CP2 Computing June 2009

[1]	A secretary in a solicitor's office uses a word processor to write reports and letters. Two features regularly used are print preview and the thesaurus.
(a)	Briefly describe the print preview feature and give an example of how it could be useful to the secretary.	[2]
	an on-screen view of a what a document would look like if it was printed. the secretary could check the look of a letter before printing it. This would save paper if there were errors.
(b)	Briefly describe the thesaurus feature and give an example of how it could be useful to the secretary.	[2]
	a thesaurus provides alternative words with the same meaning. when typing a document, the secretary could use the thesaurus to suggest alternative words to make the document read better. Eg. alternative for 'teaching' might be 'educating'.

[2](a)	Draw two diagrams that show the difference between a bus network and a star network.	[2]

(b)	Give two advantages of using a star network rather than a bus network.	[2]
	if one length of cable breaks down, the rest of the network is not affected. good data security - data transmission is controlled by the central file server and does not pass through other workstations.
(c)	Describe a situation where it would be preferable to have several standalone computers instead of having computers networked.	[1]
	standalone computers would be used if there is no need to exchange data between them, or if there is a worry about security. Eg off-line data preparation.

[3]	State, giving a reason in each case, the most suitable secondary storage medium for each of the following situations.
(a)	Making a back up copy of the complete hard disc drive of a computer used in a small business (250 Gigabytes).	[2]
	Magnetic tape Large storage capacity.
(b)	Sending copies of many high resolution photographs, in electronic form, to a family friend through the post (4 Gigabytes)	[2]
	DVD Large storage capacity that is portable and strong enough to post.
(c)	A manager taking a computer presentation home, in electronic form, from the office (3 Megabytes).	[2]
	USB memory stick. Portable storage medium.

[4]	Staff working for a large company use computers every day. Describe three ways in which the prolonged use of computers might affect the health of the staff.	[3]
	back or neck strain, particularly if the chair and computer are badly positioned. eye strain from looking at the monitors for long periods. Repetitive strain injury (RSI) may be caused by constant use of the same joints in the hands and wrists.

[5]	Employees in an organisation each have a unique employee code made up of two letters, two digits and two letters, for instance PY45FT. A validation check is applied to the employee code.
(a)	What is the purpose of validation?	[1]
	to make sure that input data is sensible.
(b)	Describe two types of validation check which might be applied to this employee code giving an example of invalid data detected by the check in each case.	[4]
	First validation check
	Length check - data must be six characters long.
	Example of invalid data detected by this check
	PY45FTG
	Second validation check
	Format check (2 letters, 2 digits, 2 letters)
	Example of invalid data detected by this check
	P945FT

[6](a)	Give three reasons why voice recognition is not yet in widespread use as an input method for personal computers.	[3]
	recognition may fail as voices may vary - eg if a person has a cold. regional accents may not be recognised background noise may cause a problem.
(b)	Describe two advantages of voice recognition as an input method compared with keyboard input.	[2]
	no hands needed so useful for handicapped or somebody using their hands for other things eg flying a plane; surgery. faster input of data. Eg. when dictating a letter to a word processor.

[7](a)	Explain how a record is added to:
(i)	a serial file	[1]
	record is appended onto the end of the file
(ii)	a sequential file	[2]
	record is added to the end of the file and then the file is sorted ...or new file is created by copying each record of old file, and the new record is inserted into the file at the correct position.
(b)	Records within a file can be fixed or variable length.
(i)	Give one advantage of a fixed length record.	[1]
	faster processing of the records
(ii)	Give one advantage of a variable length record.	[1]
	smaller file size so faster to transmit file.
(c)	Draw a detailed diagram that clearly shows how the master file is updated using a transaction file when an electricity company produces quarterly bills.	[4]


[8](a)	Describe three typical functions of the operating system from the user's point of view.	[3]
	loads and runs programs backing storage management - saves and retrieves data from backing store maintains security - checks usernames and passwords
(b)(i)	Explain how spooling is carried out on a computer when several documents need to be printed.	[2]
	each document is saved in a queue on backing store before being printed when the printer is ready, each document in turn is sent to the printer to be printed
(ii)	Describe a benefit of spooling for the user.	[1]
	the user does not have to wait for printing to be completed before using the computer for further processing.

[9]	A certain computer uses a word length of 32 bits.
(a)	Define the term word in this context.	[1]
	the amount of data that the CPU can process at a time.
(b)	An advantage of using a long word length is that the computer may work faster. Briefly describe why this is the case.	[1]
	more bits of data can be processed at a time with longer word length.

[10]	A company stores personal data about customers. Company employees have access to this data. Employees are required to comply with the company's code of conduct and have usernames and passwords to access the data.
(a)	Apart from passwords and a code of conduct, describe two other measures that the company might adopt to try to prevent employees benefiting illegally from having access to this data.	[2]
	data encryption - the data may be coded so it becomes meaningless if it falls into the wrong hands. access to the data may be logged. The data accessed, the employee accessing it and the time may be recorded.
(b)	The company complies with the Data Protection Act by ensuring that the data is obtained lawfully, held securely and is not kept longer than necessary. Describe three other ways in which the company must operate in order to comply with the Data Protection Act.	[3]
	the data must be accurate and kept up-to-date the data must only be used for the specified purpose the data held must not be more than is needed for the purpose it is required.

[11]	In the following question, additional credit (up to 3 marks) will be given if your answer demonstrates skill in written communication.
	CymruSpa is a thriving hotel set in rural Wales. They offer several different types of room such as standard twin or luxury suites and different meal options such as bed and breakfast or full board. They cater for all types of eating preferences and special dietary requirements such as wheat intolerance. The hotel has decided to computerise their current paper-based data storage system which contains details of bookings and of all guests who have stayed at the hotel. Apart from personal details such as name and address, describe relevant items of data that should be stored in the new system. The hotel has decided to use a database system. Explain any improvements this new database system will have over the current paper-based system.	[7+3]
	In the Bookings table, the following fields should be stored... The start and end dates of the booking. The identity of the customer making the booking. The number of adults and children that are going to stay. The name and type of room that has been booked. The meal options required (B&B or full board) Any additional information such as dietary requirements. (This could be stored as a coded field - WI for wheat intolerance, DB for Diabetic etc) The new database will allow faster access to the data so the hotel management can speedily produce reports such as a list of guests arriving on a particular day. They will also be able to query the database to produce, for example, lists of rooms that are still available on a particular date. This could be done very quickly when an enquiry is made. There will be no need for large and complex storage systems for paper, and less time will be needed for filing documents.