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UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL EXAMINATIONS

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International General Certificate of Secondary Education

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*3306820156*

COMPUTER STUDIES 0420/12

Paper 1 May/June 2010
2 hours 30 minutes
Candidates answer on the Question Paper.
No Additional Materials are required.

READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

Write your Centre number, candidate number and name on all the work you hand in.
Write in dark blue or black pen.
You may use a soft pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.
Do not use staples, paper clips, highlighters, glue or correction fluid.
DO NOT WRITE IN ANY BARCODES.

Answer all questions.

No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

At the end of the examination, fasten all your work securely together.
The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.

For Examiner's Use

This document consists of 19 printed pages and 1 blank page.

IB10 06_0420_12/6RP
© UCLES 2010 [Turn over
2

1 Explain, with examples where appropriate, the following five computer terms. For
Examiner's
Use
(a) buffer

[2]

(b) batch processing

[2]

(c) e-commerce

[2]

(d) simulation

[2]

(e) email

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

3

2 A company making televisions has introduced robots to replace the human work force. For
Examiner's
Use
(a) Describe three effects this would have on the work force.

[3]

(b) Give two advantages to the company of introducing robots.

[2]

(c) How could the robots be trained to assemble the televisions?

[1]

(d) A whole batch of televisions was produced with some of the parts missing. How could
this error have been avoided?

[1]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

4

3 State four tasks performed at the analysis stage in systems analysis. For
Examiner's
Use
1

[4]

4 Give four features of a Data Protection Act.

[4]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

5

5 A bank is worried about computer crime. For

Examiner's
Use
One of their concerns is online access to customer accounts.

(a) How can a customer’s access details be discovered by criminals?

[2]

(b) Why would a customer using a credit card for online shopping be more of a security
risk than a customer using the same card in a shop?

[2]

(c) Describe what measures the bank can take to safeguard customer accounts.

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

6

6 An expert system is being developed to help engineers diagnose faults in aero engines. For
Examiner's
Use
(a) Describe the steps taken to develop this new expert system.

[4]

(b) Another method used to identify and rectify faults is to train engineers using
virtual reality systems.

(i) What is virtual reality?

[1]

(ii) What special hardware is used to interface with virtual reality systems?

[1]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

7

7 A screen has been developed to allow the input of data into the following fields: For
name, sex, address, date of birth and examination results. Examiner's
Use

(a) A first attempt at designing the screen is shown below:

Student Records

Student name: ………………………………….. Sex: ……………………

Student address: ………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………….
Date of birth: ……… / ……… / ………
Exam results: Subjects and Grades

Type in NEXT to go to next student or BACK to go to previous

student: …………………………

This is not a very good input screen. Give four ways in which it could be improved.

[4]

(b) (i) What is verification?

(ii) Which fields should be verified?

[3]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

8

8 A supermarket makes use of barcodes on all its goods as part of its automatic stock control For
system. Examiner's
Use

(a) Describe how the price is found for each item sold.

[2]

(b) The following are steps in the automatic stock control system.

Number the steps in the correct order.

if stock level ≤ minimum stock level

report printed out for the manager

stock level reduced by 1

new stock value written back to file

more items are ordered automatically

[4]

9 A factory uses a computer system to store information about customers, spare parts and
general administration.

(a) Spare parts can be identified by selecting from diagrams on a computer screen.

Describe what hardware would be needed to allow the parts to be selected in this way.

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

9

(b) The factory needs to buy a new printer. It has decided to buy either a dot matrix printer For
or an inkjet printer. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using both types of Examiner's
Use
printer in this application.

Dot matrix printer:

Advantages

Disadvantages

[3]

Inkjet printer:

Advantages

Disadvantages

[3]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

10

10 A small company runs six cars in its fleet. They have produced a spreadsheet to compare For
running costs over a five month period: Examiner's
Use

A B C D E
Car Identity Total number Cost per km Total cost Average cost
1 of km ($) ($) per month ($)
2 10001 30 000 1.00 30 000 6 000
3 10002 20 000 4.00 80 000 16 000
4 10003 50 000 1.50 75 000 15 000
5 10004 30 000 2.00 60 000 12 000
6 10005 20 000 2.50 50 000 10 000
7 10006 30 000 1.50 45 000 9 000
8 Averages: 2.08 56 667 11 333

(a) It was decided to print out the spreadsheet formulas from D2 to E8. Using the grid
below, show what formulas would be printed:

D E
Total cost Average cost
1 ($) per month ($)

8
[4]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

11

(b) A graph of Cost per km ($) was drawn: For

Examiner's
Cost per km ($) Use

4.5
4
3.5
Cost per km ($)

3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
10001 10002 10003 10004 10005 10006

Car identity

(i) Which cells were highlighted to produce this graph?

