neco 2025 computer_studies | Essay

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Question 1 View Details
Answer the following questions on the early development of computers.
Question Parts
(a)
Describe the evolution from the first generation (vacuum‑tube computers) to the third generation (integrated‑circuit computers). In your answer, identify three major hardware changes that occurred and explain how each change affected software development at the time.
(b)
Explain why the introduction of the microprocessor was a turning point for personal computing. Illustrate your answer with at least two specific examples of early personal computers that used a microprocessor.
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Question 2 View Details
A computer system has the following specifications:
Question Parts
(a)
Calculate the theoretical maximum data transfer rate between the CPU and main memory in gigabytes per second (GB/s).
(b)
Assuming the CPU executes on average 1.5 instructions per clock cycle at 3.2 GHz and each instruction requires two memory accesses (fetch and store) of one word (8 bytes) each, determine the average number of instructions the CPU can execute per second when memory bandwidth is the limiting factor.
(c)
The cache memory is 8 MB with a hit rate of 95 %. Main‑memory access time is 70 ns and cache access time is 1 ns. Compute the effective memory access time (EMAT) in nanoseconds.
(d)
Based on the calculations above, discuss whether the system is likely to meet the performance requirements of a program that needs to process 2 × 10⁹ instructions per second. Suggest one hardware upgrade that could improve performance and justify your choice.
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Question 3 View Details
A secondary school plans to upgrade its computer laboratory. The lab currently has 20 desktop computers, each equipped with 500 MB of RAM and an 80 GB hard‑disk, running Windows XP. The school intends to install a new operating system (OS) and an educational software suite. The OS requires a minimum of 1 GB RAM and 20 GB of disk space. The software suite consists of three applications: - Word processor: 200 MB RAM, 1.5 GB disk - Spreadsheet: 250 MB RAM, 2 GB disk - Multimedia presentation tool: 300 MB RAM, 3 GB disk Up‑grading components costs ₦12,000 per 512 MB RAM module and ₦8,000 per 20 GB hard‑disk upgrade. The school also considers a thin‑client solution in which a central server (costing ₦150,000) with 64 GB RAM and 2 TB storage serves all workstations, and each thin‑client terminal costs ₦5,000. Answer the following: (a) Determine the minimum hardware upgrade required for each existing desktop computer to run the OS and the software suite. (b) Calculate the total cost of upgrading all 20 desktop computers. (c) Evaluate whether the thin‑client solution is more cost‑effective, assuming the server can support all 20 clients simultaneously. Justify your answer with total cost and resource utilisation considerations.
Question Parts
(a)
Determine the minimum hardware upgrade required for each existing desktop computer to run the OS and the software suite.
(b)
Calculate the total cost of upgrading all 20 desktop computers.
(c)
Evaluate whether the thin‑client solution is more cost‑effective, assuming the server can support all 20 clients simultaneously. Justify your answer with total cost and resource utilisation considerations.
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Question 4 View Details
A secondary school maintains a student information system that records the following fields for each pupil: StudentID (a six‑digit numeric identifier), Name, Date of Birth, Gender, Class, and the scores obtained in Mathematics, English and Science (each out of 100). The school wishes to store this data in a relational database and generate two types of reports: 1. The average total score (sum of the three subjects) for each class. 2. A list of students who have scored above 85 in any one of the three subjects. Answer the following: (a) Identify an appropriate primary key for the table and suggest suitable data types for each field. (b) Write an SQL query that computes the average total score per class. (c) Write an SQL query that lists the StudentID and Name of students who scored above 85 in at least one subject. (d) Explain two advantages of using a relational database over a flat‑file (e.g., spreadsheet) for this application.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify an appropriate primary key for the table and suggest suitable data types for each field.
(b)
Write an SQL query that computes the average total score per class.
(c)
Write an SQL query that lists the StudentID and Name of students who scored above 85 in at least one subject.
