Cambridge IGCSE™ (9–1)

*0123456789*

INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY 0983/01

Paper 1 Theory For examination from 2020
SPECIMEN PAPER 2 hours

You must answer on the question paper.

No additional materials are needed.

INSTRUCTIONS
● Answer all questions.
● Use a black or dark blue pen.
● Write your name, centre number and candidate number in the boxes at the top of the page.
● Write your answer to each question in the space provided.
● Do not use an erasable pen or correction fluid.
● Do not write on any bar codes.
● You may use an HB pencil for any diagrams, graphs or rough working.

INFORMATION
● The total mark for this paper is 100.
● The number of marks for each question or part question is shown in brackets [ ].
● No marks will be awarded for using brand names of software packages or hardware.

This document has 16 pages. Blank pages are indicated.

© UCLES 2018 [Turn over

 2

1 Complete the following questions using the most appropriate items from the list below.

DVD RAM SSD Laser printer Buzzer Web-cam

Hard disk drives Pen drive Blu-ray disc Magnetic tape Mouse

(a) Identify two output devices from the list.

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

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

(b) Identify two optical storage media from the list.

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

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

2 An examination is marked out of 100 marks and each mark is recorded as an integer in a database.

Tick whether each of the following is the most appropriate example of abnormal, normal or
extreme data.

abnormal normal extreme

(9) (9) (9)
0
45
100
110
[4]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 3

3 In website authoring there are three web development layers. They are the content layer, the
presentation layer and the behaviour layer.

(a) Tick the layer which best matches the following statements.

Content Presentation Behaviour

layer layer layer
(9) (9) (9)
This layer is used to format elements
within a web page.
This layer is used to create the structure
of a web page.
This layer is used to enter scripting
language to elements within a web page.
This layer is defined by cascading style
sheets.
[4]

(b) When a web page has been created it needs to be loaded.

Describe the processes a web browser must go through to load a web page.

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

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

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

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

(c) Define the following internet terms.

HTTP ........................................................................................................................................

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

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

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

ISP ............................................................................................................................................

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 4

4 (a) Identify four components of technical documentation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 ................................................................................................................................................

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

(b) Identify two components of user documentation.

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

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 5

5 The managers of a company are concerned about the use of their car park. People are parking
their cars there in order to visit a nearby shopping mall. The company has decided to install a
system that reads number plates so it can monitor the cars entering the car park. People visiting
the company will have registered their car number plate with the receptionist before they visit.

(a) Explain how this system would process the number plate to check that the car entering the
car park has been registered with the receptionist.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(b) When visitors sign in at reception they are now given a badge which contains an RFID chip.
The chip is read in order to gain access to sections of the building. The previous system used
badges which contained a bar code.

Compare and contrast the use of RFID chips with bar codes in this scenario.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.............................................................................................................................................. [6]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 6

6 Tawara College is organising a reunion for its teachers who have left or retired. A systems analyst
is creating a database for the college to store the details of its past teachers. A three-letter code
is used for the department. Part of the design of this database will involve the identification of
suitable validation checks.

Below is a list of some of the data to be included in the database.

Name_of_teacher Name_at_college Contact_phone_number Date_of_birth Year_left Department

Peder Vercoe Peder Vercoe 01223553311 1 Aug 1980 2008 HIS
Katrina Jensen Katrina Singh 07700901094 26 Jul 1988 2009 MAT
Seth Gamal Seth Gamal 07700917099 1 Feb 1972 2019 ICT

(a) For the following fields write down the most appropriate validation check. Each validation
check must be different.

(i) Department .................................................................................................................. [1]

(ii) Date_of_birth ................................................................................................................ [1]

(iii) Year_left ....................................................................................................................... [1]

(b) The systems analyst has set the data type for the contact_phone_number field as text.

Explain why this field has been set for a text data type rather than a numeric data type.

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

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 7

(c) Design an online data entry form which could be used to enter the details of one teacher,
using all the fields shown in the example data.

Your design must represent a computer screen and where appropriate allow the user to enter
data by clicking the mouse rather than entering text.

In your answer include appropriate spacing for each field and navigational aids.

[8]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 8

7 A student is using a computer to access social media.

Explain how a firewall would be used to secure the data in the computer connected to the internet.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 9

8 A company has offices in London and Beijing. The managers of the company meet in person, at
a face-to-face meeting twice a year in their conference rooms either in the London office or the
Beijing office. The cost of air travel has caused the managers to consider using video-conferencing
rather than holding face-to-face meetings.

(a) Discuss the benefits and drawbacks to the company of using video-conferencing. You should
ignore the cost of air travel in your argument.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.............................................................................................................................................. [8]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 10

(b) Apart from a keyboard and a mouse, identify three other hardware devices which must be
present for a video-conference to take place.

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

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

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

9 Juan has taken a photograph of a castle and has removed part of the image. The image before
the change and the image after the change are shown below.

Image 1 Image 2

(a) Identify the formatting technique Juan used to do this.

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

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

(b) Describe the steps Juan used to change the image.

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

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 11

(c) Juan has set up a hierarchical folder structure for his media directories so that he can easily
locate certain files. Juan has stored the photograph in his college work folder.

Complete the boxes to show the most appropriate hierarchical folder structure, to store
photographs and videos for both home and college work.

Media

[3]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 12

10 A teacher has created a spreadsheet of students’ test marks. She has written a formula in cell C4
in the spreadsheet. Part of the spreadsheet is shown below.

(a) Explain what the formula in cell C4 does.

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the teacher copies the formula down column C an error occurs.

(b) Explain why the error has occurred and what the teacher has to do to stop the error from
happening.

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

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

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

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

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 13

11 Smartphones use touch screen technology that requires a Graphical User Interface (GUI).

Describe four advantages of users having a GUI on a smartphone rather than a Command Line
Interface (CLI).

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

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

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

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

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

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

4 .......................................................................................................................................................

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20 [Turn over

 14

12 The use of computers continues to change the way employees work.

(a) Describe how the use of computers has led to a number of employees changing their working
patterns.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

.............................................................................................................................................. [6]

(b) The use of computers has had an effect on the health of employees. For each of the
statements below, identify the health problem most likely to be associated with them and two
possible solutions to the problem. Your answers should be different in each case.

Health problem Possible solution

Looking at a
monitor for a long 1 ................................................
period of time
....................................................
....................................................
....................................................
2 .................................................

....................................................
Sitting too close
to the office laser 1 .................................................
printer
....................................................
....................................................
....................................................
2 .................................................

....................................................
[6]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 15

13 Describe two methods of verification and explain why verification is needed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

14 Bank cheques are usually read using Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR). Recent
developments mean that cheques can now be photographed by a smartphone and processed
using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using MICR rather than OCR for reading cheques.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

..................................................................................................................................................... [6]

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20

 16

BLANK PAGE

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

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

© UCLES 2018 0983/01/SP/20