gce model questions vol1 2023 computer_studies | Essay

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Question 1 View Details
Discuss the major milestones in the development of computers from the early mechanical devices to modern micro‑processors.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify two early mechanical computing devices and explain the principle on which each operated.
(b)
Describe the significance of the invention of the transistor in the 1940s and explain how it led to the development of integrated circuits.
(c)
Explain how the introduction of the micro‑processor in the 1970s transformed personal computing.
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Question 2 View Details
A computer system has the following specifications: - CPU clock speed: 3.2 GHz - CPU cache latency: 2 clock cycles - Main‑memory latency: 80 ns - System bus width: 64 bits (8 bytes) - Maximum memory bandwidth: 25.6 GB s⁻¹ The system runs a program that executes 2 000 000 instructions. Each instruction, on average, requires one data reference to main memory. The cache hit rate is 95 %. Using the information given, answer the questions below.
Question Parts
(a)
Calculate the approximate total execution time of the program, taking into account the CPU cycles for the instructions and the time penalty for cache misses. Show all steps and state any assumptions you make.
(b)
If the cache is redesigned so that the hit rate improves to 98 %, recalculate the execution time and comment on the percentage reduction in total time compared with part (a).
(c)
Briefly discuss two other hardware factors (apart from cache hit rate) that could further reduce the program’s execution time, explaining the mechanism by which each factor helps.
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Question 3 View Details
A small retail shop wishes to automate its sales and inventory management using computer software.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify and briefly describe three different types of software that could be used in the shop’s automation, explaining the role each would play.
(b)
The shop decides to develop a custom inventory‑tracking module. Write clear pseudocode for a procedure that receives a product code and the quantity sold, updates the stock level, checks whether the new stock falls below a predefined reorder threshold, and generates a reorder alert if necessary. Include appropriate control structures and comments.
(c)
Discuss two testing strategies that should be applied to ensure the reliability of the inventory‑tracking module before it is deployed. For each strategy, explain what aspect of the software it verifies and give a concrete example of a test case.
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Question 4 View Details
A secondary school maintains a database of student performance in three subjects – Mathematics, English and Science. The table below shows the scores (out of 100) for five students.
Question Parts
(a)
Define the terms **data** and **information** in the context of the school database, and explain how raw examination scores become useful information for decision‑making.
(b)
Using the data in the table, calculate the mean score for each subject and state which subject has the highest overall average. Show all working steps.
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Question 5 View Details
A secondary school is planning to implement an information system to manage student academic records. The system must store each student's personal details, enrolment information, and examination results for three terms per year.
Question Parts
(a)
Propose an appropriate relational database table structure to store the information. Identify at least three tables, specify a primary key for each, and list at least three attributes for each table.
(b)
Explain how you would apply the first three normal forms (1NF, 2NF, 3NF) to the tables you proposed, giving a concrete example of a functional dependency that would be removed at each stage.
(c)
The school wants to generate a report showing the average score per subject for each term. Outline the steps you would take to produce this report, using either pseudocode or an SQL statement, and indicate any calculations required.
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Question 6 View Details
A small business uses a web‑based inventory management system that stores customer details and transaction records. Recently, the business experienced a data breach in which unauthorised users accessed the customer database.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify and discuss three common security vulnerabilities that could have been exploited in this scenario. For each vulnerability, explain how it could lead to unauthorised access.
(b)
Propose a layered (defence‑in‑depth) security strategy for the business, specifying one technical control, one administrative control and one physical control. Justify how each control mitigates the vulnerabilities identified in part (a).
(c)
The business wants to ensure its handling of personal data complies with ethical standards and the Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR). List three ethical principles and three legal requirements that the business must observe, and describe one procedural measure that demonstrates compliance with each principle/requirement.
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Question 7 View Details
A small business is setting up its internal computer network and requires reliable connectivity to the Internet.
