Cambridge International Examinations

Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 9626/11

Paper 1 Theory May/June 2017
MARK SCHEME
Maximum Mark: 90

Published

This mark scheme is published as an aid to teachers and candidates, to indicate the requirements of the
examination. It shows the basis on which Examiners were instructed to award marks. It does not indicate the
details of the discussions that took place at an Examiners’ meeting before marking began, which would have
considered the acceptability of alternative answers.

Mark schemes should be read in conjunction with the question paper and the Principal Examiner Report for
Teachers.

Cambridge will not enter into discussions about these mark schemes.

Cambridge is publishing the mark schemes for the May/June 2017 series for most Cambridge IGCSE®,
Cambridge International A and AS Level and Cambridge Pre-U components, and some Cambridge O Level
components.

® IGCSE is a registered trademark.

This document consists of 9 printed pages.

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Question Answer Marks

1 4
A WAN is a Wireless Area Network.

A LAN is a Live Area Network.

A LAN covers a smaller geographical area than a WAN. 3

A WAN has a higher data transfer rate than a LAN.

Unlike a LAN, the signal does not deteriorate in a WAN.

A LAN does not need a router to connect computers
3
together.
A WAN experiences more data transmission errors than
3
a LAN.
A WAN has a lower bandwidth than a LAN. 3

The internet is an example of a LAN.

A WAN is more secure than a LAN.

Question Answer Marks

2 A knowledge base is a key component of an expert 4

3
system.
Experts do not need to make a judgement. They just
accept the results of the expert system.
The user interface is used for both input and output. 3

The rules base can contain IF THEN statements. 3

The inference engine searches the user interface to find
possible solutions.
An expert system is often used in car driving simulators.
An expert system is not as accurate as a single expert
would be.
A knowledge engineer is employed to create an expert
3
system.
An expert system never needs updating.

Expert systems always come up with exact solutions.

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Question Answer Marks

3 Three from: 1 mark each 4

Data that does not change

It can be read without being written back to a file/not changed when
written back
Limited amount of information in a static information source
because as soon as it is created it is difficult to have information added
to it
Static data tends to go out of date quickly.

Appropriate example such as a CD ROM contains static data. 1 mark

Question Answer Marks

4 Four from: 4

Read the text carefully to find/correct typographical errors/mistakes in

grammar/style/spelling
Printing a copy is sometimes better than reading on screen
Read the essay out loud
he will hear other problems that he may not see when reading silently
He could use a blank sheet of paper to cover up the lines below the one
he is reading
which keeps him from skipping ahead of possible mistakes
Use the search function of the computer to find mistakes he is likely to
make
Search for "it," for instance, if he confuses "its" and "it's", "there" for
"their" or "they're"
Check separately for each kind of error he is likely to make, moving from
the most to the least important
Read through once backwards, sentence by sentence
Read through again forward to be sure subjects and verbs agree.

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Question Answer Marks

5 To be marked as a level of response: 8

Level 3 (7–8 marks)

Candidates will describe each check and give benefits and drawbacks of
each check/consider different reasons for using each check.
The issues raised will be justified.
The information will be relevant, clear, organised and presented in a
structured and coherent format.
Specialist terms will be used accurately and appropriately.

Level 2 (4–6 marks)

Candidates will describe each check and give benefits and drawbacks of
checks/consider different reasons for using each check although
development of some of the points will be limited to benefits or
drawbacks.
For the most part the information will be relevant and presented in a
structured and coherent format.
Specialist terms will be used appropriately and for the most part correctly.

Level 1 (1–3 marks)

Candidates may only describe checks, and give basic reasons. Answers
may be simplistic with little or no relevance.
There will be little or no use of specialist terms.

Level 0 (0 marks)
Response with no valid content.

