stupid question in my exam

[Lord Vile]

9 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

Likewise, if you don’t have blank DVDs, you can’t make backups with a DVD drive. 

But that’s being pedantic, you have the hardware to so it has the capability. On the other PC you don’t have that.
 

Not a hard question truth be told. 

[Marbo]

There is argument for both, niether or just A

 

If it ok to assume you have blank cds/dvds, then it should be ok to assume you have a usb stick. Although using a usb stick also assumes that they have usb ports. 

 

Also depending on the reason for the back up, it could be done on the same hdd. 

 

 

Edit: changing my mind to a definitive both. 

Windows 7 has system restore which is a form of backup. So the dvd writer is irrelevant and no assumptions are needed as the whether or not a backup medium is available. 

[SpaceGhostC2C]

11 hours ago, Lakobrija said:

EDIT: now I read the entire rig specs and for both computers they said they have "Windows 7 Home Premium". So, I would say none of these is correct, since it have unexistable os

If by "unexistable" you mean it doesn't exist, you are wrong: "Home Premium" was one of the available editions fro Windows 7.

[straight_stewie]

This question is clearly outdated. How was the rest of the exam?

[TempestCatto]

Answer: A

Take this question very literally. In the real world, both computers have USB ports, you could just back your data up via those. BUT, this question does not list them. So in the case of this question, they do not exist. One must assume the DVD writer will be used for backups.

 

OR

 

Answer: A

The first computer has a bigger hard drive. More room for data backups.

 

 

Obviously, both of my scenarios are asinine at best. But the again, so is the question. I fear for the education you're currently receiving. Unless you're in high school, I'd transfer to another uni.

[Marbo]

46 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

 

Obviously, both of my scenarios are asinine at best. But the again, so is the question. I fear for the education you're currently receiving. Unless you're in high school, I'd transfer to another uni.

Absolutely agree. 

 

If the only options are A or B then assumptions must be made. 

 

Going on the limited information then the answer must be both. As both are capable of backing up data in some form. 

[Akolyte]

In regards to the question, it's actually totally normal to have questions that oof in entry-level IT exams, and depending on what you're studying and since it's your first year it might be totally normal.  

 

The main reason for a question like is to act as a: 

• A distraction checker - it's a really simple question but you might be mistaken at some point to choosing the wrong answer because you aren't reading the question properly (for example, the B choice computer would not be able to make backups because it's Windows 7 g4-bit which does not exist.). 
• To throw off people less experienced with technology - , in many IT courses there are of course people who join who have no previous IT experience.  It's actually very common in many IT companies.  And they may understand how to administrate Exchange Server or troubleshoot script issues, but would not understand a question like this. 

A couple of questions like this in exams are actually good, they help to throw off the people who don't take the time to truly research and understand a technology.  As I said above, you'd be surprised at the amount of people working solid IT positions who have never, and I mean, never had any IT experience previously.  Just hired and learned on the job to a standard to be able to do the job competently.  Many big companies just hire based on personality and spend thousands training them. 

 

And judging by the question I'd imagine this course is preparing you for more of a service desk/IT Technician type role, and the statement above applies heavily in those roles. 

 

If this were a course for Systems Engineering, Devops, or a more senior Service Desk certification like a Redhat or O365, then I'd be pretty shocked. 

 

Just leaving my input. 

 

[Marbo]

27 minutes ago, Akolyte said:

 

 

The main reason for a question like is to act as a: 

• A distraction checker - it's a really simple question but you might be mistaken at some point to choosing the wrong answer because you aren't reading the question properly (for example, the B choice computer would not be able to make backups because it's Windows 7 g4-bit which does not exist.).

 

I hadn't noticed the g4-bit. I'll blame my friend Jack for that. So back to assumptions if no more information is available. 

[NineEyeRon]

1 hour ago, Akolyte said:

 

working IT positions who have never, and I mean, never had any IT experience previously.  Just hired and learned on the job to a standard to be able to do the job competently.  

 

Ha, this is me 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

Because person B didn't put in the effort to download an additional GB of RAM. 

[Austinham]

You think that is bad? When I took Linux+ back when it was fairly new I had a lot of Uber dumb questions. The one that stood out the most was something like this.

 

On a Linux system how do you install software.

 

A: apt-get install appname

B: sudo apt-get install appname

C: yum install appname

D: ./install.sh

[Lord Vile]

34 minutes ago, comander said:

This was stupid. Both could be true. 

.A is likely the right answer because DVDs could be used to make copies... But both accept portable hard drives and those are better solutions. 

You don’t know either PC has the capability of using a portable Hardrive. Did the spec sheet list any I/O? 
 

