Neco 2025 Data Processing Question 4

Practice essay / theory question 4 from the 2025 Neco Data Processing examination. This question covers Types of Files and File Organization .

Neco 2025 Data Processing Essay / Theory
Topic: Types of Files and File Organization
Question 4 NECO • 2025 • DATA_PROCESSING • essay

A secondary school keeps a digital file of the examination results of 500 students. Each student record contains the following fields: - Admission number (8 characters) - Name (30 characters) - Three subject scores, each stored as a 2‑byte integer. The file is stored on a disk whose block size is 512 bytes.

Question Parts

( a )
Calculate the size in bytes of a single student record. Show the working.
( b )
If the file is organised as a sequential file, determine: (i) the number of disk blocks required to store the whole file, (ii) the amount of internal fragmentation (unused space) in the last block.
( ) Number of disk blocks required.
( ) Internal fragmentation in the last block.
( c )
The school is considering converting the file to an Indexed Sequential Access Method (ISAM) with a primary index that stores the admission number and the block address of each record. Each index entry occupies 10 bytes (8 for the admission number and 2 for the block address). (i) Calculate the total size of the index. (ii) Determine the total storage (data + index) required, assuming the same 512‑byte block size. (iii) Briefly state one advantage of using this indexed organisation over the simple sequential file.
( ) Total size of the index.
( ) Total storage required (data + index).
( ) One advantage of the indexed organisation.

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About This Question

This is Neco 2025 Data Processing Question 4. It is one of the essay questions from the 2025 Neco Data Processing examination.

The question covers Types of Files and File Organization .

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