BTEC IT programming unit help

Pearson's specification is direct. "Once an assessment has begun, learners must not be given feedback on progress towards fulfilling the targeted criteria." "An assessor must assess only learner work that is authentic, i.e. learners' own independent work." "Learners must authenticate the evidence that they provide for assessment through signing a declaration stating that it is their own work." Assessors in turn declare that the learner "has clearly referenced any sources used in the work". On malpractice, Pearson says it "does not tolerate actions (or attempted actions) of malpractice by learners, centre staff or centres in connection with Pearson qualifications", and may impose penalties where it is proven.

Source: Pearson BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma in Information Technology specification, Issue 6, section on making valid assessment decisions and dealing with malpractice, read on 31 October 2026. Pearson's fuller centre guidance on malpractice is on its website.

Practice brief (ours). A youth club wants a tiny program to record attendance at four sessions and report the average. Attendance is a whole number from 0 to 40, the hall's capacity. The program must not crash on bad input.

1. Decompose. Read one valid number; repeat four times; calculate and print the average. Three steps, one of them reusable.
2. Abstract. Inputs: four attendance figures. Constant: the capacity of 40. Output: the average to one decimal place. Everything else about the club is irrelevant.
3. Design the validation. Reject anything that is not a whole number, and anything outside 0 to 40, with a message that says what is wanted.
4. Plan the tests before coding. Typical, extreme and erroneous data, as the specification asks.

# Practice brief (ours, not a Pearson assignment): log club attendance.
def read_attendance(prompt):
    """Return a whole number of members from 0 to 40, re-asking until valid."""
    while True:
        raw = input(prompt).strip()
        if not raw.isdigit():
            print("Please type a whole number, for example 12.")
            continue
        value = int(raw)
        if 0 <= value <= 40:
            return value
        print("Attendance must be between 0 and 40.")

sessions = [read_attendance(f"Session {n}: ") for n in range(1, 5)]
print("Average attendance:", round(sum(sessions) / len(sessions), 1))

Try these yourself (ours). (1) Change the program so the capacity is a named constant. (2) Add a fifth session without copying any line. (3) Make it print the highest attendance as well. (4) Write two more erroneous tests the plan above misses. Hints: (1) CAPACITY = 40 at the top; (2) change range(1, 5) to range(1, 6); (3) max(sessions); (4) an empty input, or a number with spaces inside such as "1 2".