Total marks: 90 · Duration: 2 hours
Instructions to candidates
- This paper consists of FOUR questions. Answer ALL questions.
- Questions 1 and 2 are worth 20 marks each; Questions 3 and 4 are worth 25 marks each.
- The paper tests all three profiles: Theory (35 marks), Productivity Tools (30 marks) and Problem-Solving and Programming (25 marks).
- In the January 2027 sitting this paper is "hybrid": you read the questions on screen and write your answers in the answer booklet.
- Write spreadsheet formulas exactly as you would enter them, beginning with "=". Write algorithms in pseudocode; knowledge of a specific programming language is not required.
- You may NOT use a computer or calculator in this examination.
Paper
Question 1
Island Wheels is a car-rental company in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Its booking system uses a database with two tables: CARS (RegNo, Make, Model, Year, DailyRate) and RENTALS (RentalID, RegNo, CustomerName, StartDate, Days).
(a) Explain the difference between validation and verification, giving an example of EACH from the rental desk. (4 marks)
(b) Name the most suitable validation check for EACH of the following:
(i) the number of Days must be from 1 to 30 (1 mark)
(ii) the RegNo field must not be left blank. (1 mark)
(c) (i) Identify the foreign key in the RENTALS table and explain its purpose. (2 marks)
(ii) State the type of relationship between CARS and RENTALS. (1 mark)
(d) Some records from the CARS table are shown below.
| RegNo | Make | Model | Year | DailyRate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PD 4512 | Toyota | Corolla | 2021 | 95 |
| PE 1180 | Honda | Fit | 2019 | 70 |
| PF 2207 | Toyota | RAV4 | 2023 | 140 |
| PD 9034 | Nissan | Note | 2018 | 65 |
| PG 3361 | Toyota | Yaris | 2022 | 80 |
| PE 7725 | Kia | Sportage | 2023 | 135 |
(i) Write the criteria for a query that lists the Toyota cars with a daily rate below $100. (2 marks)
(ii) State how many records your query would return. (1 mark)
(iii) A calculated field in a query shows the cost of renting each car for 5 days. Write the expression for this field, and state its value for car PF 2207. (2 marks)
(e) Distinguish between batch processing and real-time (online) processing, and state which is more suitable for taking bookings, giving a reason. (4 marks)
(f) The company backs up its database every night. State TWO differences between a magnetic hard disk drive and a solid-state drive as backup storage. (2 marks)
Total 20 marks
Question 2
A small graphic-design business in Arima, Trinidad, has five computers, a shared printer and an Internet connection.
(a) Convert the denary (decimal) number 45 to an 8-bit binary number. Show your working. (2 marks)
(b) Add the binary numbers 01011010 and 00110111, giving your answer in binary. (2 marks)
(c) Represent −20 as an 8-bit two's complement number. Show your working. (2 marks)
(d) The five computers are connected in a star topology. Describe a star topology, and state ONE advantage it has over a bus topology. (3 marks)
(e) A client's design file is 450 MB. Calculate how long it would take to download over a connection of 30 megabits per second, in seconds. (Take 1 byte = 8 bits.) Show your working. (2 marks)
(f) The business's events page is at https://www.arimaarts.org.tt/events/index.html. Identify the protocol, the domain name and the file name in this URL. (3 marks)
(g) Name the word-processing feature that:
(i) records every change made to a document so that the author can accept or reject each one (1 mark)
(ii) places the page number at the bottom of every page automatically. (1 mark)
(h) State TWO advantages of fibre-optic cable over copper cable for the business's Internet connection. (2 marks)
(i) Explain why customers should check that the business's payment page uses https rather than http. (2 marks)
Total 20 marks
Question 3
A teacher records her class's marks in a spreadsheet. Tests 1 and 2 are each out of 50 and the project is out of 30. Cell H1 contains the pass mark, 65.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Student | Test 1 | Test 2 | Project | Total | Result |
| 2 | Ali | 34 | 28 | 25 | ||
| 3 | Brianna | 40 | 37 | 22 | ||
| 4 | Chen | 22 | 19 | 18 | ||
| 5 | Dario | 31 | 35 | 24 | ||
| 6 | Esther | 45 | 41 | 27 | ||
| 7 | Farah | 18 | 26 | 20 | ||
| 8 | Average |
(a) Write a formula for E2 that calculates Ali's total mark. (1 mark)
(b) Write a formula for F2 that displays "Pass" if the total is 65 or more, and "Fail" otherwise. (3 marks)
(c) Write the formula for B8 that calculates the average mark for Test 1. (1 mark)
(d) Rewrite your formula for F2 so that it uses the pass mark in H1 and still works when copied down to F7. Explain the change you made. (2 marks)
(e) Write a function that counts the number of students who passed, and state the value it returns. (2 marks)
(f) If the rows for the six students are sorted in descending order of Total, which student appears third? (1 mark)
(g) Name the most suitable type of chart to compare the six students' totals, and give a reason. (2 marks)
(h) Write an algorithm in pseudocode that reads the name and total mark of EACH of the 6 students. For each student it prints the name followed by "Pass" if the total is 65 or more, or "Fail" otherwise. At the end it prints the number of students who passed and the highest total. (7 marks)
(i) Study the algorithm below.
amount ← 1000
year ← 0
WHILE amount < 1500 DO
amount ← amount + amount * 0.1
year ← year + 1
ENDWHILE
PRINT year, amount
Complete a trace table with the headings year and amount, and state what is printed. (5 marks)
(j) State the purpose of the algorithm in (i). (1 mark)
Total 25 marks
Question 4
(a) (i) Explain TWO ways in which the use of computers has changed the type of work people do in the Caribbean. (4 marks)
(ii) Distinguish between a computer virus and spyware. (2 marks)
(iii) What is identity theft? State ONE way a person can reduce the risk of it. (2 marks)
(b) (i) List, in the correct order, FOUR stages in developing a computer program to solve a problem. (4 marks)
(ii) State the most suitable data type for EACH of the following: the number of students in a class; a student's average mark. (2 marks)
(c) A weather station records the rainfall, in millimetres, for each of the 7 days of a week. Write an algorithm in pseudocode that reads the 7 rainfall values into an array, calculates and prints the average rainfall, and then prints the number of days on which the rainfall was ABOVE the average. (7 marks)
(d) The algorithm below should print the squares of the numbers from 1 to 10.
i ← 1
WHILE i < 10 DO
PRINT i * i
i ← i + 1
ENDWHILE
Identify the error, write the corrected line, state the type of error, and state the last value the faulty algorithm prints. (4 marks)
Total 25 marks