[2]

(ii) Describe how the average value of 2.08 would be shown on the graph.

[1]

(c) The data in cell C6 was changed to 3.00.

Which cells would be updated automatically?

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

12

11 A database has been set up showing information about cars: For

Examiner's
Use
No of Engine CO2 Fuel used No of
Car ref
doors (litres) (g/km) (km/litre) cylinders
A 3 1.4 145 15.3 4
B 4 2.0 193 12.3 4
C 5 2.5 231 10.9 6
D 3 2.0 190 11.2 6
E 4 1.3 120 17.5 4
F 5 1.8 180 14.6 4
G 4 3.0 240 9.5 6
H 4 1.2 115 19.7 3

(a) Using Car ref only, write down which cars would be output if the following search
condition was used:

(No of doors = 4) AND (Fuel used (km/litre) > 15)

[2]

(b) Write down a search condition to find out which cars have engines larger than 1.8 litres
OR have CO2 emissions higher than 150 g/km.

[2]

(c) The database is sorted in ascending order on Fuel used (km/litre). Using Car ref
only, write down the results of the sort.

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

13

12 (a) State two items of hardware needed to enable a standard computer system to take For
part in video conferencing. Examiner's
Use

[2]

(b) State two additional items of software that would be needed for the video conferencing
to take place.

[2]

(c) Describe two potential problems when using video conferencing.

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

14

13 Study the following flowchart very carefully: For

Examiner's
Use
START

INPUT X

Yes
Is X = 0? PRINT
“error”

No
STOP
T=X

N=1

T = T/10
N=N+1

No Yes
Is T < 10? PRINT N

STOP

What output would you expect if the following data was input into the flowchart?

X OUTPUT

-150

540

0
[3]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

15

14 A safety system has been developed to stop vehicles getting too close to each other on the For
road. Examiner's
Use
A B

sensors

If vehicle A gets too close to vehicle B, the brakes are automatically applied by a computer
system in vehicle A.

(a) What type of sensors could be used on the vehicles?

[1]

(b) Describe what the safety system does to constantly monitor how close the vehicle is to
the vehicles in front and decide when to take action.

[4]

(c) Describe two potential problems with this safety system.

[2]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

16

15 A floor turtle can use the following instructions: For

Examiner's
Use
Instruction Meaning

FORWARD d Move d cm forward

BACKWARD d Move d cm backward

LEFT t Turn left t degrees

RIGHT t Turn right t degrees

REPEAT n Repeat the next set of instructions n times

ENDREPEAT End of REPEAT loop

PENUP Raise the pen

PENDOWN Lower the pen

(In the following grid, each square is 10 cm by 10 cm.)

Start End

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

17

Complete the set of instructions to draw the shape (shown in bold lines) by filling in the For
blank lines. Examiner's
Use

LEFT 90

PENDOWN

FORWARD 10

RIGHT 90

[5]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10 [Turn over

18

16 (a) Write an algorithm, using pseudocode or a flowchart, which: For

Examiner's
Use
inputs 50 numbers
outputs how many of the numbers were > 100

[3]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

19

(b) Write an algorithm, using pseudocode or a flowchart, which: For

Examiner's
Use
inputs 100 numbers
finds the average of the input numbers
outputs the average

[3]

© UCLES 2010 0420/12/M/J/10

20

BLANK PAGE

Permission to reproduce items where third-party owned material protected by copyright is included has been sought and cleared where possible. Every
reasonable effort has been made by the publisher (UCLES) to trace copyright holders, but if any items requiring clearance have unwittingly been included, the
publisher will be pleased to make amends at the earliest possible opportunity.

University of Cambridge International Examinations is part of the Cambridge Assessment Group. Cambridge Assessment is the brand name of University of
Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.

0420/12/M/J/10