L3 91908 Computer Graphics

Candidates’ knowledge and understanding of content, skills, and complexities must be at Level 8 of the New Zealand Curriculum. 

Candidates who had a comprehensive understanding of computer science, or had completed an authentic and appropriately levelled project, were able to apply their knowledge and achieve well. 

Candidates who lacked confidence with the material tended to either repeat their answers without adding information or were unable to provide a sufficient response. 

Candidates who were able to give clear explanations and make links to examples, or who referenced their project work thoroughly, achieved higher grades than those who wrote indiscriminately or without precision. 

Candidates who understood the content of their chosen topic, or who understood the intricacies of their decision-making processes, tended to write more succinct and relevant responses. Students who attempted to write as much as possible to answer a question often ended up demonstrating a lack of understanding or a lack of good decision-making in their workflows. 

Candidates were required to choose a question on one of three areas of computer science (formal languages, computer graphics, and computer vision). Resource materials were provided to support the questions. 

Candidates needed to understand the computer science components of the topic they intended to answer, and to be familiar with how to explain these computer science fundamentals. 

Candidates who appeared unfamiliar with the underlying computer science struggled to understand or answer the questions at the level required.   

Candidates that answered questions without specific reference to algorithms or techniques involved were unable to demonstrate understanding. Each question followed the same general format: 

• the initial part required candidates to accurately apply their understanding of the basic concepts of each topic, either by determining sequence outcomes or concisely explaining relevant concepts and then demonstrating how they determined their answer

• the later part required candidates to consider the impact of the concept on humans and perspectives around the concepts, using resource materials provided

• the final part asked candidates to answer in a more in-depth way and to provide justification or reasoning.  Teachers should refer to accurate guidance resources to support their candidates’ learning. For example, The Computer Science Field Guide is an online interactive resource for high school candidates learning about computer science. https://www.csfieldguide.org.nz/. 

Check out the 91908 Assessment Report 2022 if you want some more specifics about what was done to meet each level of achievement.