The following have come up quite often (in no particular order!):
Disabilities, especially hearing and seeing and the role multimedia can play in helping people: video & pictures, large writing, screen readers (read words from screen and play them through speakers)
System changeover: direct, parallel, phased
Expert systems: examples of use, style of use (prompt user with questions, select next question based on response) and method of creation
Mail merge: stages of creation
Remote sensing:
Network topology: bus, ring, star
The internet: advantages and disadvantages to different people
Processing: batch, online, real time, offline
Validation and verification: picture/format, range, presence, type, check digit, control total; dual entry
Test data:
Interface software: GUI vs CLI
Information gathering
I/O devices: bar codes, OMR, OCR, MICR, sensors, RFID
Data protection: 3 principles (accurate, not kept longer than necessary, kept secure)
Computer misuse: hacking yes, but more specifically changing or deleting data; electronic fraud e.g. using a stolen credit card
Aspects of system development: analysis e.g. fact finding, identifying problems, user requirements, outline of system requirements; design: files, input forms, outputs, full hardware and software specification; documentation: for user - how to use the different features; for maintenance staff: how to install and maintain the system, hardware requirements (processor, memory, storage, input/output devices).
Reference: Look at page 52 onwards in the Teachers Guide (on OCR ICT A web site).
The first section deals with question design.
Follow instructions e.g. do not mark more answers than you are asked.
Your answer may be right even if it is not in the examiners’ mark scheme.
Don’t make up answers outside of a given list.
Try to match points to marks. The most common scenario is “point – expansion”, that is you make a point in answer to the question and then say a little bit more to expand on it. Knowing the answer and the expansion are the key to success. You have to have a sense of what is appropriate for an ICT exam and this is very difficult to teach. When you know the answer it is easy to fulfil the point-expansion requirement but it is also easy to miss the point and say completely the wrong thing. The expansion will often be a reason or explanation of the point and may also be an illustrative example. The mark scheme for question 13 on page 64 of the Teachers Guide provides a good example.
If you are given a scenario in the question make sure your answers refer to it: that is what the question demands. Additional material may not be wrong but gains no credit as you were not asked to introduce it.
Page 58: OCR’s advice (print this page). NB Do not use proprietary names – “word processor”, not ‘Word’.
State: short answer, possibly a single word, though you should probably qualify this with 2 or 3 additional words such as an example
Give: longer answer than “state” – paper should show this with e.g. 2 lines for the answer.
Describe: This will require extension through a number of sentences to provide a full description of the item in question. E.g. Describe how presentation graphics can be used to give an illustrated talk. E.g. Describe how the misuse of computers might give rise to legal and moral problems. For these questions you must describe things that relate to the question; think of 3-6 things (depending on the length of the question and the marks available) and write a description of how each thing relates to the question. Don’t just describe the features of presentation graphics but show how these features relate to an illustrated talk; don’t just describe aspects of computer misuse but show how these things raise legal and moral problems. You must relate and connect the two sides of the question.
Explain: This will involve writing down the advantages and/or the disadvantages of the item in the question. E.g. explain why a particular hardware device is useful in a given situation. The hardware (such as a bar code reader, OMR, touch screen, track ball, magnetic tape, etc.) will have advantages for the user but in this case the question only asks for the useful things (the advantages). If the question asks for both advantages and disadvantages then you must consider both. Note that a disadvantage should not be the opposite of the advantage e.g. an advantage of a digital watch is that it doesn’t need winding up, a disadvantage of an analogue watch is that it doesn’t need winding up. This is the same point in reverse so is only worth one mark. Other points here that would gain a mark might be about batteries, reliability and extra features such as calculators. Read the question carefully and answer it appropriately.
Discuss: answers will be similar to those of the ‘explain’ type but will call for a conclusion at the end. Typically you would conclude that one item is preferable to another in a given situation e.g. email is preferable to fax because of the features you have described. The views in the conclusion will be your own. As long as they are justified you should be able to make whatever conclusion you think are appropriate.
The higher papers (which you are all taking) include questions with ‘graded response marking’, i.e. some answers can be better than others. If you make simple points in answer to this question, and others like it, you can get a maximum of half marks. To get the additional marks you have to provide the expansion, the additional material that develops the point by linking it to the question and, possibly, illustrating it with an example. The question paper does not state that the mark scheme will allocate marks in this way but the structure of the question indicates that it probably will be: use of explain or describe and mention of two or more aspects of a topic.