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Question Paper Computer Systems

This document is an exam paper for an A Level Computer Science exam. It contains four questions about computer architecture and assembly language programming. Question 1 asks about Von Neumann architecture, replacing a processor, and an assembly language program. Question 2 asks the student to write code to reset a value and stop the program. Question 3 defines pipelining. Question 4 asks about benefits of using a processor that allows pipelining.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)

13 views90 pages

Question Paper Computer Systems

Uploaded by

Just Wade

We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.

Available Formats

Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

You are on page 1/ 90

Oxford Cambridge and RSA

Monday 13 June 2022 – Afternoon

A Level Computer Science
H446/01 Computer Systems
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes

You can use:

* 8 9 6 3 6 5 4 5 9 7 *

• an HB pencil
Do not use:
• a calculator

* H 4 4 6 0 1 *

Please write clearly in black ink. Do not write in the barcodes.

Centre number Candidate number

First name(s)

Last name

INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink. You can use an HB pencil, but only for graphs and diagrams.
• Write your answer to each question in the space provided. If you need extra space use
the lined pages at the end of this booklet. The question numbers must be clearly shown.
• Answer all the questions.

INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 140.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk (*).
• This document has 32 pages.

ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.

© OCR 2022 [601/4911/5] OCR is an exempt Charity

DC (ST) 300461/3 Turn over
2
BLANK PAGE

PLEASE DO NOT WRITE ON THIS PAGE

1 A charity uses a desktop computer to record financial donations that it receives. The computer
contains a single core, 2.4GHz processor with 2MB cache.

(a) The processor uses the Von Neumann architecture.

(i) Describe what is meant by the term ‘Von Neumann architecture’.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Give one way that the Harvard architecture differs from the Von Neumann architecture.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(b) The charity is concerned that the performance of the computer is not sufficient and wishes to
replace the processor.

Give two features of a replacement processor that would increase the typical performance of
the computer.

1 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................

2 ................................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................................
[2]

© OCR 2022 Turn over

4
(c) Fig. 1 shows assembly code written using the Little Man Computer (LMC). The program
calculates and outputs the total amount that is donated to the charity in any particular day.
Depending on the amount, an additional bonus may be added to each amount donated.

start INP
STA donation
SUB hundred
BRP bonus
nobonus LDA total
ADD donation
STA total
OUT
BRA start
bonus LDA total
ADD donation
ADD twenty
STA total
OUT
BRA start
hundred DAT 100
twenty DAT 20
donation DAT 0
total DAT 0

Fig. 1

(i) The program shown in Fig. 1 is run once using three different inputs. Therefore, while
the program is running once, it will output the updated total three times.

Give the total values that are output when the values 10, 50 and 120 are input into this
program.

Output for 10 .....................................................................................................................

Output for 50 .....................................................................................................................

Output for 120 ...................................................................................................................

[3]

© OCR 2022
5
(ii) Write LMC code that will reset the value of the memory location labelled total to zero
and then stop the program.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [4]

(iii) This program is run on a processor that allows pipelining.

Define the term ‘pipelining’.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [3]

(iv) Explain one benefit to the charity of using a processor that allows pipelining.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

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6
(d) The processor contains registers including the accumulator and the program counter. The
contents of these registers are modified during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

(i) Describe how the accumulator is used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Describe how the program counter is used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute cycle.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(iii) State the name of three other registers that are used during the Fetch-Decode-Execute
cycle.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

3 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[3]

© OCR 2022
7
(e)* The charity has several desktop computers in their office that use a CISC processor. They
are considering buying mobile devices for their staff to use when they are not in the office.

Discuss whether these mobile devices should use the same CISC processors that are used
in their desktop computers or if they should use a RISC processor instead.

You should include the following in your answer:

• the difference between each processor type

• the suitability of each processor type for mobile devices. [12]

...................................................................................................................................................

© OCR 2022 Turn over

...................................................................................................................................................

PLEASE DO NOT WRITE ON THIS PAGE

© OCR 2022 Turn over

10
2 A video streaming service uses a relational database. An extract of the data from two tables from
this database is shown in Fig. 2.

Membership contains data about current memberships that customers hold and package
contains data about different streaming packages available.

Username FirstName StartDate PackageType

User001 Amaya 08/05/2016 Premium
User002 Amit 06/06/2019 Basic
User003 Tom 17/08/2019 Free
User004 Kareem 08/08/2017 Basic
User005 Sarah 25/03/2020 Premium
Membership

PackageType CostPerMonth(£) Adverts

Premium 12.99 false
Basic 7.99 true
Free 0.00 true
Package

Fig. 2

(a) (i) State what is meant by the term ‘primary key’.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Identify the foreign key used in the database and the table name where this is a foreign
key.

Foreign Key .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Table Name .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(iii) Identify the data type of the CostPerMonth(£) field.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(b) The Adverts field indicates if customers will be shown adverts. true indicates that
customers will be shown adverts, and false indicates that adverts are not shown.

Write Structured Query Language (SQL) to return the Username and FirstName fields for
all customers who see adverts.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [5]

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12
(c) When new customers join the streaming service, their name, email address and contact
details are captured so that they can be entered into the database.

(i) Identify one method of capturing a new customer’s personal data, describing why this
method is suitable.

Method ..............................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Suitability ...........................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[3]

(ii) Sometimes the company may need to move or backup its data they hold about
customers.

Identify two methods of exchanging data with other computer systems.

1 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

2 ........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

(d) The database supports ACID transactions. ACID stands for Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation
and Durability.

(i) Describe what is meant by a transaction being durable.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Give one way that durability can be achieved for a completed transaction.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

© OCR 2022
13
(iii) Explain how record locking can be used to ensure that the ACID principle of isolation is
achieved when carrying out multiple transactions.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [3]

(iv) Give one disadvantage of using record locking.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(e) The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 applies to all videos that are streamed.

Explain how this act applies to the videos.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [2]

© OCR 2022 Turn over

14
(f) All videos that are streamed are compressed. Customers have the option to choose from
watching the videos with lossy compression or lossless compression.

Explain how this choice will impact the customer.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [5]

© OCR 2022
15
(g) A program is written using an object-oriented programming paradigm and uses a class called
video to organise the videos that are streamed to customers.

The class video has these attributes:

• name
• number of views
• star rating.

The constructor method will set the name attribute to the name that is passed in as a
parameter. The constructor will also initially set the number of views to 0 and the star rating
to 3.

