gce model questions vol1 2019 computer_studies | Essay

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Question 1 View Details
Discuss the development of computers from the 1940s to the present day.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify and describe the three major generations of computers, giving one characteristic example of each generation.
(b)
Explain how the shift from the second to the third generation impacted software development practices.
(c)
Evaluate two ways in which modern computers have influenced everyday life in Nigeria.
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Question 2 View Details
A small business is setting up a computer workstation for data entry and basic spreadsheet work.
Question Parts
(a)
Describe the function of each of the following hardware components and explain why each is essential for the described workstation: CPU, RAM, hard disk drive, power‑supply unit.
(b)
The workstation will run a spreadsheet program that requires 150 MB of temporary storage while operating and the user intends to keep at least 30 % of the hard disk free for system stability. If the chosen hard disk has a capacity of 500 GB, calculate the maximum amount of data (in GB) that can be stored on the disk without breaching the 30 % free‑space rule, and state whether the 150 MB requirement can be accommodated.
(c)
The business plans to upgrade the RAM to improve performance. If each application instance consumes 120 MB of RAM and the operating system requires 1.2 GB, determine the minimum RAM size (in GB) that will allow the user to run three instances of the spreadsheet simultaneously without exceeding RAM capacity. Show your reasoning.
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Question 3 View Details
A small business is planning to adopt a new accounting system. The owner has identified three software options: - Option X: Proprietary software, one‑time purchase of ₦250,000, includes basic payroll. - Option Y: Cloud‑based subscription, ₦25,000 per month, offers an advanced inventory module. - Option Z: Open‑source software, free download, but requires in‑house customization before use. The business expects to operate for at least five years and anticipates a 10 % annual increase in transaction volume.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify two advantages and two disadvantages of using proprietary software for this business.
(b)
Explain which software option would be most cost‑effective over the five‑year period. Show the total cost calculation for each option and justify your choice.
(c)
Outline the key stages of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) that would be relevant if the business chooses Option Z, and indicate which stakeholders should be involved at each stage.
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Question 4 View Details
A secondary school science department maintains a database of student laboratory experiment records. Each record includes: - Student ID (numeric, 6 digits) - Experiment Code (e.g., "CH101") - Date (dd/mm/yyyy) - Score (0‑100) - Teacher Comments (text) The department wants to improve data retrieval and ensure data integrity.
Question Parts
(a)
Propose an appropriate relational database design, specifying at least two tables, their primary keys, and the relationship between them. Explain why this design reduces redundancy.
(b)
Write an SQL query that returns, for the current term, each Experiment Code together with the average Score of all students who performed that experiment.
(c)
Discuss two data‑validation rules that should be enforced when entering a new record, and explain how each rule helps maintain data quality.
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Question 5 View Details
A small retail business is planning to adopt new information technology solutions to improve its operations.
Question Parts
(a)
Explain three distinct ways in which cloud computing can increase the efficiency of a small retail business.
(b)
The business wishes to automate its inventory management. It receives goods from suppliers, updates stock levels, records sales, and generates a daily sales report. List the external entities, processes, data stores and data flows that should appear in a Level‑0 Data Flow Diagram (DFD) for this system, and briefly describe how they are connected.
(c)
The owner is deciding between a relational database management system (RDBMS) and a NoSQL document database for storing product information. Compare the two options in terms of data integrity, scalability and query flexibility, and recommend the most suitable choice for the business, providing a clear justification.
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Question 6 View Details
A medium‑size company is reviewing its computer security policies after a recent security incident.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify three common types of malware that could affect a corporate network and explain one specific mitigation technique for each type.
(b)
Discuss the ethical and legal implications of implementing employee monitoring software in the workplace, referring specifically to relevant Nigerian data‑protection legislation.
(c)
A phishing email was received by several staff members, leading to compromised credentials. Outline the steps an incident‑response team should take to contain and investigate the breach, and suggest two preventive measures to reduce the risk of future phishing attacks.
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Question 7 View Details
A small business wants to set up a LAN to connect its computers and provide internet access. The office floor plan is a rectangle 20 m by 12 m. There are three departments: Administration (5 computers), Production (8 computers) and Sales (4 computers). The manager wants to minimise cabling cost while ensuring redundancy for the Production department. The network will use Ethernet (100BASE‑TX) and a single broadband router provides internet connectivity.
Question Parts
(a)
Recommend an appropriate logical network topology for the whole office and justify why it suits the stated requirements.
(b)
For the physical layout, propose a cabling scheme (including type of cable, maximum segment length and placement of switches) that satisfies the Ethernet standards and the redundancy requirement for Production. Explain your reasoning.
(c)
The manager asks for an IP‑addressing plan using private IPv4 addresses, with separate subnets for each department. Provide a suitable subnetting scheme, showing the network address, subnet mask and the range of usable host addresses for each department. Explain the steps you used to determine the subnet sizes.
(d)
Identify two potential security risks associated with the proposed network and suggest one mitigation measure for each risk.
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Question 8 View Details
Consider the following Python program that is intended to read a text file **data.txt** (containing one integer per line), store the integers in a list, compute the median of the data, and write the sorted list to a new file **sorted.txt**. The program, however, contains several mistakes that prevent it from working correctly. ```python import sys def median(nums): nums.sort() n = len(nums) if n % 2 = 0: return (nums[n/2] + nums[n/2 + 1]) / 2 else: return nums[(n+1)/2] file = open('data.txt', 'r') lines = file.readlines() numbers = [] for line in lines: numbers.append(int(line)) file.close() print('The median is', median(numbers)) sorted_file = open('sorted.txt', 'w') sorted_file.write(numbers) sorted_file.close() ```
Question Parts
(a)
Identify and explain three logical or syntactic errors in the program that would prevent it from producing the correct median and writing the sorted list.
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Question 9 View Details
A small online bookstore maintains its inventory and sales data in a relational database.
Question Parts
(a)
The database contains two tables: Books(BookID, Title, Author, Price, Stock) and Sales(SaleID, BookID, Quantity, SaleDate). Explain how to enforce referential integrity between the two tables and provide the exact SQL statements required.
(b)
The manager requires that a transaction must never reduce the Stock value below zero. Describe a suitable transaction‑control mechanism, stating the isolation level to be used and any additional checks or constraints that should be implemented.
(c)
Prepare a SQL query that lists, for each author, the total sales revenue generated in the last quarter (October–December). Explain how GROUP BY and aggregate functions are used in the query.
(d)
The Sales table is becoming large and query performance is degrading. Recommend two indexing strategies that would improve the speed of the query in part (c). Justify each choice and discuss any possible trade‑offs.
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Question 10 View Details
A school administrator uses a spreadsheet to record the scores of each student in Mathematics, English and Science and to produce a summary report for the class.
Question Parts
(a)
Describe the steps required to set up data validation so that any score entered in the worksheet must be an integer between 0 and 100 inclusive.
(b)
Write a formula that calculates each student's weighted average where Mathematics carries 40 %, English 30 % and Science 30 %. Assume the scores are in columns B (Math), C (English) and D (Science) of the same row.
(c)
The administrator wants to highlight any student whose weighted average is below the class mean. Explain how to apply conditional formatting to achieve this, specifying the rule formula that should be used.
(d)
To summarise class performance, the administrator creates a pivot table. Outline the steps required to build a pivot table that shows the average weighted score for each subject and the overall class average, and explain how to refresh the pivot table after new scores are added.
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