2. Understanding Standards: Nominee Training Event
Administration & IT
National 5 and National 4 Combined Approach
RGB colours for text
Purple = R204 G153 B209 & Dark Blue =R0 G51 B102

3. Unit Principles
General Standards

4. Admin Practices Outcome 1 (N4/5) Admin Theory & Practice (H)
Error Tolerances
Candidates are permitted error tolerances on all tasks for all assessment standards that are assessing IT skills:
N3 1 error every 0 – 10 words
N4 1 error every 0 – 15 words
N5 1 error every 0 – 20 words
Higher 1 error every 0 – 25 words
Errors have no bearing on the achievement of theory Assessment Standards:
Admin Practices Outcome 1 (N4/5)
Admin Theory & Practice (H)
71 N5 =
4 errors
12 N3 =
2 errors
43 N4 =
3 errors
79 H =
4 errors

5. Dates Formats
Accept any standard format eg
22 September 2016
22nd September 2016
22 Sept 2016
22/9/16
22/09/2016
September 22, 2016
Do Not Accept ‘the 22nd of September’ or American dates in number format.
All dates must have a year.
Consistent format required within a task.
Count as 1 error
Count as 1 error
Inconsistent format –
count as 1 error

6. Do not accept a.m. or p.m = 1 error
Time Formats
Accept a variety of formats eg
1000 hours
1000hrs
10:00 hours
10.00 hrs
10 am
10am
10.00 am
10.00am
2.30 pm and 4 pm within the one task is acceptable
Do not accept a.m. or p.m = 1 error
Consistent format required within a task – if not = 1 error

7. Text Formatting
If a task asks for formats – minimum of 2 formats must be used.
Accept use of:
Size
Bold
Underline
Italics
Shading
Colour
Font change*
Right alignment
Centring
Justification
Borders
Bullet points
Word Art
* unless change of font is asked for separately
Remember to check the original efile as some text formatting may have already been applied and would therefore not count as candidate formatting.

8. Fonts
Desktop Publishing tasks often ask for a variety of fonts – candidates must have a minimum of 2 fonts.
Word Art can be accepted if the font looks different.

9. Enhancing Front Covers
If a task asks candidates to enhance the front cover a minimum of 2 appropriate enhancements over and above any formatting asked for eg
Size
Bold
Underline
Italics
Shading
Colour
Font changed
Centre
Page Border
Graphics
Word Art

10. Graphics
Accept use of:
Clip Art
Photographs
Scanned Drawings
Word Art
Watermarks
Borders
Graphic must not be clipped by margin or cover any data (count as 1 error if so)
Higher:
Design/
Picture Border
N5 Change:
A normal lined border can be counted as a graphic (to keep in line with N5 Assignment).
Note: a border can be counted towards formatting or graphics – can only be counted once.
Do not count if specifically as contributing to formatting or graphics is specifically asked to add a border in the task.

11. Word Art You will notice Word Art can be counted as: A font A format
A graphic
But can only be counted towards one of these.

12. Capitalisation
Capital letters should be used at the start of sentences and for proper nouns.
Consistency is key.
Candidates should follow any specific instructions in the task or keep existing styles consistent within an efile used.
Wrong capitalisation throughout a task is counted as 1 error.

13. Headings Headings should be enhanced in some way, eg:
Block capitals with or without bold
Initial capitals and bold
Initial capitals and underscore
Increased size of font.
Headings with initial capitals, eg Functions in December - small words should not be capitalised.

14. Headings
Do not accept lower case unless used in the task (older UASP versions).
Headings added to a document must be consistent with the existing headings or it will be counted as an error.

15. Spacing & Fonts Spacing
When finishing off a report or minutes from an existing efile, the spacing between subheadings and between sections must be continued throughout the information added.
Font
The font throughout must be consistent.
When importing information from a spreadsheet or database into a word processing document the text should be consistent with the rest of the document.

