Examiners’ Report

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Summer 2023

Pearson Edexcel International GCSE

In Information and Communication Technology
(4IT1) Paper 01
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Summer 2023
Publications Code 4IT1_01_2306_ER
All the material in this publication is copyright
© Pearson Education Ltd 2023
 Examiners’ Report June 2023
IGCSE ICT 4IT1-01

Introduction

The examination for this unit requires students to explore how current and
emerging digital technologies impact on the lives of individuals, organisations and
society. This is an untiered paper that has been specifically designed so that easier
questions are more prevalent earlier in the paper, becoming progressively more
difficult later on. This paper has been designed to be accessible, so that candidates
of all ability ranges will find questions that are both challenging and interesting
throughout. Candidates will find that ‘command words’ are used consistently in
the paper to indicate the type of response expected. It is hoped that candidates
will demonstrate the knowledge, understanding and skills required to be confident
users of ICT.

Successful candidates often provided more detailed responses, providing more

than just simple statements, including examples and reasons where expansions
or explanations were required.

In the extended questions, candidates must demonstrate a better understanding

of the requirement to 'discuss'. Candidates should develop their use of subject-
specific and technical language, and avoid giving generic responses, responding
in the context of the question.
1ai

Some students were unable to identify that tethering was sharing of a mobile/cell
network connection with many vague answers relating to gaining access without
reference to use of the smartphone. Some were unable to achieve both marks as
responses didn’t refer to mobile broadband, and many responses simply focused
on the sharing of the Internet, which was too colloquial and did not show enough
technical understanding.

1bi

Generally, most students referred to a small geographical area. Marks were

awarded mostly for ‘single site’, ‘small geographical area’, ‘WAN is collection of
LANs’. There were few responses relating to use of a gateway or third party-
infrastructure.

1bii

Most students failed to gain the expansion point of the ‘network’ being connected
to. However, many students were able to earn the mark for referencing ‘wireless
connection’ or connecting without wires.

1c

The majority of students focused on benefits for Camille and not her employer.
Students seemed to focus on ‘transport costs’ and ‘working flexibility’ for Camille.
Very few students mentioned the ability to recruit workers from a wider area.

1d

Bluetooth and WiFi were popular answers. Infrared and NFC were rarely seen
responses. Some students (perhaps with knowledge of less developed area).

1eii

Many students mentioned latency being the speed of data transmission between
devices. This was accepted, though not an accurate response (i.e. the delay).
1f

Most responses made reference to geographical restrictions, changing of locations

and changing / masking of IP address. This was a question when the full range of
answers available in the mark scheme were awarded. Some described the uses
(i.e. masking location/IP address) rather than the function (e.g. encrypted access
using public infrastructure).

1g

Many students were able to correctly name two types of malware, though the
descriptions were often rather vague. Common incorrect responses included
phishing and pharming.

1h

Very few students answered both parts of the question; either focusing on
‘blocking’ or keeping children safe from ‘inappropriate content’. Many students who
provided wrong answers seemed to confuse a filter with a firewall. Some students
confused the use of a filter in a network with a filter in a search. Correct responses
were often vague about how the filter would work but gained credit for indicating
that the filter would protect Camille’s family from inappropriate sites.

2ai

Most students were able to give a condition and output. However, there were many
who did not understand the distance sensor and thought it was about measuring
how far the car travelled.

2b

Most students were correctly able to state the correct answer. Incorrect responses
often miscounted the number of zeroes in their response.

2c

Most incorrect answers focused on the use of ‘IP address’ tracking, with many
students simply making reference to a ‘sensor’, however, this was deemed
insufficient for a mark.
2dii

Many students obtained marks in this question simply by grouping the four files,
however, very few students grouped them together to the left-hand side to pick up
both marks. Quite a few added a 3rd block to files A, B and D to match up with file
C.

2diii

Incorrect responses included HDD and CD/DVD and tape media. Occasionally ‘USB’,
without the reference to ‘drive’, was seen.

2dv

Many students made reference to faster load speeds, many students did not use
the term ‘durability’ in their answers, however, this mark was often awarded as
students implied it in their answer.

2fii

Few students made reference to the increase in cost. The majority of students
focused their answers on the demand for extra processing and the implication
this would have on energy demands.

3a

Many students picked up both marks in the one response for making reference to
‘like’ and ‘comment’.