(i) Write program code or pseudocode to declare the class video and initialise the required
attributes as private.

You should include both the attribute definitions and the constructor method in your
answer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [7]

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16
(ii) A public method called updateviews() will update the number of views after a video
has been viewed. This method is defined inside the video class.

Write program code or pseudocode for the method updateviews() to increase the
number of views by one.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) 110010101 is a binary number that is represented using sign and magnitude.

Convert this binary number to a denary number.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) Complete this binary subtraction. Both numbers are 8-bit integer values represented
using two’s complement.

Show the result in the same format and show your working.

0110 1101 –
0011 0100

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [3]

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18
(b) The normalised floating point number 1010 1110 is stored using 4 bits for the mantissa and
4 bits for the exponent, both in two’s complement.

Give the denary version of this number, showing your working.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [4]

(c) Table 3 here shows floating point numbers that are stored using 6 bits for the mantissa and
3 bits for the exponent, both in two’s complement.

Tick (✓) one box in each row to state whether each number is normalised or not normalised.

Binary number Normalised Not normalised

010101 100
110101 111
011010 010
101010 110

Table 3
[4]

© OCR 2022
19
4* Amit is studying Computer Science at university. He has been asked to write an assignment on
Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Discuss the extent to which you think computer systems will inherit the biases and discrimination
of their programmers as the use of AI increases.

You should include the following in your answer:

• the meaning of AI
• examples of when AI may be affected by bias
• the measures that can be taken to prevent people being affected by bias in AI. [9]

..........................................................................................................................................................

© OCR 2022 Turn over

..........................................................................................................................................................

function mystery(x,y)

total = x + y

while x >= 10 then

x = x – 10

y = y – 10

total = total + x + y

endwhile

return total

endfunction

Fig. 5

(a) (i) State the value output by the line print(mystery(10,20))

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) State the value output by the line print(mystery(0,70))

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) State the value output by the line print(mystery(45,55))

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

© OCR 2022 Turn over

22
(b) Before the code in Fig. 5 can be executed, a translator must be used.

(i) State the purpose of a translator.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(ii) Explain two differences between a compiler and an interpreter.

Difference 1 .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Difference 2 .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[4]

© OCR 2022
23
(c) For each statement shown in Table 5, tick (✓) one box in each row to indicate which stage of
compilation each action takes place at.

Lexical Syntax Code

analysis analysis generation
Comments and whitespace are
removed
Keywords are replaced with
tokens

Object code is created

Symbol table created for

variables

Builds an abstract syntax tree

Table 5
[5]

(d) Describe the purpose of code optimisation.

...................................................................................................................................................

.............................................................................................................................................. [2]

© OCR 2022 Turn over

24
(e) The programmer creates another function to count and return how many capital letters are in
a string that is passed into the function as a parameter.

The asc() function takes in a character and returns its ASCII value. For example asc("A")
returns 65. Capital letters have ASCII values between 65 and 90 inclusive.

(i) Complete the function below.

function countCapitals(text)

// initialise counter to 0

capCount = 0

// loop through each character in the string passed in

for x = 0 to text.length-1

c = text.subString(x, 1)

// check if character is a capital

if asc(c) >= 65 ……………………………………………………………

// if so, increment counter

…………………………………………………………………………

endif

next x

……………………………………………………………………

endfunction
[3]

(ii) Give one similarity between ASCII and Unicode.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [1]

(iii) Give two differences between ASCII and Unicode.

Difference 1 .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................

Difference 2 .......................................................................................................................

...........................................................................................................................................
[2]

© OCR 2022
25
(f)* The programmer has been asked by a client to create a complex computer program. Compare
the spiral model and waterfall lifecycle methodologies for this task.

You should include the following in your answer:

• how both methodologies could be used to develop a complex computer program

• the benefits of each methodology for this task
• the drawbacks of each methodology for this task. [9]

...................................................................................................................................................

© OCR 2022 Turn over

...................................................................................................................................................

© OCR 2022
27
6 Anika’s computer runs a multi-tasking operating system. She has access to a printer and a
broadband internet connection through a wireless connection. The operating system uses
scheduling algorithms such as first come first served and round-robin.

(a) (i) Explain why the computer’s operating system uses a first come first served algorithm
when sending documents to the printer.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

(ii) Explain why the computer’s operating system uses a round-robin algorithm for allocating
processor time.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [3]

(iii) Describe one other scheduling algorithm.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

© OCR 2022 Turn over

28
(b) Anika uses an encrypted messaging program to communicate with her friends. The computer
uses the TCP/IP stack.

(i) Explain what happens at the application layer of the TCP/IP stack when using this
program.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [5]

(ii) Explain what happens at the link layer (sometimes referred to as the “network interface
layer”, “network access layer” or simply the “network layer”) of the TCP/IP stack when
using this program.

...........................................................................................................................................

...................................................................................................................................... [2]

END OF QUESTION PAPER

If additional space is required, you should use the following lined page(s). The question number(s)
must be clearly shown in the margin(s).

..................................................................................................................................................................

Oxford Cambridge and RSA

Copyright Information
OCR is committed to seeking permission to reproduce all third-party content that it uses in its assessment materials. OCR has attempted to identify and contact all copyright holders
whose work is used in this paper. To avoid the issue of disclosure of answer-related information to candidates, all copyright acknowledgements are reproduced in the OCR Copyright
Acknowledgements Booklet. This is produced for each series of examinations and is freely available to download from our public website (www.ocr.org.uk) after the live examination series.
If OCR has unwittingly failed to correctly acknowledge or clear any third-party content in this assessment material, OCR will be happy to correct its mistake at the earliest possible
opportunity.
For queries or further information please contact The OCR Copyright Team, The Triangle Building, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge CB2 8EA.
OCR is part of Cambridge University Press & Assessment, which is itself a department of the University of Cambridge.

Computer Science

H446/01: Computer systems

A Level

Mark Scheme for June 2022

Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations

OCR (Oxford Cambridge and RSA) is a leading UK awarding body, providing a wide range of
qualifications to meet the needs of candidates of all ages and abilities. OCR qualifications
include AS/A Levels, Diplomas, GCSEs, Cambridge Nationals, Cambridge Technicals,
Functional Skills, Key Skills, Entry Level qualifications, NVQs and vocational qualifications in
areas such as IT, business, languages, teaching/training, administration and secretarial skills.