Also it’s not stupid the answer is fairly obvious, it’s not a hard question. I can give you an example of a stupid question if you’d like 

[Kisai]

18 hours ago, Tom_nerd said:

this is a question in my end of year exam paper (attached) and I'm sure by now your inner nerd is already being annoyed at this question, I was half-way through writing a paper about why it is so stupid I was wondering if anyone could give me any ideas

 

(the question gives no context for what the situation is)

This is an example of a question that smart people get wrong because they overthink the question.

 

The correct answer they want you to select is computer A, due to the "DVD Writer", however the smart-ass answer is "both, if you plug in a USB drive", sure it might take you 18 hours to backup, the DVD writer would require 110 DVD-R's. Nobody does that, which instead means both are wrong if the question is "make a back up the computer."

 

But yeah, this question is just sloppy.

[Lakobrija]

6 hours ago, SpaceGhostC2C said:

If by "unexistable" you mean it doesn't exist, you are wrong: "Home Premium" was one of the available editions fro Windows 7.

Really? I didn't know. I'm familiar with Home,  Premium, Enterprise, Ultimate, but never heard of these 2 combined

[Curious Pineapple]

2 minutes ago, Lakobrija said:

Really? I didn't know. I'm familiar with Home,  Premium, Enterprise, Ultimate, but never heard of these 2 combined

There was Home Basic and Home Premium, I think the difference was Home Premium had more networking features, but no domain or more advanced capabilities.

[Lord Vile]

24 minutes ago, Kisai said:

This is an example of a question that smart people get wrong because they overthink the question.

 

The correct answer they want you to select is computer A, due to the "DVD Writer", however the smart-ass answer is "both, if you plug in a USB drive", sure it might take you 18 hours to backup, the DVD writer would require 110 DVD-R's. Nobody does that, which instead means both are wrong if the question is "make a back up the computer."

 

But yeah, this question is just sloppy.

Depends what you’re backing up. Just says copies doesn’t say what of. Anything up to 8.5GB is game.

[Kisai]

4 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

Depends what you’re backing up. Just says copies doesn’t say what of. Anything up to 8.5GB is game.

Yeah, but Computer A doesn't say "box of DVD-R's", just like neither say "500GB USB drive"

 

[Lord Vile]

8 minutes ago, Kisai said:

Yeah, but Computer A doesn't say "box of DVD-R's", just like neither say "500GB USB drive"

 

You’ve completely missed my point. A has the CAPABILITY to make backups, you just need the media.

 

How do you know either have a USB port?

[Sauron]

23 hours ago, Tom_nerd said:

B because of its higher frequency so therefore would be faster at network backups

What? No... even if that made a difference in your network speed, which it doesn't, the i3 is faster here.

 

The real stupidity here is that you could just use a usb or the network instead of DVDs. Or just copy everything to a different partition of the same HDD, after all that's still a backup.

23 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

It doesn't say you have blank DVDs to record on either, so how could you make backups?

Also this...

[Curious Pineapple]

It doesn't say either machine is plugged in either. None of them can perform backups.

[Quadriplegic]

23 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

It doesn't say you have blank DVDs to record on either, so how could you make backups?

Machine being capable of making backups vs you being able to make backups are two different things.

Not sure why all that fuss regarding CPU speed and all that yada yada. 

[Tom_nerd]

On 4/24/2020 at 6:38 PM, dizmo said:

What makes you think the older CPU would have better single core performance?

because there is a previous question which states that, and I know its rubbish

 

On 4/24/2020 at 6:49 PM, NineEyeRon said:

t doesn’t say it’s connected to a network

it doesn't say anything!!! so we can only assume

 

On 4/24/2020 at 6:56 PM, NineEyeRon said:

I am basing this assumption that this question has hardly been updated since the late 90s/early 2000s

it was written last week and it is on Microsoft forms, I think its just my computer science teacher is living in that time period

 

22 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

what level this end of year exam is considering the g4-bit windows 7 edition.

GCSE and this is my test for the test and he says there are going to be questions like this

 

22 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

But that’s being pedantic

this whole thread is about being pedantic

[Lord Vile]

3 minutes ago, Tom_nerd said:

GCSE and this is my test for the test and he says there are going to be questions like this

Thought GCSEs were cancelled, anyway the question isn’t bad you just have to use common sense. One PC has a way of transferring media. The other one doesn’t. 

[Tom_nerd]

18 hours ago, straight_stewie said:

How was the rest of the exam?

equally as bad it was just on HTML but that is not so outdated and also has more context than this question

 

2 hours ago, Lord Vile said:

Thought GCSEs were cancelled 

they are for most but for me I have to do them online

[Lord Vile]

Just now, Tom_nerd said:

they are for most but for me I have to do them online

Oh joy, have fun with that