How many marks do you lose if you make a slight mistake on the calculations in the spreadsheet? In the audit trail you describe the method which is still wrong, do you lose a lot of marks?
I don't know for certain but the exam isn't about your coding skill. Its more about showing you can leave an audit trail suitable for someone else to follow and to get results that you can summarise appropriately. My advice is make your coding simple - long nested ifs etc are really hard to follow and as I say its not about programming genius. If you keep the formulae simple even if that means sub calculations hopefully less chance of you making an error.
Not sure, but it's pretty low (I think 5, possibly 10?). Either way, this is most peoples downfall - spending too much time making it right. Better strategy is just to recognise you fluffed it, but MENTION it in the write up. Also a valid strategy if the problem is very complex (auctioneer paper is prime example) - just make a simplified version then write how you would improve it.
You'll lose a mark or two for each mistake you make (depending on how important the calculation is). However, you won't lose marks in the audit trail if you describe what your model is doing accurately. That is, if your audit trail description matches what your model is doing, you'll get marks in the audit trail, but will lose a mark for the incorrect method. The worst thing you can do is have your model wrong, and describe in the audit trail what it should have done if it was right. This is much more common than you might think, and most often happens when students copy & paste formulae from the question paper or guidance into their audit trail. Obviously, the more communication you have in your audit trail, the better - so if your model is wrong (and you know it), in your audit, describe what the model is doing (the wrong way), and mention that you know/suspect this is wrong, and should be checked/corrected. There are general overall marks for things like "is it easy to pick up errors in the model from the audit trail" and "is each step clearly documented" where you're more likely to catch up on any errors in the model itself. As a previous poster said - the key to passing the exam is communicating what you've done.
