Exemplar material

GCSE Computing Assessment Exercise

Task 3 System password. 15 marks

1. Create a system to accept and test a password for certain characteristics.
   • It should be at least 6, and no more than 12 characters long.
   • A message to indicate that the password is acceptable must be displayed.
   • The system must indicate that the password has failed and why, asking the user to re enter their choice until a successful password is entered.
   • The user must be able to change passwords and add new passwords if they are longer than 12 characters or less than 6 characters than this should be rejected.
2. Password strength can be assessed against simple criteria to assess its suitability; for example a password system using only upper and lower case alphabetical characters and numeric characters could assess the password strength as:
   •  WEAK if only one type used, e.g. all lower case or all numeric
   • MEDIUM if two types are used
   • STRONG if all three types are used.
   • For example:
     • hilltop, 123471324, HAHGFD are all WEAK
     • catman3 and 123456t are MEDIUM
     • RTH34gd is STRONG
   • A message to indicate the password strength should be displayed after an acceptable password is chosen.

Exemplar files for this exercise: 

• passwordcheckerv3.xls (43KB)
• passwordcheckerv3_1.xls (31KB)
• A453_Exemplar_Password_Program_using_VBA.ppt (4.5MB)