A-Level ICT
by P.M. Heathcote
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List Price: ££17.00
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Manufacturer: Payne-Gallway Publishers
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 303
EAN: 9781904467137
ISBN: 190446713X
Label: Payne-Gallway Publishers
Number Of Pages: 371
Publication Date: 2003-05-15
Publisher: Payne-Gallway Publishers
Studio: Payne-Gallway Publishers
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A poor study aid
Comment: I have based most of my review on the sections that involve database. I have kept away from the bulk of the book as it seems to be shallow waffle suited for Business IT students - which possibly is not a fault as this is what is required by the current sylabuses. This is precisely why I have always refused to teach an A-level IT or ICT course.
Chapter 17 - Introduction to database systems . Most of the material is OK - but it is very brief. I disagree with the section called Flat File - p92. I quote from the book "A flat file is a database held in a single file." This is rubbish. Hierarchical databases used to be stored in a single file. In deed it is possible to store a network database entirely in a single file - but this would be undesirable for performance issues. Multi-user databases typically are store in several files on separate disk-drives to minimize bottlenecks of dataflow. My understanding of a flat file is to do with the structure of the data. Tables are flat, so relational databases are flat regardless of whether they are stored in one file or many. There seems to be a confusion between tables and files. I think the author is referring to multi-table databases and comparing them with single table databases or traditional file systems that have a simple record structure.
Chapter 18 - Relational Databases. Not much is said about what a relational database is, other than data is stored in tables. Then there follows two bad examples that are discussed. The first is a library database, with a description of what is required. Then it is stated that there are two obvious entities BORROWER and BOOK. There is no mention here made about what an entity is. This example continues in chapter 56 (page 304) and entities are mentioned in chapter 55 (page 301). It looks as if this book has been written by using cut and paste - some of the material being pasted in the wrong place.
Chapter 19 - Tables, forms, queries and reports. The material here is not too bad, but very brief. I would expect that the teacher would have to supply extra material, or a book on Access etc would have to be used. There is however an awful mistake, Figure 19.7 - a relationship diagram suggests a one-one relationship between two of the tables. I think that this should be a one-many relationship as well. In any case there is no point having one-one relationships, you could have combined the two tables - that would have been better.
Chapter 55 - Data modelling. This chapter talks about traditional file systems compared with database systems. It mentions program-data independence, but fails to mention logical data independence. Much of the material on the database approach is far too brief and lacks examples. There is a brief section on ER modelling. Here the types of relationship are mentioned and an example diagram included. There are however no pointers at to how you arrive at such a diagram. That is, any sort of design methodology is missing.
Chapter 56 - Relational Database design. This is the chapter where I found the most fault. Here we have an ER diagram wiith two tables - BORROWER and BOOK. There should be a many-many relationship here because a borrower can borrow many books and a book can be borroed by many people. Normalisation should be spelt Normalization(See Oxford Dictionary of computing 3/e p307). The definition for first normal form is bad (page 305) "A table is in first normal form if it contains no repeating attributes or groups of attributes. This is wrong. A table must be in first normal form by definition - otherwise what you have is not a table. The standard definition for first normal form is "A table is in first normal form if and only if all attributes are atomic - that is all attributes have a single value. This definition causes problems for the example on page 306. I would say that this table is in first normal form provide that the primary key is studentnumber, coursenumber. Then all you need to do is duplicate data, where there are blanks. The definitions and examples for second and third normal forms are also poor. I particular, there is a complete absence of functional dependencies - the standard tool used to determine how to partition tables into second and third normal form.
Chapter 57 - Database Management. The section on the role of a DBA is weak. Quite commonly a DBA has nothing to do with the database design, though it will be necessary for them to understand it for reasons of maintenance. Section 11 mentions "Keeping users informed of changes in the database structure". This is complete rubbish. Users should be protected from changes because of data-independence. In particular all queries should use a View - Corresponding to the conceptual level or user level of the database. Another reason why you wouldn't want users to be informed about the structure or changes to the database would be reason of security. The rest of the chapter briefly mentions The data dictionary, The DBMS, Querying the database, using SQL, and Client-server database but with insufficient depth to be of any use.
14 - allocating password to each user. This will be done by the System manager. They will need this to log on to the computer, regardless of whether they will use the database. Access rights of the database are then based on usernames already given out.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A review
Comment: Although this book does have many good features such as the exam and coursework help, it does seem to be repetitive as there are pages and pages of text without images in sone places. It also lacks in a broad knowledge of different courseworks students can undetake.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Not good
Comment: This book is very poor. It looks as though it's been put together using word. It is meant to cover everything on the AQA syllabus, but blatantly doesn't. It contains a lot of irrelevant information. The Mott & Leaming book is better, but there's still room for improvement.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good book
Comment: I have only recieved this book fairly recently, as a result i havent used it much, however from what i have used it for it has proven to be really helpful. I found that it actually is:
A revision guide, a case study resource and a test paper all in one. It has also helped me with my coursework, providing examples of what each part of the coursework is meant to look like. So overall, i think this will come in handy over the coming months.
The reason it did not get 5 stars however is despite being a revision guide, it does seem to be very long winded and very little use of colour if any making it very boring.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Useful information, but presented poorly
Comment: This book contains all the theory you need to know for both the AS and A2 ICT syllabi, but sadly it's presentation is rather heavy-going for college students, and I wouldn't recommend it as a revision resource.
Sadly the book is also rather out of date, making references to software as old as Word 95, and pointing out that the future of the internet is images. Also, the model exam questions are slightly more technical than what you would find in the exam today.
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