3c

Many students did not relate transactional data to cookies. Therefore, they did not
fully respond to how these would assist users by presenting similar images /
websites.
3di

When a mark was awarded, it was usually related to shared access / use of any
device to access, but it was rare to have any reference to processing or editing.
Almost all wrong answers referred to the benefits of using hosted storage rather
than local storage and / or the availability on hosted software of additional features
not available on local software.

3fi

Few students related their responses to an increase of signal strength, and many
answers were given regarding latency, interference, and obstacles. Many answers
were a rewording of the question.

3fii

Almost all students associated faster data transfer with reduced file size and
achieved full marks for this question.

3g

Most students gained at least one mark in this question. Many identified the
website being easier to use and were mostly able to develop the answer with a
linked response, mostly to an accessibility need.

3hi

Most students made reference to HTTPS. Quite a few students gave ‘Encryption’
as an answer, with few making reference to WEP / WPA / SSL.

3hii

Most students made referencing to scramble / jumble / mix up the data.

3hiii
Most students achieved at least 1 mark, most commonly for reference to
confirmation of identity or for reference to possession of phone / sole access to
phone (thereby denying unauthorised use).

4a

Many students wrote about using recycled material to build the servers. No
responses were seen that made reference to ‘Autoplay of videos’, but the other
responses in mark scheme were seen regularly.

4bi

Some students mentioned input devices rather than output devises. An incorrect
output device frequently mentioned was a printer.

4c

Many student responses were mistakenly related to inappropriate comments.

Those who were awarded marks mostly identified distractions or unreliable
information. Most students did not gain both marks.

4di

Many students focussed on a specific location and timeframe (e.g. London and
today), with some even suggesting checking the weather ever hour or using terms
such as 'being more specific' or 'narrow down' rather than suggesting global or
worldwide temperatures over a longer period of time.

Some focussed on the structure of the criteria (mentioning the quotation marks
and the plus symbol) rather than the relevance of the criteria to the research being
done.

4dii

Most students who successfully linked two points, mostly described braille
keyboards and a sight disability.
4e

Many students identified a feature, mostly chat, but failed to give a development
from the feature. Many repeated the question as developing social skills.

4f

Higher scoring responses included reference to balance, use of other / multiple

sources, bias, accuracy, established / official sources vs user-produced sources,
publications (including newspapers) vs online including respectable online content
and date of publication. However, there were some fairly superficial responses
that focussed on only one of these factors. There was little mention of the issue
of expert versus lay opinion and no mention seen of commenting about
underrepresentation of international or multicultural aspects of reliability.

5a

There was confusion between input and output devices and responses frequently
mentioned speakers and monitors. Other incorrect responses such as steering
wheels and joysticks were repeats of the question, where controllers were
mentioned.

5b

Most students were able to correctly identify compression and backup as being
types of utility software. Defragmentation, indicated in the question, was a
frequent non-creditworthy response.

5c

Although a range of correct answers were seen, servers, gateways and switches
were examples of incorrect responses.

5d

Where 1 mark was awarded, it was usually for the device ID. A large number of
incorrect responses made reference to the identification of the host in part A.
5e

Many responses to this question which were related to keeping devices secure
rather than the individual. Where some students identified keeping personal
information discreet, many did not explain how this would keep the individual safe.

5f

Many students mentioned the possibility of distractions but often did not then
relate this to the working practices. Similarly, loss of face-to-face interactions was
not always linked to a loss of understanding between team members. Many
students referred to technical issues regarding online activity.

5g

Students were far more likely to provide a definition of plagiarism than discuss
how ICT makes it easier to plagiarise. There was also a great deal written about
large language models that said very little at all about how ICT makes it easier to
plagiarise.

Students understood plagiarism could result in loss of income / loss of status /

loss of motivation for the original creator. Many students also widened discussion
to non-written media, e.g. song lyrics.

Paper Summary

Based on their performance on this paper, students are offered the following
advice:

• Expand and explain answers using examples and reasons, especially where
more than a simple statement or list is requested
• Where a context or scenario is provided, respond with the context of the
question in mind
• Read and interpret the question prompt to focus on the specific requirements
and provide more relevant responses that address the critical aspects of the
question.
• When required to give one other example/reason, ensure the response is
discrete from the given example/reason
• Allocate time to plan responses to the extended questions
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