It is also responsible for developing new specifications to meet national requirements and the
needs of students and teachers. OCR is a not-for-profit organisation; any surplus made is
invested back into the establishment to help towards the development of qualifications and
support, which keep pace with the changing needs of today’s society.

This mark scheme is published as an aid to teachers and students, to indicate the requirements
of the examination. It shows the basis on which marks were awarded by examiners. It does not
indicate the details of the discussions which took place at an examiners’ meeting before marking
commenced.

All examiners are instructed that alternative correct answers and unexpected approaches in
candidates’ scripts must be given marks that fairly reflect the relevant knowledge and skills
demonstrated.

Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the published question papers and the report
on the examination.

Oxford Cambridge and RSA Examinations

H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

MARKING INSTRUCTIONS
PREPARATION FOR MARKING
SCORIS

1. Make sure that you have accessed and completed the relevant training packages for on-screen marking: RM assessor Online Training; OCR
Essential Guide to Marking.

2. Make sure that you have read and understood the mark scheme and the question paper for this unit. These are posted on the RM Cambridge
Assessment Support Portal http://www.rm.com/support/ca

3. Log-in to RM Assessor and mark the required number of practice responses (“scripts”) and the number of required standardisation responses.

YOU MUST MARK 5 PRACTICE AND 10 STANDARDISATION RESPONSES BEFORE YOU CAN BE APPROVED TO MARK LIVE SCRIPTS.

MARKING

1. Mark strictly to the mark scheme.

2. Marks awarded must relate directly to the marking criteria.

3. The schedule of dates is very important. It is essential that you meet the 50% and 100% deadlines. If you experience problems, you must contact
your Team Leader (Supervisor) without delay.

1. If you are in any doubt about applying the mark scheme, consult your Team Leader by telephone or the RM messaging system, or by email.

2. Crossed Out Responses

Where a candidate has crossed out a response and provided a clear alternative then the crossed out response is not marked. Where no alternative
response has been provided, examiners may give candidates the benefit of the doubt and mark the crossed out response where legible.

Rubric Error Responses – Optional Questions

Where candidates have a choice of question across a whole paper or a whole section and have provided more answers than required, then all responses
are marked and the highest mark allowable within the rubric is given. Enter a mark for each question answered into RM assessor, which will select the
highest mark from those awarded. (The underlying assumption is that the candidate has penalised themselves by attempting more questions than
necessary in the time allowed.)

Contradictory Responses
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
When a candidate provides contradictory responses, then no mark should be awarded, even if one of the answers is correct.

Short Answer Questions (requiring only a list by way of a response, usually worth only one mark per response)
Where candidates are required to provide a set number of short answer responses then only the set number of responses should be marked. The
response space should be marked from left to right on each line and then line by line until the required number of responses have been considered. The
remaining responses should not then be marked. Examiners will have to apply judgement as to whether a ‘second response’ on a line is a development
of the ‘first response’, rather than a separate, discrete response. (The underlying assumption is that the candidate is attempting to hedge their bets and
therefore getting undue benefit rather than engaging with the question and giving the most relevant/correct responses.)

Short Answer Questions (requiring a more developed response, worth two or more marks)
If the candidates are required to provide a description of, say, three items or factors and four items or factors are provided, then mark on a similar basis
– that is downwards (as it is unlikely in this situation that a candidate will provide more than one response in each section of the response space.)

Longer Answer Questions (requiring a developed response)

Where candidates have provided two (or more) responses to a medium or high tariff question which only required a single (developed) response and not
crossed out the first response, then only the first response should be marked. Examiners will need to apply professional judgement as to whether the
second (or a subsequent) response is a ‘new start’ or simply a poorly expressed continuation of the first response.

3. Always check the pages (and additional objects if present) at the end of the response in case any answers have been continued there. If the candidate
has continued an answer there then add a tick to confirm that the work has been seen.

7. Award No Response (NR) if:

• there is nothing written in the answer space

Award Zero ‘0’ if:

• anything is written in the answer space and is not worthy of credit (this includes text and symbols).

Team Leaders must confirm the correct use of the NR button with their markers before live marking commences and should check this when
reviewing scripts.

8. The RM comments box is used by your team leader to explain the marking of the practice responses. Please refer to these comments when
checking your practice responses. Do not use the comments box for any other reason.
If you have any questions or comments for your team leader, use the phone, the RM messaging system, or e-mail.

9. Assistant Examiners will send a brief report on the performance of candidates to their Team Leader (Supervisor) via email by the end of the marking
period. The report should contain notes on particular strengths displayed as well as common errors or weaknesses. Constructive criticism of the
question paper/mark scheme is also appreciated.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

10. For answers marked by levels of response:

a. To determine the level – start at the highest level and work down until you reach the level that matches the answer
b. To determine the mark within the level, consider the following:

Descriptor Award mark

On the borderline of this level and the one below At bottom of level

Above bottom and either below middle or at middle of level (depending on number of marks
Just enough achievement on balance for this level
available)
Meets the criteria but with some slight Above middle and either below top of level or at middle of level (depending on number of marks
inconsistency available)
Consistently meets the criteria for this level At top of level
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
Annotation Meaning

Omission mark

Benefit of the doubt

Subordinate clause / consequential error

Incorrect point

Expansion of a point

Follow through

Not answered question

No benefit of doubt given

Point being made

Repeat

Correct point

Too vague
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

Zero (big)
Blank Page – this annotation must be used on all blank pages
within an answer booklet (structured or unstructured) and on
each page of an additional object where there is no candidate
response.

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3
11.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

12. Subject Specific Marking Instructions

Question Answer Mark Guidance
1 (a) (i) ● Both data and instructions share the same memory 2
● Instructions and Data stored in same format
● A single set of buses / same bus for instructions &
data (to connect CPU to Memory and I/O)
● Has a (single) control unit
● Has an ALU.
● Has ways to input and output.
● Has access to storage,
● Works sequentially through instructions // follows
Fetch-execute cycle
● (Special) registers within CPU
● Based on stored program concept
(ii) ● Separate memory for data and instructions / Multiple 1
memory units
● Different (sets of) buses one for instructions & one
for data/ instructions and data can be accessed
concurrently.
(b) ● Higher/faster clock speed 2 Answers must refer to an improvement
● More cores//dual/quad/etc core (more/higher/faster) not just “change the clock speed”
● More cache memory. Allow discussions of level 1/level 2 cache sizes for one
mark.

