function but the test plan will be limited in scope with little structure.
 There will be a test plan covering many parts of the problem with some suggested test data.

There will be some evidence that the system has been tested using this data.		 The test plan will cover all major success criteria for the original problem with evidence to show how each of these criteria have been met, or if they have not been met, how the issue might be resolved.
There will be limited evidence to show how the result matches the original criteria.

 There will be some evidence to show how the results of testing have been compared to the original criteria.

There will be a brief discussion of how successful or otherwise the solutions are.
 There will be a full evaluation of the final solution against the success criteria.
There will be some comments on others’ and their own input into group work. They will have commented on their own and others’ contribution to any group work. They will provide an evaluation on theirs and others’ contribution to any group activities.
The evidence of written communication is limited with little or no use of specialist terms. The quality of written communication is good, using some specialist terms. A high level of written communication will be obvious throughout the task and specialist terms/technology with accurate use of spelling will have been used.
Errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar may be intrusive.
Information may be ambiguous or disorganised.		 There will be few errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation.

Information for the most part will be presented in a structured format.		 Grammar and punctuation will be used correctly and information will be presented in a coherent and structured format.

0 = no response or responses not worthy of credit.

Support:

The requirement to comment on others' and their own input to group work was missing from the specimen mark scheme and students could easily miss it out.

It is vital that pupils evaluate their work against the success criteria they identified at the design stage. General comments on how well they fee they did at each task will not gain many marks.

It is also important that they refer to the results of their testing when evaluating how successful they were at meeting each aspect of the success criteria.

The testing should relate to the success criteria, including testing of validation were relevant with normal, extreme and erroneous data.