INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

1. GENERAL COMMENTS

The standard of the paper was comparable to that of the previous years. It was
observed that the questions were evenly distributed over the sections and topics in the
syllabus, but the standard was a little higher.

There was a decline in the performance of candidates. These is due to the fact that
candidates did not take time to understand the technical and the key words used in the
questions before answering them, especially that of the spreadsheet.

Candidates could perform better when they have good practical and theory ICT
lessons under competent ICT teachers in the schools.

2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS

(1) Some candidates were able to answer correctly questions involving images
and pictures. This gives the impression that such candidates had access to
working computers, highly trained and dedicated instructors and other
teaching aids.

(2) Candidates who performed creditably well gave concise answers to questions.
This types of answers to questions should be encouraged.

(3) Majority of the candidates were able to answer the required number of
questions.

3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

(1) Some candidates appeared to be inadequately prepared for the I.C.T.

examination, as they ended up providing irrelevant responses to questions.

(2) Questions on spreadsheet were not satisfactorily answered by most candidates

as performance in that aspect of the paper was poor.

(3) Some candidates did not understand the questions due to poor command of
English Language. Such candidates could not write correct answers;
they even copied incorrectly words that were on the question paper.

(4) Some candidates were using acronyms and abbreviations in answering some
questions that required complete answers.

(5)It was apparent in some instances that some schools did not have access to
computers for their lessons. Candidates from such schools were at
disadvantage and this showed in their work.

4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

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 (1) Schools must acquire computers for their students since I.C.T. is a practical
course. Candidates cannot get adequate knowledge in I.C.T. and
perform well in
examinations without access to computers.

(2) Teachers in schools must lay emphasis equally on both theoretical and
practical aspects of I.C.T.

(3) Equal attentions must be given to all topics in the I.C.T. syllabus.

(4) Candidates should improve their standards in the writing of the English
Language. Some candidates could not comprehend the questions and
were also not able to express themselves in the English Language.

(5) Regular in-service training and workshops must be organise for teachers.

(6) Teachers must do well to complete the syllabus.

(7) More time should be spent in teaching spreadsheet since it involves aspects of
mathematics and technicalities.

(8) Teachers should discourage the use of acronyms and abbreviations by their
students in their class exercises and school examinations.

5. DETAILED COMMENTS

Question 1

(a)

Use the above diagram to answer questions (i) to (iv)

(i) Name the application program used for the above figure.
(ii) Write the formula/function used to calculate the profit for cell D7.
(iii) Write the formula/function used to calculate the total expenses for cell C7.

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 (iv) Name the parts labelled A,B and C.

(b) Complete the table below.

(c) In a word processing application, what is the command button print preview
used for?

(a) (i) Majority of the candidates answered this question well except that some had
difficulty with spelling words such as spreadsheet and excel. Some
candidates spelt spreadsheet as spreedsheet or spredsheet, others spelt
excel as excell, xceel or escell.

(ii) Most candidates could not write the formula or function for calculating the
content of D7. The correct answer is =SUM(D3:D5) or =D3+D4+D5
or =B7-C7 or =SUM(D3..D5).
Majority of the candidates omitted the symbol = in their answers which made
them lost marks. The symbols @ and + were also accepted in place of
=.

(iii) Most candidates could not write the formula or function for calculating the
content of C7. The correct answer is =SUM(C3:C5) or =C3+C4+C5
or =SUM(C3..C5).
Majority of the candidates omitted the symbol = in their answers which made
them lost marks. The symbols @ and + were also accepted in place of
=.

(iv) This question was fairly well answered except that a significant number of the
candidates spelt formula as formular.

(b) Most candidates correctly stated the names of the windows buttons but failed to give
the functions of the buttons or gave recursive answers. Sample answers required
from candidates are:

Close button enables a user to exit/quit/end/abort/terminate a program or application

or current windows.

Minimize button enables a user to make the current window to become an icon on the
taskbar.

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 Maximize button is used to make a window cover the entire screen.

Restore button enables a window to go back to its original size after maximizing it.

Some of the wrong spellings made by candidates were close as croose, closs or
colows, and minimize as miximize, minimum or minimiaze.

One common recursive answer most of the candidates gave was "The close button is
used to close a window" which is wrong.

(c) Majority of the candidates did not answer this question. The few that attempted it also
thought print preview is applied after the document had been printed which is wrong.
A sample answer is "Print preview is a command button that help users to take a look
at a created document before it is finally printed".
In general, candidates performance was poor for question 1.