Accept valid features of CPUs that would improve

performance e.g. Use of:
Pipelining
Simultaneous Multithreading

Do not accept RISC/CISC.

(c) (i) ● 10 3 1 mark per number
● 60
● 200
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(ii) ● Loads a value into the accumulator 4 Example 1
● Establishes a zero value (by use of DAT / SUB) LDA zero
● Stores a zero value into total STA total
● Program stops HLT
zero DAT 0

Example 2
LDA total
SUB total
STA total
HLT

BP1 can be given for any value being loaded into the
accumulator e.g. INP

If candidate writes LDA donation/total (case sensitive)

they can get BP2 as they’ve used the labels from the
question

BP3 - total is case sensitive as given in the question

BP4 - must not be given if the zero value will be

attempted to be fetched e.g. HLT is placed after DAT
(iii) ● One instruction can be fetched while another is 3 For BP1, allow any 2 of the 3 parts of the FDE cycle
being decoded… For BP2, must give the other part of the FDE cycle not
● …and another is executed given in BP1
● The output of one process/instruction is the input of
the next. Do not award if explaining multiple cores working on
● Concurrent processing of multiple instructions // different parts of FDE cycle
completing multiple FDE cycles at once
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(iv) ● More instructions can be carried out in a set amount 2 Do not allow “each instruction is quicker to execute”.
of time // less time to execute the same number of
instructions BP2 has to be specific to the charity e.g. processing
● Increasing the speed/performance/efficiency of the more donations
computer/program // quicker for the program to
complete
(d) (i) ● Holds all input/output 2
● Holds results of calculations (from the ALU)
● Checked for conditional branching (e.g. BRZ)
● Stores data which has come from the MDR/RAM

(ii) ● Holds the address/location of the next instruction (to 2

be executed/fetched)
● Contents copied to the MAR at start of FDE
● Incremented (by one) on every cycle
● Can be changed by branch/jump instructions

(iii) ● Memory Address Register // MAR 3 Allow Memory Buffer Register for MDR
● Memory Data Register // MDR
● Current Instruction Register // CIR
● Index Register // IR
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(e) Mark Band 3–High Level (9-12 marks) 12 AO1
The candidate demonstrates a thorough knowledge and CISC is a complex instruction set. The traditional
understanding of both CISC and RISC. The material is AO1.1 approach to processor design. Lots of instructions
generally accurate and detailed. (2), available although some instructions in CISC will rarely
AO1.2
(2), get used.
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and AO2.1 RISC is a reduced instruction set. A smaller number of
understanding directly and consistently to the context (3), instructions available, several instructions can be
provided. Evidence/examples will be explicitly relevant AO3.3. combined to perform the same tasks as CISC
(5)
to the explanation. processors. RISC instructions are used regularly.
RISC has fewer transistors/less complex circuitry
The candidate provides a thorough discussion which is whereas CISC integrated circuits are more
well balanced. Evaluative comments are consistently expensive/complicated. RISC instructions take one
relevant and well-considered. cycle whereas CISC may take several. RISC can only
do complex things by combining multiple instructions
There is a well-developed line of reasoning which is whereas CISC is done in one line. Compilers for RISC
clear and logically structured. The information presented need to be more complex than compilers for CISC
is relevant and substantiated.

Mark Band 2-Mid Level (5-8 marks) AO2

The candidate demonstrates reasonable knowledge and CISC processors would run the same software as the
understanding of CISC and/or RISC; the material is desktop machines. Would be less power efficient and
generally accurate but at times underdeveloped. require larger battery and cooling mechanisms. More
expensive to purchase.
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and RISC processor requires software to be written
understanding directly to the context provided although specifically for it (cannot use CISC instructions). More
one or two opportunities are missed. power efficient and so requires less/no cooling and
Evidence/examples are for the most part implicitly smaller battery/longer battery life. RISC devices may
relevant to the explanation. require greater RAM as programs tend to be larger than
their CISC equivalents.
The candidate provides a sound discussion, the majority
of which is focused. Evaluative comments are for the
most part appropriate, although one or two opportunities AO3
for development are missed. Mobile use of CISC would save money on software and
increase compatibility but cost more to purchase and be
There is a line of reasoning presented with some physically larger (heat sink/larger battery) and/or have a
structure. The information presented is in the most part shorter battery life.
relevant and supported by some evidence. RISC would require investment in software but be
cheaper to purchase and give a better performance out
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
Mark Band 1-Low Level (1-4 marks) of the office (lighter/longer battery life). Some
The candidate demonstrates a basic knowledge of CISC compatibility issues may be reduced with emulators and
or RISC; the material is basic and contains some translators.
inaccuracies. The candidate makes a limited attempt to
apply acquired knowledge and understanding to the
context provided.

The candidate provides a limited discussion which is

narrow in focus. Judgments if made are weak and
unsubstantiated. The information is basic and
communicated in an unstructured way. The information
is supported by limited evidence and the relationship to
the evidence may not be clear.

0 marks
No attempt to answer the question or response is not
worthy of credit.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

Question Answer Mark Guidance

2 (a) (i) ● Field that is unique/does not repeat 1

(ii) ● Foreign Key: PackageType 2 Must be spelled correctly

● Table Name: Membership

(iii) ● Float / Floating Point / Real 1 Allow currency/double/single/decimal

(iv) ● Adverts 1 CAO

H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(b) ● Username and FirstName fields (and no others) 5 For full marks, a fully correct working answer must be
selected correctly using SELECT keyword provided. Candidates can join tables in either of two valid
● Membership / both tables correctly selected using ways (using JOIN or WHERE). Note that JOIN is given in the
FROM keyword specification but INNER JOIN is also equally acceptable.
● Tables joined using correct JOIN / INNER JOIN
keywords // Tables joined using correct WHERE BP1 is the same for either method
clause For BP2, candidates can either choose just the Membership
● Fields use table identifiers before them table or both the Membership and Packagetable
● WHERE clause used to correctly show only records BP3 credited for correct JOIN / INNER JOIN or correct use of
where Adverts = true WHERE clause to join tables. Do not credit if FROM clause
incorrect for this method
BP4 credited if candidates have used table identifiers before
the field name (i.e they have used
Membership.PackageType and not just PackageType)
BP5 will require use of AND if WHERE is used to join tables.

