FIT1004: Data Management

Assignment 1: Data collection and markup - 5%
Assignment 2: Database manipulation - 20%
Assignment 3A: Conceptual design - hurdle requirement
Assignment 3B: Full database design - 20%
Tutorial participation and quiz completion - 5%
Written exam: 50%

The workload isn't HUGE for this subject but I found it pretty daunting.

The exam for this unit was divided into six parts, and this could apply to the unit as a whole as well:

• General stuff about data like data integrity, formats, role of data, some definitions of key terms
• Entity relationship modelling
• Logical model
• Normalisation
• SQL - big topic which includes DDL (writing SQL code for creating tables) and DML (writing SQL code for SELECT statements, updating tables etc)
• Transaction management (mostly theory)

The hardest part for me was the SQL. My lab demonstrator wasn't the best at explaining what we had to do, so it was pretty much up to us to work on the questions given for that week. I talked to people in other classes who said they learned a lot during labs so it really depends on who you have as a demonstrator.
I found assignments 2 and 3 pretty hard, so I attended consultation sessions when I got really stuck. Maybe I wouldn't have needed to so much if my lab demonstrator was a bit clearer, but the consultation really was helpful for me so I managed. With the exception of assignment 1, the content of the assignments was quite similar to what was on the exam, so if you understand the assignments you'll be okay on the exam.

A./Prof. David Dowe

6 past exams with solutions

3.5 out of 5

Yes, with screen capture

Database systems - Design, Implementation and Management - I used this book a bit, but mostly for looking up the notation for diagrams. There's nothing in the book that you couldn't get on the internet.

Two hours of lectures, one 2-hour laboratory

2013, semester 2

83 HD