Marking Scheme

This document was prepared for markers' reference. It should not be regarded as a set of model answers.
Candidates and teachers who were not involved in the marking process are advised to interpret its contents with care.

In questions asking for a special number of reasons or examples etc. to be given and a candidate gives more than that
is required, the surplus answers will not be marked. For example, in a question asking for two examples to be given
and three are given by a candidate, then only the fust two answers will be marked.

Paper I
Marks

1. (a) All the sequences. I

Due to various reasons, packet switching networks allow packets to be routed through different I
paths.

(b) Data bits and checking bits are coffupted in such a paltern that they can bypass the validation
procedures.

(c) No, one of the main tasks for routers is to avoid looping.

(d) Yes, a hub broadcasts all the incoming data and therefore the packets will be received by both
Christine's and Michael's computers.

2. (a) (i) Columns / Textbox

(iD Automatic text flow among columns during text editing. / Free positioning.

(b) Due to the compatibility of different versions of the word processing software.

(c) The object is inserted using links (OLE).

3. (a) create index MCODE I I

on MEM(GRAD YEAR, NAME) I

(b) To improve the searching speed when GRAD_YEAR is the searching key. I

(c) - Slow down transaction as indices need to be rebuilt during add, delete and update operations. @t
- Index files use up extra storage spaces.

(d) Boolean and Memo. l+l

Because indexing on these data types will not significantly improve searching speed.

4. (a) cross-over UTP cable

(b) - Wi-Fi / blue-tooth / other wireless network connection

- flash memory card or device / other tlpe of removable storage devices

(c) - Any IP address of the same net: 192.168.10.x (x + 0,10,255)

- A subnet mask of 255.255.255.01255.255.254.0

(d) The access right of the file in Kathy's computer is not properly set.

42
 Marks

5. (a) (i) A.coDE vs B. coDE a

J
M01 vs M01
Y102 vs M01
M02 vs M02
M03 vs M03
M03 vs M01
M03 vs 1402

(ii) where A.CODE < B.CODE I

(b) sel-ect A.CODE, 'vs', B.CODE from BADMINTON A, BADMINTON I

where A.CODE < B.CODE and (A.SEED or B.SEED)

6. (a) (i) The file size is very large which may exceed the mailbox limit.

(iD Authentication by digital signature.

(b) (D To veriff sender's identity.

(ii) sender's public key

(iii) name of the certificate authority

7. (a) RAM l+l

Increase the size of RAM can decrease the time needed to access the relatively slower secondary
storage devices.

(b) CPU. Powerful CPU can increase the number of instructions executed per unit of time. I

(c) Advantage: Much faster seek time @t

Disadvantage: Relatively much smaller capacity than magnetic hard disks

(d) - any two differences in the requirements or compatibility of hardware and software @t

8. (a) sel-ect * from stud order by bdate I

desc I

(b) select class, year (bdate) as x, [+ from stud] I

count ( * ) I
from stud
group by class, x 1+l

(c) update stud I

set grade :rCl I
where year (bdate) >1995 or I
(year(bdate):1995 and month(bdate)>9) or
(year(bdate):1995 and month(bdate):9 and day(bdate) >1)
All Correct in the where condition I

(d) select s.scode, name from stud s, event e, plist p I

where s . scode _ p. scode and p. ecode : e. ecode I
and ename - ' 15 0 0M ' and grade -- 'A' I

43
 Marks

(e) (i) To list the number of students of each house participating in the event with event code u001. I

(ii) To list the house with the highest number of students participating in the event with event code I
E001.

(0 (i) inner j oin event e on p. ecode _ e. ecode I

right Iouter] join stud s on p.scode - s.scode I
where s. scode not in I
( select scode from plist ) I

(ii) union / union all- I

9. (a) (i) Incremental backup: may need to retrieve previous incremental backups in order to recover I
Full backup: time consuming I

(iD To support data recovery. / Fault tolerance I

(iiD UPS (Unintemrptible Power Supply) I

(b) X: operating system I

Y web server 1

(c) (i) Physical address I

Because physical address is unique and is set by the manufacturers. I

(ii) To act as the primary and the secondary DNS. I

The secondary DNS is the backup domain name server. I

(d) (i) - There is a network traffic jam. @r

- There are many other processes running in the computer.

(iD The data volume is lower for voice. I

(e) There is a mismatch between the plug-in player with the video file format. 2

(f) (D Trace the IP address and determine the corresponding ISP to reveal the offender's identity. 1

(iD - combination of alphanumeric and symbols @t

- content-wise not easy to guess

(e) satellites: unaffected by environmental factors such as earthquake I

optical fibers under the sea: more stable communication as not being affected by bad weather I

44
 Marks

10. (a) (i) Sort the country code in Sheet 1. I

(ii) -l-ookup (D2, Sheetl !A$2zA$9, Sheetl !B$2:B$9) 2

(b) Firstly sort by Date of Birth and Name where Date of Birth is the primary key and name is the 2
secondary key, then sort by Country Code.