Question Parts
(a)
Compare the bus, star and ring LAN topologies in terms of cabling requirements, fault tolerance and scalability. Recommend the most suitable topology for the business and justify your choice.
(b)
The business will subscribe to a broadband service that provides a maximum download speed of 20 Mbps and an upload speed of 5 Mbps. Each of the 12 workstations requires at least 1.5 Mbps download and 0.5 Mbps upload for smooth operation. Determine whether the broadband link is sufficient, showing all calculations and stating any assumptions made.
(c)
To improve reliability the business considers a secondary broadband connection offering 10 Mbps download and 2 Mbps upload. Explain how load‑balancing or fail‑over could be configured, and calculate the total effective bandwidth available to the workstations when both links operate in parallel, assuming ideal load sharing. Discuss any practical limitations of this arrangement.
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Question 8 View Details
A school wants a program to manage student scores for a class of 30 students. The program should read each student's name and three test scores, compute the total and average, assign a grade (A ≥ 70, B 60‑69, C 50‑59, D 40‑49, F < 40) and finally display a summary report.
Question Parts
(a)
The following Python code is intended to perform the required task, but it contains several errors. Identify at least three distinct errors (syntax, logical or runtime) and explain why each would cause the program to fail or produce incorrect results.
(b)
Rewrite the program so that it correctly reads the data for all 30 students, performs the calculations, assigns grades, and prints a neatly formatted report. You need not include comments, but the code must be syntactically correct and logically sound.
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Question 9 View Details
A small university maintains a database to record information about students, courses, lecturers and enrolments. The following entities and attributes are identified: - Student(SID, SName, DOB, Email) - Lecturer(LID, LName, Department) - Course(CID, CTitle, Credits, LID) - Enrolment(SID, CID, EnrolDate, Grade) The relationships are: - Each course is taught by one lecturer (LID in Course). - A student may enrol in many courses and a course may have many students (Enrolment). - The university wishes to enforce that a student cannot enrol in the same course more than once and that a lecturer can teach at most three courses in a semester. Using this scenario, answer the following questions:
Question Parts
(a)
Identify all functional dependencies (FDs) that hold in the initial relation set and state the highest normal form (1NF, 2NF, 3NF, BCNF) each relation currently satisfies.
(b)
Transform the design to achieve Third Normal Form (3NF). List the resulting relations with their primary keys and any foreign keys required.
(c)
Write an SQL query that returns the SID and SName of every student who is enrolled in at least two different courses that are taught by the same lecturer.
(d)
Explain how the choice of transaction isolation level (Read Uncommitted, Read Committed, Repeatable Read, Serializable) would affect concurrent updates to the Enrolment table when multiple registration clerks are inserting new enrolments for the same student.
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Question 10 View Details
A retail company uses a spreadsheet to record its monthly sales for each of its five product lines (A‑E) across the twelve months of a year. The spreadsheet contains the following columns: - Month (January … December) - Sales_A, Sales_B, Sales_C, Sales_D, Sales_E (numeric values in ₦) - Total_Sales (to be calculated) - Commission (to be calculated) The company also prepares a standard letter in a word‑processing document that is sent to each regional manager. The letter contains placeholders for the manager’s name, region, and the total sales figure for the manager’s region, which is extracted from the spreadsheet. Answer the following questions:
Question Parts
(a)
Using spreadsheet formulas, describe how to calculate: i. The total sales for each month (column Total_Sales). ii. The average monthly sales for each product line over the year. iii. Apply conditional formatting to highlight any month where Total_Sales falls below ₦500,000 in red.
(b)
The company pays commission on total annual sales according to the following tiered structure: • Up to ₦2,000,000 – 2% of sales • ₦2,000,001 to ₦5,000,000 – 3% of sales • Above ₦5,000,000 – 5% of sales Write a single spreadsheet formula (using IF or nested IF) that calculates the commission based on the value in Total_Sales for a given month and places the result in the Commission column.
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