Spellings of all field names, table names and keywords must

be accurate but only penalise once.

Example one using JOIN keyword

SELECT Username, Firstname
FROM Membership
JOIN Package on
Membership.PackageType=Package.PackageType
WHERE Adverts = true

Example two using WHERE clause

SELECT Username, Firstname
FROM Membership, Package
WHERE Membership.PackageType =
Package.PackageType
AND Adverts = true
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(c) (i) ● Form / web form 3 One mark maximum for identification of method
● Can use validation to check for common errors… Two marks for discussion of suitability
● Can check for duplicate values
● Data can be entered direct into the database / Accept other valid methods of capturing data. Do NOT accept
limited manual processing OCR/OMR/barcodes/QR codes
● Can be done from remote locations
If the method is incorrect, don’t read on

(ii) e.g. 2
● CSV
● JSON
● XML
● SQL
● APIs
● EDI
● RSS
● SOAP
(d) (i) ● (Committed) data/transaction is not lost… 2
● …in case of power / system failure
(ii) ● Completed transactions stored in secondary storage 1
// data not stored long-term in RAM/cache
(iii) ● The outcome of concurrent transactions is the same 3 Allow reference to lost updates/dirty reads/phantom reads for
as if transactions were completed sequentially. BP3.
● Record locking allows one user/process to
access/modify record level data at any one time
● So data that is being used elsewhere cannot be
modified // data that is being modified elsewhere
cannot be used

(iv) ● Can cause delays (as users wait for access) 1

● Can cause deadlock
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(e) ● Copyright assigned to owner of video automatically 2
on creation
● Makes it illegal to copy/distribute videos as your
own/without permission
● Copyright holder can ask for their work to be
removed from the streaming platform
● Membership/licence gives subscribers the
agreement to view videos
● Which may restrict their use (e.g. to whom it is
shown or geographical location from which it is
accessed).
(f) ● Lossy permanently removes data 5 Do not allow answers relating to speed of download unless this
● Lossless rewrites original data in more efficient clearly refers to the video starting or reduction in buffering –
format scenario is video being streamed, not downloaded.
● Lossless is able to recreate the original file // Lossy
is not able to recreate the original file
● Lossy reduces quality of videos // Lossless keeps
original quality
● Lossy file size is smaller than if lossless were used
● Lossy: compression ratio may be adjusted
depending on bandwidth
● Resulting in a noticeable decrease in quality on
slower connections.
● Lossy: the video will buffer less / quicker to start
watching the video // Lossless: the video will buffer
more / slower to start watching the video
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(g) (i) ● Class definition with identifier video 7 Accept implementations in high-level languages (e.g. __ for
● name, number of views and star rating attributes private, class name used for constructor, no need for end of
defined… class definition in Python)
● …As private
● Constructor method definition inside class BP1 - allow empty brackets. Do not allow anything in the
definition… brackets
● …that accepts only one parameter BP5 - ignore self if included as parameter
● …Name attribute set to parameter passed in
● Views set to 0 and rating set to 3 either when class video
initialised or in constructor. private name
private views
private starrating

public procedure new(newname)

name = NewName
views = 0
starrating = 3
end procedure
end class

(ii) ● Method definition that is public 2 public procedure updateviews()

● View attribute incremented by one views = views + 1
end procedure

View attribute must have the same name as part i

H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

Question Answer Mark Guidance

3 (a) (i) ● 1011 0111 1110 1 CAO

(ii) ● -149 1 CAO

(iii) 0011 1001 3 Working could include showing “borrowing” values from
● One mark for correct left hand nibble (CAO) other columns or making the second number negative
● One mark for correct right hand nibble (CAO) and adding.
● One mark for working clearly shown
Answer must be 8 bits to achieve full marks (stated in
question).

No marks if only working is denary

(b) ● Exponent is -2 4 Accept alternative method of -0.75 x 2-2 for BP2 and
● Move decimal place 2 places left BP3. BP2 credited for -0.75, BP3 credited for multiplying
● Fill with 1s giving 1.1101 by 2-2
−3
● Denary answer is -0.1875 // Correct answer with valid working gets full marks
16

(c) 4 One mark per row. No mark if both/neither box is ticked.

Binary number Normalised Not normalised Accept other marks that clearly indicate choice (e.g. X)

010101 100 x

110101 111 x

011010 010 x

101010 110 x
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

Question Answer Mark Guidance

H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
4 Mark Band 3–High Level (7-9 marks) 9 AO1
The candidate demonstrates a thorough knowledge and Artificial intelligence is used for computer systems that
understanding of artificial intelligence, machine learning AO1.1 are required to perform tasks that normally require
and how biases can be inherited. The material is (2), human intelligence. AI is generally programmed.
AO1.2
generally accurate and detailed. (2), Machine learning is where a machine improves its
AO2.1 performance/output through experience/access to data.
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and (2), Machine learning is a subset of AI.
understanding directly and consistently to the context AO3.3.
(3)
provided. Evidence/examples will be explicitly relevant AO2
to the explanation. AI follows programming so if a program contains biases
then so will the AI outcomes. Programmers must be
The candidate provides a thorough discussion which is aware of this and tackle it during
well balanced. Evaluative comments are consistently design/implementation/testing. Machine learning bias
relevant and well-considered. depends on data given. Larger data sets are generally
more inclusive/less biased but must be aware of data
There is a well-developed line of reasoning which is that is itself biased. Candidates may give examples that
clear and logically structured. The information presented meet this.
is relevant and substantiated.
AO3
Mark Band 2-Mid Level (4-6 marks) Thorough testing, multiple programmers and scrutiny of
The candidate demonstrates reasonable knowledge and data sets are essential to ensure that unconscious
understanding of artificial intelligence, machine learning biases are not inherited. If not thoroughly considered
and/or how biases can be inherited; the material is then biases will certainly be inherited. Datasets for
generally accurate but at times underdeveloped. machine learning need to be large enough to be
representative but not so large that data is not able to be
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and checked.
understanding directly to the context provided although
one or two opportunities are missed.
Evidence/examples are for the most part implicitly
relevant to the explanation.

The candidate provides a sound discussion, the majority

of which is focused. Evaluative comments are for the
most part appropriate, although one or two opportunities
for development are missed.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
There is a line of reasoning presented with some
structure. The information presented is in the most part
relevant and supported by some evidence.

