Technical Education and Information Technology: Systems, Safety, and Digital Skills
Technical education
Understand the design process: identify a need, plan, draft, make, test, and evaluate. Know basic technical drawing conventions - views, dimension lines, scale, and the difference between a sketch and a technical drawing. Revise materials (wood, metal, plastics) and their properties, simple mechanisms such as levers, pulleys, and gears, and the meaning of mechanical advantage. Safety is always examinable: protective equipment, correct handling of tools, and the reason each rule exists.
Information technology
Cover hardware versus software, input–output–storage devices, operating-system functions, file management and extensions, networks (LAN versus WAN, the role of the router), internet services, and - crucially - digital safety: strong passwords, phishing, malware, backing up data, and protecting personal information. Spreadsheet questions test cell references, relative versus absolute references (A1 versus $A$1), and functions such as SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, and IF. Word-processing questions test styles, tables, and page setup.
Traps
Confusing RAM (volatile, working memory) with ROM or with a hard disk (non-volatile storage). Confusing the internet with the World Wide Web - the web is one service on the internet. Forgetting that copying a formula with an absolute reference keeps the row or column fixed. Treating a file extension as part of the file name rather than a type indicator.
Worked example
A spreadsheet has values 4, 8, 6, 10 in cells A1 to A4. SUM(A1:A4) gives 28 and AVERAGE(A1:A4) gives 7. If the formula in B1 is A1$C$1* and you copy it down to B2, it becomes A2$C$1* - the column reference shifts, the absolute one does not.
Rule of thumb
Before answering any IT question, ask what the user actually needs to achieve; the best answer is usually the simplest secure option, not the most feature-rich one.