16. Other Errors
Do not accept alternative forms of spelling – accept only as given in task.
Each of the following would be treated as one error no matter how often they occur in the task:
incorrect spacing after punctuation at end of sentence
incorrect spacing for commas, colons, semi-colons, brackets
confusion of hyphen/dash
omission of apostrophe
highlighted punctuation at the end of a heading
Missing full stops

17. , Web & Telephone
If there is no specific direction in the task:
For accept – , , , , , E, suitable symbol, or on its own.
For web address – accept Web, Web Address, W, Website, suitable symbol or on its own.
For telephone number accept –Tel, Tel No, Telephone Number, T, Phone suitable symbol or on its own.
(There must be consistency in style over the above pieces of information)
There should be no space in Telephone numbers – if there is, count as one error.

18.
All s must have appropriate subject heading, eg ‘Staff Handbook’ but not ‘Task 6’.
messages must make sense and
there has to be an opening, eg Hi/Hello/ Name/Dear Name
there has to be a close eg Thanks/Regards/Yours faithfully/ Yours sincerely or a closing sentence. When using a one word close accept with or without a full stop.
have the candidate name (accept first name only) should be inserted after the close.
Ignore spacing between sections/paragraphs.

19. Hi
Great news – the school fun day managed to raise £2,586.58! Well done!
Regards
Pupil Name
No subject or proper structure and the assessment standard has not been achieved.

20.
The number of keyboarding errors permitted before the candidate fails to achieve the assessment standard depends on the level the candidate is sitting and the amount of text in the . Use of 'text speak’ or ‘emoticons’ count as one error.

21. Ediary Unless stated in the task, a week can be a 5 or 7 days.
If any information is truncated on ediary printout, supplementary printouts must also be provided.
Location is not necessary on printouts (in line with N5 Assignment). However if it has been keyed in, errors will count towards the error tolerance.

22. Presentation Tasks
The logo must be the same size and in the same general position on each slide and in no way clipped or covering text.
Accept the slide number in any position as long as it’s consistent.
Be aware that different backgrounds/design templates can change the font, size and capitalisation on original slides. New slides must be consistent.

23. Presentation Tasks
At Higher most of the skills to be assessed cannot be checked from a hard copy.
For verification we expect a checklist or notes on printout of what specific skills have been achieved or not.
If there is no indication of this, accept assessor’s judgement marked on the grid – will be highlighted in Key Messages Report if needed.

24. Spreadsheets
Candidates are expected to use the most appropriate formula in a spreadsheet.
For addition – only accept the use of the + sign when adding 2 cells together or more than 2 non-adjacent cells. Addition of 3 or more adjacent cells should use the SUM function.
For subtraction, multiplication or division do not accept =SUM at the start of the formula – even if the formula works.
If statements must contain both conditions.

25. Spreadsheets
Lookups – if there is no ending and the formula will still work for every scenario then accept.
Pivots – accept any presentation as long as the required information is shown.

26. Spreadsheet Charts
Charts should be designed to ensure they are fit for purpose.
Labels used should ensure that every part of the chart can be understood.
Charts with coloured segments, lines or bars printed on a black and white printer can make it very difficult to interpret. Candidates should be trained to ensure the chart template chosen is appropriate for the centre’s printer, eg black and white printer requires a black and white chart template.

27. Threshold Approach to Unit Assessment
Short-term approach – for
For all National 4, 5 and Higher Units
Now apply a threshold approach to the judgement if a candidate has passed or failed the unit.
If a candidate successfully meets the requirements of the specified number of assessment standards they will be judged to have passed the unit overall and no further re-assessment will be required.
Candidates must still attempt all assessment standards

28. National 4 Administrative Practices 6 out of 7 Assessment Standards.
IT Solutions for Administrators
8 out of 10 Assessment Standards.
Communication in Administration
4 out of 5 Assessment Standards.

29. National 5 Administrative Practices 6 out of 7 Assessment Standards.
IT Solutions for Administrators
8 out of 10 Assessment Standards.
Communication in Administration
5 out of 6 Assessment Standards.

30. Higher Administrative Theory and Practice
5 out of 6 Assessment Standards.
Communication in Administration
2 out of 3 Assessment Standards.
IT Solutions for Administrators
6 out of 8 Assessment Standards.