Mark Band 1-Low Level (1-3 marks)

The candidate demonstrates a basic knowledge of some
aspects of artificial intelligence or machine learning; the
material is basic and contains some inaccuracies. The
candidate makes a limited attempt to apply acquired
knowledge and understanding to the context provided.

The candidate provides a limited discussion which is

0 marks
No attempt to answer the question or response is not
worthy of credit.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

Question Answer Mark Guidance

5 (a) (i) ● 40 1 CAO

(ii) ● 70 1 CAO

(iii) ● 300 1 CAO

(b) (i) ● To convert (high-level or assembly) code to low level/machine code 1 Do not allow answers referring to making
the program executable, given in question.

(ii) ● Compiler translates code all at once/before it’s executed 4 Mark answers in pairs
● Interpreter translates code line by line / during runtime
Max 2 marks per answer space
● Compiler produces executable file for reuse // Doesn’t need to be
translated everytime it is run
● Interpreter needs to re-translate next time program is run

● Compiler lists all errors//Compiled code doesn’t run if there are any
errors
● Interpreter stops at the first error

● Compiled programs have the source code hidden

● Interpreted programs have the source code visible
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(c) 5 One mark per row. No mark if more than
one/no box is ticked.
Lexical Syntax Code
analysis analysis generation Accept other marks that clearly indicate
choice (e.g. X)
Comments x
and
whitespace
are removed

Keywords are x
replaced with
tokens

Object code is x
created

Symbol table x
created for
variables

Builds an x
abstract
syntax tree

(d) ● To make the program run faster// code is more efficient 2

● To make the program use fewer resources/less memory

(e) (i) function countCapitals(text) 3 Accept alternative answers in high-level

// initialise counter to 0 languages (e.g. capCount ++ or
capCount = 0 capCount +=1 / && for and for BP1)
// loop through each character in
the string passed in Accept countCapitals = capCount
for x = 0 to text.length-1 for BP3 (Returning via assigning to function
c = text.subString(x, 1) identifier is used in VB / Pascal)
// check if character is a capital
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
if asc(c) >= 65 and asc(c) <= 90 Accept and asc(c) < 91 instead of
// if so, increment counter <=90
capCount = capCount + 1
endif Allow FT for returning the value they
next x increment as a counter if it isn’t capCount
return capCount
endfunction

(ii) ● Both (use binary) to represent characters // are character sets 1

● The first 7/8 bits of Unicode is the same as ASCII (overlaps)

(iii) ● ASCII has fewer characters (128/256) // Unicode has more 2 Only mark the 1st answer for each
characters difference
● ASCII is 7/8 bits whereas Unicode can be larger 16/32 / can have
variable sized characters For BP2&3, must have both sides to get
● ASCII limited to Latin / English / European characters whereas the mark
Unicode can represent other symbols (e.g. Chinese/Cyrillic/Emojis)
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(f) Mark Band 3–High Level (7-9 marks) 9 AO1
The candidate demonstrates a thorough knowledge and understanding The spiral model has four quadrants
of both waterfall and the spiral model. The material is generally AO1.1 (determine objectives, identify and manage
accurate and detailed. (2), risk, develop and test, plan next iteration).
AO1.2
(2), Client feedback then informs future
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and understanding AO2.1 development and prototypes which
directly and consistently to the context provided. Evidence/examples (2), feedback into future revisions. Waterfall
will be explicitly relevant to the explanation. AO3.3 has a structured
.
(3)
analysis/design/development/test flow.
The candidate provides a thorough discussion which is well balanced. Progress to the next step is not made until
Evaluative comments are consistently relevant and well-considered. the previous step is completed.

There is a well-developed line of reasoning which is clear and logically

structured. The information presented is relevant and substantiated. AO2
The spiral model relies on frequent client
Mark Band 2-Mid Level (4-6 marks) feedback. Spiral produces functional
The candidate demonstrates reasonable knowledge and understanding prototypes where features are added
of waterfall and/or the spiral model; the material is generally accurate incrementally. Spiral model has more focus
but at times underdeveloped. on risk; projects may be modified or even
dropped if risk is too great. Waterfall is
The candidate is able to apply their knowledge and understanding much more structured and very reliant on
directly to the context provided although one or two opportunities are getting the definition of requirements
missed. Evidence/examples are for the most part implicitly relevant to correct at the start; changes are harder to
the explanation. add in at a later stage. However, this forces
the definition to be well understood.
The candidate provides a sound discussion, the majority of which is
focused. Evaluative comments are for the most part appropriate, AO3
although one or two opportunities for development are missed. Spiral involves client feedback, prototypes
and evolving projects. Better option where
There is a line of reasoning presented with some structure. The requirements may change. Waterfall is
information presented is in the most part relevant and supported by better where requirements are very clear to
some evidence. begin with and outcomes known. Spiral is
better for risk management. If the
Mark Band 1-Low Level (1-3 marks) programmer has a large team then
The candidate demonstrates a basic knowledge of some aspects of waterfall may be more appropriate due to
either waterfall or the spiral model; the material is basic and contains the clearly defined responsibilities at each
some inaccuracies. The candidate makes a limited attempt to apply stage.
acquired knowledge and understanding to the context provided.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022

The candidate provides a limited discussion which is narrow in focus.

Judgments if made are weak and unsubstantiated. The information is
basic and communicated in an unstructured way. The information is
supported by limited evidence and the relationship to the evidence may
not be clear.

0 marks
No attempt to answer the question or response is not worthy of credit.
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
Question Answer Mark Guidance
6 (a) (i) ● For printer queue 2
● All documents/users have equal priority
● Whichever document is received first is printed first
● First in First Out / Last in Last Out

(ii) ● To enable multitasking to take place 3 BP4, 5 & 6 are dependent on BP3 only
● To switch between active processes and those
running in the background
● To limit each process to a certain amount of
time//allow processes an equal share of processor
time….
● …to ensure the OS cycles through all processes //
the process then goes to the back of the end of the
queue
● …so that users can receive an immediate response
● …to handle an interrupt immediately
(iii) ● Shortest job first / shortest remaining time 2 One mark for name, one mark for description.
● Process which has the shortest time (remaining) is
completed first