Question 2

(a) State the data types for the following characters as used in a spreadsheet
application.
(i) 13.65
(ii) 24.04'
(iii) =SUM(A5:G5)
(iv) =A4+C8-G25
(v) +233244971100

(b) Formatting a disk refers to............

(a) This question turned out to be the most unpopular among candidates. It was
also the least well answered question. A significant number of candidates
who attempted it scored zero.
It further shows lack of candidates knowledge in spreadsheet applications. The
expected answer is:

(i) 13.65 - Value

(ii) 24.04' - Text
(iii) =SUM(A5:G5) - Function
(iv) =A4+C8-G25 - Formula
(v) +233244971100 - Value

(b) A high proportion of the candidates wrote that formatting disk is

removing or clearing the storage medium of its data. This response is
incorrect because if the user wants to perform such an operation the
appropriate command would have been to use the delete command. Others
also took formatting a disk to mean formatting a text which was also wrong.

Formatting a disk refers to preparing a disk for use or preparing a disk to

accept data.
Performance of candidates was general not good.

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 Question 3

List
(a) two toggle keys on a standard computer keyboard.
(b) three features of a web browser.
(c) two components of the central processing unit.
(d) two operating system software.
(e) three health hazards associated with prolonged use of computers and ICT
tools.

(a) Only few candidates attempted this question. It was clear that most candidates
know the computer keyboard but did not either know the toggle keys
or understand the meaning of the term toggle.
The expected answer is to mention two of the following keys:
(1) CAP LOCK key
(2) NUM LOCK key
(3) SCROLL LOCK key
(4) INSERT key

(b) A handful of candidates who attempted this question misunderstood the

question in the sense that they provided examples of web browsers
which was wrong. Sample answers are:
(1) Title bar
(2) Menu bar
(3) Address bar
(4) Stop button
(5) Refresh/Reload button
(6) Back button
(7) Forward button
(8) History
(9) Search button

Majority of candidates struggled with the spelling of the word title.

(c) A significant number of candidates listed contents of the system unit to

suggest that the central processing unit (CPU) is synonymous to system
unit. This ideology is not true, misleading and incorrect.

The expected answer is:

(1) Arithmetic and Logic Unit (ALU)
(2) Control Unit
(3) Registers
(4) Memory Unit

(d) Some candidates were confused about what an operating system is while the
few who attempted it made spelling mistakes such as writing window for
windows.. Sample answers are:
(1) Microsoft Disk Operating System (MS-DOS)
(2) Microsoft Windows
(3) UNIX

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 (4) LINUX
(5) Macintosh

(e) This question was popular among the candidates and majority of those who
attempted it scored full marks.

Question 4

(a) Give two examples of a typing software.

(b) Certain books are published both in hard copies and soft copies (e-books).
Give two reasons for using
(i) hard copies formats;
(ii) soft copies formats.
(c) Arrange the storage devices compact disc, hard disk and pen drive in
descending order of
(i) access speed;
(ii) storage capacity;

(a) This question was popular among candidates and majority scored the full
marks allotted here.

(b) Few candidates understood and provided correct answers to this question.
Most candidates took the question to mean hardware and software which
was wrong.

Sample answers are:

(i) - Such books are free from computer virus infection.
- They come in handy where there is no supply of electricity.
- They are available for use virtually everywhere.
- They is no need for the user to be computer literate.

(ii) - Searching for information in an e-book is easy.

- In a network environment, e-book can be shared among
several users.
- E-book enables the user to magnify the text to make reading
easier for people with eye problems.
- Some specialised software can read the contents of e-book for
people with poor eye sight or visually impaired.
- It is easier to incorporate text from one e-book through copy
and paste.

(c) Majority of the candidates who attempted this question scored full marks.
Question 5

State the purpose of the following commands on an email application such as

yahoo or gmail:

(a) My Account;
(b) Compose;
(c) Attach;

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 (d) Sign Up.

A significant number of the candidates that attempted this question scored no mark.
This brings to the fore the lack of internet connectivity in the schools.

(a) Surprisingly, some candidates made mention of bank accounts in their

explanation. This is wrong. The expected answer is "The purpose of
My Account command is that it help users to view or change their
original registration and other user specific settings ".

(b) This question was well answered, however few of the candidates fell prey to
recursive definition. The expected answer is "The compose command
enables the user to type or create their messages for sending on the
Internet".

(c) Most candidates did provide quite satisfactory answers. The expected answer
is "The Attach command enables users on the Internet to include or add
documents from their storage media as part of their email message".

(d) This question was well answered by candidates that attempted it. However,
few candidates misunderstood sign up to mean sign in and hence gave
answers to reflect sign in which was wrong.