(c) - (sum(C2:G2) -max (C2:G2) -min (C2:G2)) /3

Use of large / sma LL / sum-max-min: I mark
Correct numerator : 1 mark
All correct: I mark

(d) :rank(H2,H$2:H$25)

(e) (i) -use':and(B2:"CN",I2<:10)'or ':if (and(B2:"CN't,I2<:1,O) ,1,0)'inJ2 @l

-copyto J3-J25
- use sum/count function to sum/count up all the values from J2 to J25

(iD :
- select the country code CN and select the records with rank <:10 as row and column @l
- use count in pivot table to count the total

(D (D - sort on country @l
- apply sub-total feature using count as the function on country column

(ii) - select the country code and the sub-total @l

- apply the pie chart graph function and set appropriate title/legend

(iii) Linking: smaller file size @l

Embedding: The object still can be kept within the file even the original source has been
deleted.

45
 C andidates' Performance

Paper I
Question
Performance in General
Number

1 This question was poorly answered. Most candidates were not familiar with how packets are
transferred through a switch, router and hub. Many of them were not aware of bit-checking during
transmission, while some wrongly assumed that packets would arrive at destination in the same order
as the original sequence or in reverse order.

2 This question was well answered. However, not many candidates were able to explain clearly how
their suggestions were better than the table feature. A few candidates wrongly answered "hardware
problem" for part (b).
a
J This question was poorly answered. Many candidates were not familiar with the syntax of creating
index files in SQL. A few candidates showed that they have the right concept of using index in
database file management but they were not aware of the disadvantage of creating individual index
file for each of the fields. Many candidates did not realize a Boolean data field should not be
indexed.

4 This question was well answered. However, some candidates were not able to write down correctly
the name "crossover UTP cables". Most candidates did very well in the configuration of the IP
address and subnet mask for a computer in a network, but only a few candidates showed that they
have the experience ofbeing blocked from accessing a file by different type ofaccess rights.

5 This question was satisfactorily answered. Many candidates were able to identiff the unexpected
matches but some of them were not aware that they were only required to write down the
"unexpected" ones. Some candidates wrongly gave the answer "A.coDE<>B.coDE" for part
(aXii).
6 This question was fairly well answered. Most candidates demonstrated a good knowledge of using
FTP versus email for file transfer. However, some candidates wrongly considered that the purpose of
a digital certificate is to identify the recipients. Some candidates were not aware that the public key
as well as the name of the authentication authority are also stored in a digital certificate.

7 This question was well answered. Most candidates were familiar with the computer hardware and its
peripherals. However, a few candidates mixed up memory and storage device. Some candidates were
not aware that the size of cache memory cannot be easily increased while some others did not
explain clearly how upgrading CPU or the size of the memory could speed up a computer.

8 This question was fairly well answered. However, many candidates were weak in handling
DATE/YEAR functions while some showed very limited experience of using UPDATE, JOIN or
UNION in SQL. Moreover, a few candidates wrongly used reserved word 'year' as the alias in the
query. Only a few candidates were able to use 'BDATE>ITT1/9/I'to calculate the age of the
students. For part (e), some candidates wrongly described the operations of the given SQL statements
instead of explaining the purposes of them.

9 This question was well answered. However, some candidates wrongly answered that incremental
backup will easily cause data loss while some others were not aware of the complexity of the
recovery process in incremental backup. Only a few candidates were able to state the reasons for
using RAID and setting two different addresses for the DNS server. For part (g), many candidates
ignored the part of the question which stated'as the communication media'and therefore wrongly
compared only wired and wireless communication.

10 This question was fairly well answered. However, many candidates only mentioned sorting in part
(a)(i), without speci$ing the target column; while some others were not familiar with multi-column
sorting in part O). Many candidates were not aware of using Lookup function in part (a)(ii). Many
candidates were quite familiar with using functions like Large, Sma11, Max and Min and also
experienced in handling issues with absolute addressing. However, most candidates were weak in
using pivot table and sub-total features in spreadsheets.

48
Paper 2 (SBA)

General comments and recommendations

l. Most candidates were able to present the project systematically in their reports. However, many of
them were weak in giving a clear and comprehensive discussion and conclusion. A few were not able to
state task-specific objectives.

2. Regarding the Sports Day System, some candidates did not conduct a feasibility study on the proposed
system. Other candidates were not able to describe it clearly and justifr their database design for the
system.

3. Some candidates failed to apply the knowledge they had learnt in the curriculum, especially in
analyzingsoftware and hardware requirements of a Public Wi-Fi system.

4. Most candidates were good at proposing functions that facilitate database management.

49