● Multilevel feedback queues

● Uses queues with different priorities
● Jobs can be moved between queues

(b) (i) ● Protocol to be used is decided based on the 5 For BP2, don’t allow HTTP (question mentions
application encryption). Don’t allow a list of protocols which aren’t
● E.g. HTTPS for browser based service // relevant to the question. Don’t allow a protocol without
SMTP/IMAP for messaging service its use
● Adds encryption
● Passes on to transport layer to send
● Gets data from transport layer when receiving
● Unpacks message ready for display // removes
headers or other non-viewable data
● Decrypts message
H446/01 Mark Scheme June 2022
(ii) ● Receives (layered) data from internet layer to send 2 Wireless access given in question stem
● MAC addresses are added to the packet
● Passes and receives data across wireless network
(to WAN / other machine)
● Passes (layered) data back up to internet layer
when receiving
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Qualification
Accredited
Oxford Cambridge and RSA

A LEVEL
Examiners’ report

COMPUTER
SCIENCE
H446
For first teaching in 2015

H446/01 Summer 2022 series

Version 1 ocr.org.uk/computerscience
A Level Computer Science - H446/01 - Summer 2022 Examiners’ report

Contents
Introduction ..............................................................................................................................................4
Paper 1 series overview ...........................................................................................................................5
Question 1 (a) (i) ...................................................................................................................................6
Question 1 (a) (ii) ..................................................................................................................................6
Question 1 (b) ......................................................................................................................................7
Question 1 (c) (i) ...................................................................................................................................8
Question 1 (c) (ii) ..................................................................................................................................9
Question 1 (c) (iii)..................................................................................................................................9
Question 1 (c) (iv) ...............................................................................................................................10
Question 1 (d) (i) .................................................................................................................................11
Question 1 (d) (ii) ................................................................................................................................11
Question 1 (d) (iii) ...............................................................................................................................12
Question 1 (e)* ...................................................................................................................................12
Question 2 (a) (ii) ................................................................................................................................13
Question 2 (b) .....................................................................................................................................13
Question 2 (c) (i) .................................................................................................................................14
Question 2 (c) (ii) ................................................................................................................................15
Question 2 (d) (i) .................................................................................................................................15
Question 2 (d) (ii) ................................................................................................................................15
Question 2 (d) (iii) ...............................................................................................................................16
Question 2 (d) (iv) ...............................................................................................................................16
Question 2 (e) .....................................................................................................................................17
Question 2 (f) ......................................................................................................................................17
Question 2 (g) (i) .................................................................................................................................18
Question 2 (g) (ii) ................................................................................................................................19
Question 3 (a) (iii) ...............................................................................................................................20
Question 3 (b) ....................................................................................................................................21
Question 3 (c) ....................................................................................................................................21
Question 4* .........................................................................................................................................22
Question 5 (b) (i) .................................................................................................................................22
Question 5 (b) (ii) ................................................................................................................................23
Question 5 (d) ....................................................................................................................................23
Question 5 (e) (iii) ...............................................................................................................................24
Question 5 (f)* ....................................................................................................................................24

Question 6 (a) (i) .................................................................................................................................25

Question 6 (b) (i) .................................................................................................................................26
Question 6 (b) (ii) ................................................................................................................................26

Introduction
Our examiners’ reports are produced to offer constructive feedback on candidates’ performance in the
examinations. They provide useful guidance for future candidates.

The reports will include a general commentary on candidates’ performance, identify technical aspects
examined in the questions and highlight good performance and where performance could be improved.
A selection of candidate answers are also provided. The reports will also explain aspects which caused
difficulty and why the difficulties arose, whether through a lack of knowledge, poor examination
technique, or any other identifiable and explainable reason.

Where overall performance on a question/question part was considered good, with no particular areas to
highlight, these questions have not been included in the report.

A full copy of the question paper and the mark scheme can be downloaded from OCR.

Advance Information for Summer 2022 assessments

To support student revision, advance information was published about the focus of exams for Summer
2022 assessments. Advance information was available for most GCSE, AS and A Level subjects, Core
Maths, FSMQ, and Cambridge Nationals Information Technologies. You can find more information on
our website.

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Paper 1 series overview

H446/01 (Computer Systems) is one of two examined components for the GCE A Level Computer
Science.

This component focuses on:

• The characteristics of contemporary processors, input, output and storage devices

• Software and software development
• Exchanging data
• Data types, data structures and algorithms
• Legal, moral, cultural and ethical issues

To do well on this paper, candidates need to be able to demonstrate and apply knowledge across all the
topics listed above, in different contexts.

It is important that candidates apply their knowledge to the question where a scenario or data is
provided. Extra information was provided for this series, but candidates were still expected to have
covered the whole specification. Definitions were at times not clearly expressed and key terms not used.
Centres should take note of the SQL that candidates are expected to have awareness of.

Candidates who did well on this paper Candidates who did less well on this paper
generally did the following: generally did the following:
• Applied their knowledge to the context • Gave unclear definitions
• Were able to write pseudocode or program • Attempted to answer questions with a mix of
code pseudocode and program code
• Were able to address all parts of the question • Only addressed a part of an extended answer
in their extended answer responses question
• Were able to explain the principles of ACID

Question 1 (a) (i)

Many candidates were able to access full marks on this question. This question has been asked in
previous papers and candidates should be encouraged to use these to make sure they are clear in their
responses. There were many possible responses in the mark scheme to help candidates to gain full
marks. Most candidates gained at least 1 mark.

Question 1 (a) (ii)

This question was generally answered well by candidates and the majority gave separate areas of
memory for data and instructions. Where candidates were not given marks, it was generally because
their answer was unclear, e.g. just saying ‘separate memory’.

Question 1 (b)

Most candidates were able to gain full marks on this question. Less successful responses often
mentioned clock speed, cache or cores without referring to an improvement, e.g. higher or faster.

Question 1 (c) (i)

This was generally well answered by candidates who had a good understanding of LMC. Candidates
should be encouraged to trace through LMC programs with different values as well as writing them.

Question 1 (c) (ii)

This was generally answered well, and the majority of students were able to gain marks with most
gaining 3 or 4 marks. Less successful responses over complicated the program leading to them making
mistakes. A small number of candidates attempted to answer in pseudocode rather than LMC.
Candidates should be encouraged to use the commands in Appendix 5d of the specification.

Question 1 (c) (iii)

Many candidates were able to gain at least 2 marks on this question. Some candidates were not
awarded marks as they wrote about multiple cores or programs being fetched instead, of instructions.

Exemplar 1

The candidate has clearly described pipelining with correct terminology. They gained full marks for the
description of one instruction being decoded while another is fetched and another is executed, as well as
describing that it allows multiple instructions to be processed at the same time.

