how was the HSC ipt course? any assignments that are common amongst all schools?
It's actually not a bad course if you apply yourself to it, i really enjoyed going to class and stuff during the later half of the year. Don't let yourself fall behind though, if you fall behind the class on content it will become your most hated subject very quickly.
As for assignments, you will likely get an assignment where you have to analyze/create an information system, if you get an assignment like follow the davis textbook very, very closely. I did that and got 100/100 for said assignment.
As for topics in the level of how fun i found them (1 = most fun)
1. DSS
2. Multimedia
3. Information Systems and Databases
4. Project Management
5. Communication Systems
And the difficulty (1= most difficult)
1. Communication Systems
2. Information Systems and Databases
3. DSS
4. Multimedia
5. Project Management
My main advice for you is consistent effort. Listen in class constantly and go over your notes every once in a while, link your IPT knowledge to real life for concepts you find hard to understand and they become really easy to understand. I managed to pull a 94% in the CSSA trial without studying through doing just this