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Question 5 View Details
A secondary school intends to develop a computerised system for storing and managing student academic records. The system must satisfy the following requirements: - Each student is identified by a unique admission number and has a name and date of birth. - The school offers several courses; each course has a unique course code, a title and a number of credit units. - A student may enrol in any number of courses. For every enrolment the student obtains a score (0‑100) for that course. - The school wishes to generate a transcript that lists the courses taken, the scores obtained and the Grade Point Average (GPA). The GPA is calculated as: GPA = \( \frac{\sum (\text{grade point}\times\text{credit units})}{\sum \text{credit units}} \) where the grade points are assigned as follows: 70‑100 = 5, 60‑69 = 4, 50‑59 = 3, 45‑49 = 2, 40‑44 = 1, below 40 = 0. Answer the following: (a) Sketch an Entity‑Relationship (ER) diagram for the system. Identify the entities, their key attributes and the relationships between them. (b) Write the SQL CREATE TABLE statements for the tables derived from your ER diagram, including appropriate primary‑key and foreign‑key constraints. (c) Using the data below, calculate the student’s GPA (round to two decimal places). • Course CS101 – 3 credit units – Score 78 • Course MTH102 – 2 credit units – Score 65 • Course ENG103 – 2 credit units – Score 55 (d) State two advantages of implementing the system as a relational database rather than as a flat‑file (e.g., a spreadsheet).
Question Parts
(a)
Sketch an Entity‑Relationship (ER) diagram for the system. Identify the entities, their key attributes and the relationships between them.
(b)
Write the SQL CREATE TABLE statements for the tables derived from your ER diagram, including appropriate primary‑key and foreign‑key constraints.
(c)
Using the data below, calculate the student’s GPA (round to two decimal places). • Course CS101 – 3 credit units – Score 78 • Course MTH102 – 2 credit units – Score 65 • Course ENG103 – 2 credit units – Score 55
(d)
State two advantages of implementing the system as a relational database rather than as a flat‑file (e.g., a spreadsheet).
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Question 6 View Details
A small business operates a local area network (LAN) that includes a server storing employee personal data. The network configuration is as follows: - The router’s administrator account still uses the factory‑default password. - The Wi‑Fi network is open (no encryption). - Employees are allowed to share their login passwords for convenience. After a recent cyber‑attack, confidential employee information was stolen. Answer the following: (a) Identify three distinct security vulnerabilities present in the above scenario. (b) For each vulnerability, recommend a specific mitigation measure and briefly justify why it would be effective. (c) Discuss two ethical considerations the business must observe when responding to the breach, citing relevant professional or legal guidelines. (d) Outline the four main phases of an incident‑response plan that the business should adopt, highlighting the key actions in each phase.
Question Parts
(a)
Identify three distinct security vulnerabilities present in the above scenario.
(b)
For each vulnerability, recommend a specific mitigation measure and briefly justify why it would be effective.
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Question 7 View Details
A small business wants to set up a LAN to connect 12 desktop computers, 2 printers and a server to the Internet. The LAN will use twisted‑pair cabling and the devices will be placed in a single room.
Question Parts
(a)
Recommend a suitable network topology (choose from star, bus, ring or mesh) and justify your choice in terms of fault tolerance, scalability and cabling cost.
(b)
Assuming the chosen topology uses twisted‑pair cable of length 1 m per link between a device and the central hub/switch, calculate the total minimum cable length required to interconnect all devices.
(c)
Propose an IPv4 addressing scheme for the network using private address space. State the network address, subnet mask and the range of host addresses that will be allocated to the computers, printers and the server.
(d)
Discuss two advantages and two disadvantages of using the chosen topology when the business expands to 30 devices in the future.
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Question 8 View Details
You are required to write a Python program that reads a text file named **students.txt** containing student names and their scores in three subjects, calculates each student's total and average, assigns a grade (A, B, C, D, F) based on the average, and writes the results to a new file called **results.txt**.
Question Parts
(a)
Write the complete Python program using appropriate variables, loops, conditional statements and file handling. Include error handling for a missing input file and for non‑numeric scores.
(b)
Refactor the program by defining a function **calculate_grade(avg)** that returns the appropriate grade, and modify the main code to use this function. Show the updated program.
(c)
If the class contains 40 students, estimate the time complexity of the program in Big‑O notation and justify your answer.
(d)
Explain how you would modify the program to store the data in a CSV file and later read it using Python’s **csv** module. Mention at least two advantages of using CSV over the plain‑text format described in part (a).
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