Question 1 (c) (iv)

Many candidates gained 1 mark for giving a benefit to the charity, but they did not go on to say why
pipelining enabled that. Some candidates did not apply their answer to the charity, so were not awarded
the mark for the benefit.

Question 1 (d) (i)

Most candidates were able to access 1 mark for the result of ALU calculations, but few were able to give
two uses. Some confused the accumulator with the program counter and the ALU.

Question 1 (d) (ii)

This question was generally well answered by candidates who gave clear responses.

Misconception

Some candidates thought that the program counter kept track of a count of the number of
instructions that had been fetched.

Question 1 (d) (iii)

Most candidates gained full marks on this question and were able to correctly identify three other
registers. Some lost marks for saying the ALU or control unit were registers.

Question 1 (e)*

Many candidates were able to discuss the difference in reduced or complex instruction sets and gave
some discussion of the increase in hardware requirements for CISC. Few talked about the software
differences, and some assumed the charity would need to be programming the devices which was not
relevant to the question.

Question 2 (a) (ii)

Many candidates gained 1 mark for the foreign key and most gained both marks, although some
candidates gave ‘package’ as the table where it is a primary key rather than the membership table where
it is the foreign key.

Question 2 (b)

Many candidates were able to gain some marks. The question refers to the Adverts field which is in the
package table and states that the data shown in the tables is only an extract from the tables. For full
marks on this question, candidates were expected to attempt to join the two tables to access the
Username and Firstname from the membership table, and the Adverts from the package table.

Question 2 (c) (i)

Few candidates were able to gain full marks on this question as many overcomplicated it or could not
give a relevant data capture method. When they did give form as a relevant answer, they often had
unclear suitability.

Exemplar 2

The candidate has given a valid method and has given clear and correct suitability by describing that the
details could be automatically added to the database and can be filled in from home, which would be a
remote location. The candidate gained the full 3 marks.

Question 2 (c) (ii)

Few candidates gained full marks on this question although there were a range of relevant responses
they could have given.

Question 2 (d) (i)

Question 2 (d) (ii)

Question 2 (d) (iii)

For candidates with a good understanding of ACID, these questions were well answered. Unfortunately,
some had only a vague knowledge or confused it with referential integrity. Some answers were unclear.
Some candidates talked about locking the entire database when record locking rather than just the
relevant records.

Question 2 (d) (iv)

Many candidates were given a mark for deadlock or longer wait times. Those candidates given a mark in
Question 2 (d) (iv) tended to be those who has gained marks in Question 2 (d) (iii).

Question 2 (e)

Most candidates were able to gain 1 mark for this question, but few went on to gain a second mark.

Question 2 (f)

Candidates tended to write at length for this question, but often made the same point twice. Many
missed marks for not making the comparison between lossy and lossless and only gave one side. Some
candidates discussed the videos being downloaded rather than streamed.

Question 2 (g) (i)

This question was well answered by some candidates. The question asks for pseudocode or program
code and candidates should be encouraged to do one or the other if given a choice, rather than a
combination of the two. Many candidates did not use the information in the question stem to help them
structure their answer and gave more than one parameter in the constructor.

Exemplar 3

This was a good clear example of an answer given in pseudocode. The candidate has declared the 3
given attributes as private, shown a constructor with one parameter and set name to the parameter and
views and rating to 0 and 3. The candidate gained 7 marks.

Question 2 (g) (ii)

Most candidates were able to gain at least 1 mark for this question. Those who were not given marks
used pseudocode but did not state that the procedure was public, or they did not use the same attribute
they had declared in Question 2 (g) (i).

Question 3 (a) (iii)

Most candidates were able to gain some marks, with many gaining full marks. A popular method was to
do two’s complement addition. Candidates should be encouraged to show their working in binary and not
do the subtraction in denary and then just give the answer in binary. The question asks them to complete
a binary subtraction.

Question 3 (b)

Most candidates correctly identified the exponent and that the point needed to be moved to the left. Any
valid method of working was given marks here, where candidates got the correct answer.

Question 3 (c)

This question was mostly well answered. However, some candidates were able to identify 01 as being
normalised but not 10 being normalised.

Question 4*

There were a wide range of responses to this question and a wide range of marks given. The most
successful responses were able to address all parts of the question and could give the meaning of AI as
well as some relevant examples of AI bias. They were also able to give at least one measure that could
be taken. Many candidates used self-driving cars as their only example and should be encouraged to
explore the use of AI in different fields. Some confused the AI being biased with people being biased
against AI. Many candidates were unable to give relevant measures for preventing bias. Candidates
should be encouraged to make sure they include all points the question asked for, in their answer.

Question 5 (b) (i)

This question was generally well answered, though some candidates thought that a translator translated
machine code into source code or that it translated code into something the computer could understand,
without specifying what that was.

Question 5 (b) (ii)

This question was well answered by many candidates who showed two distinct differences.

Question 5 (d)

Many candidates gave good descriptions of how code is optimised, but they did not answer the question
which asked what the purpose of optimisation is.

Question 5 (e) (iii)

Candidates should be encouraged to give a complete answer. Just saying ‘Unicode uses more bits than
ASCII’ is not enough to be given a mark at this level.

Question 5 (f)*

Most candidates gained some marks on this question. Most could explain that spiral was iterative and
waterfall was done in linear stages, but many did not expand on this. Few candidates linked their answer
to the complex computer program mentioned in the question. Some candidates also described waterfall
as iterative.

Question 6 (a) (i)

This question was generally well answered with many candidates gaining at least 1 mark. The question
asked why the OS used ‘first come first served’ and many candidates were not given marks for stating
why the user would want the OS to use it. Some candidates talked about other scheduling algorithms
even though this was not relevant to the question.

Question 6 (b) (i)

Very few students could explain what happens at the application layer and answers tended to be about
splitting data into packets. Some candidates did mention that encryption would take place but didn’t go
on to mention decryption when receiving data. Those candidates that identified that protocols are applied
here were unable to give a specific example and simply listed protocols they knew, but without context.

Question 6 (b) (ii)

Very few candidates were able to gain 2 marks on this question. Some candidates talked about
transmitting data via cables, despite wireless being mentioned in the question.

Post-results If any of your students’ results are not as expected, you may wish
to consider one of our post-results services. For full information
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