This section contains a selection of examination questions. Most are taken from actual GCSEI SCE examination papers, some from GCSE/SCE specimen papers. The source of each question is given in italics next to the question number. Answers are found in the next chapter.
The questions are in the order of the core units. Where a question involves work in more than one unit, it has been put with the unit which is most important in answering it.
The author is grateful to the following Examining Boards and Groups for their kind
permission to publish questions:
London East Anglian Group (LEAG)
Midland Examining Group (MEG)
Northern Examining Association (NEA)
Northern ireland Schools Examinations Council (NISEC)
Scottish Examination Board (SEB)
Southern Examining Group (SEG)
Welsh Joint Education Committee (WJEC)
Grades have been written against some of the questions to give you some idea of their difficulty. The grades used are based on the way the various examining groups have designed their papers:
1 SEB Ordinary, SEG and NEA candidates are expected to do all the papers set. No grades have been given against these questions.
2 All WJEC candidates sit Paper 2, so no grades have been given against these questions. Candidates then have to decide whether to sit Paper 1 (grades C to G only) or Paper 3 (Grades A to E).
3 In the MEG papers each question is in a section aimed at a particular grade. This is the grade which has been used here.
4 Candidates for the LEAG, NISEC and SEB Standard examinations are allowed to take various combinations of papers. Each different combination can lead only to certain grades. The grades shown are the complete range of grades which could be given for the paper the question is in.
Further details of the examinations set by the different groups can be found in the Table of Analysis of Syllabuses at the start of this book.
General notes on how to tackle Case Study examinations are given in the section on Projects, Coursework and Case Studies which follow the answers to these questions at the back of the book.
Any of the questions selected here which involve a Case Study have been marked CASE STUDY.
The applications chosen as Case Study subjects vary from syllabus to syllabus and from year to year. The applications involved in the questions chosen here are:
MEG The use by the DVLC (Driver and Vehicle Licensing Centre, Swansea) of computers to record details of vehicles and of drivers.
NEA The use by the firm North East Area Cleaning Consultants of an IBM Personal Computer to store details of their employees. This Personnel system uses three files:
Employee: The main employee me containing personal details. Absence: Contains details of all absences except holiday records. Holiday: Contains details of holidays taken and booked.
SEG Customer and management services for a branch of a supermarket chain equipped with point-of-sale terminals linked to a central mainframe computer. The services include stock control, cash records and customer till receipts.
The system uses three files for the branch:
Stock File: Contains product reference number, product description, quantity in stock, re-order level and price.
Till File: Contains date, start time, till number, cashier number, float, cash sales and cheque sales for each till.
Re-order File: Contains product reference number, supplier name and supplier address for each product.
Labels: Computer