Answers may include:

A range check could only be carried out on the student number if you
knew the lowest and highest number.
Invalid numbers/non-existent numbers might be entered which are within
the range so would be accepted.
A range check on each part of the date of birth could be carried out.
Would prevent negative days/days greater than 31 being entered.
Would prevent months less than 1 or greater than 12 being entered.
Would prevent years less than 2000 or greater than 2001 from being
entered.
Would not prevent dates like 30/02/2000 or 31/06/2000 being entered.
Check digit can only be carried out on long strings of numbers – Student
number is not really long enough.
Check digit would pick up transposed numbers which none of the other
checks would.
Date of birth is not in correct format for a check digit to be used.
Format check could be used on date of birth nn/nn/nnnn.
Format check would not pick up nonsensical dates of birth such as
68/99/3000.
Format check would pick up data entry errors such as a three digit
day/month/single digit day/month/two digit year.

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Question Answer Marks

6(a) Three from: 3

Translates the whole program as one complete unit

Creates an executable file
Is able to report on a number of errors in the code after compilation
Does not need to be present in order to run the code
Can optimise source code to run as fast or as efficiently as possible.

6(b) Three from: 3

Translates each line of source code into an intermediate stage and then
executes that line/statement
Reports on errors as lines of source code are entered
Only a few lines of source code needs to be in memory at any one time
Some interpreters execute code within a 'virtual machine'
these have been designed to disallow code from directly accessing the
computer.

Question Answer Marks

7 Six from: 6

Sensors are used to feed data back to a computer

Naming of physical variables and the sensors/devices used to gather
data
Analogue data is converted into digital for the computer to process using
an analogue to digital converter
Computer stores readings in a table ready for processing
Computer plots graphs automatically
Computer calculates minimum and maximum temperature/rainfall/wind
speed/atmospheric pressure for the day/month/year so far
Computer outputs the results/graphs on screen/printer.

Question Answer Marks

8(a) Three from: 3

Involves using cell phone text/SMS messages to persuade people to

divulge their personal information
The text message may include a website URL, inviting the receiver to go
to the site
looks just like the actual bank’s website but is a fake website
The text message may include a telephone number that connects to an
automated voice response system/person asking for bank details
The smishing message usually contains something that demands the
target's immediate attention
The website then asks them to enter their personal/financial information.

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Question Answer Marks

8(b) Three from: 3

Installs a piece of malicious software/code on customer’s computer

Creates a fake website which looks like the actual bank’s website
Fraudster redirects genuine website’s traffic to own website
customer is now sending personal details to fraudster’s website
unknowingly.

Question Answer Marks

9 Six from: 6

The divide between people who have access to and the resources to use
new information/communication technology and those who do not
This technology can include the telephone, television, personal
computers and the internet
The divide between those who have the skills, knowledge and abilities to
use the technologies and those who do not
The digital divide can exist between those living in rural areas and those
living in urban areas
due to lack/expense of infrastructure in rural areas
The digital divide can exist between the educated and uneducated
The digital divide can exist between economic classes
The digital divide can exist between old and young people
as young people have grown up with the technology/older people may
feel they are too old/unwilling to learn about new technology/do not know
how to use it
May refer to inequalities between individuals, households, businesses, or
geographic areas
The divide between countries or regions of the world is referred to as the
global digital divide
The quality of connection to the internet may vary between
groups/countries
The price of connection to the internet may vary between
groups/countries
Can be overcome by:
Community teaching programmes to teach older people how to use
advanced technology
Giving cheap computers/laptops to school children from poor
backgrounds
Setting up cyber cafes in rural areas
Providing overseas aid to poor countries to purchase the technology.

Question Answer Marks

10(i) C Date_of_birth and: 2

Date as it is in the form dd/mm/yyyy 1 mark
3 bytes as it would be stored as an integer 1 mark

10(ii) D Gender and: 2

Boolean, there are only two entries 1 mark
1 byte as it could be set to True/False, –1/0 1 mark

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Question Answer Marks

10(iii) E Marriage_state and: 2

Text as it consists of letters/Lookup table as there are only three
options 1 mark
8 bytes Divorced is the longest entry, 8 characters long 1 mark

10(iv) F Number_of_children and: 2

Numeric, integer as can only have whole number of children 1 mark
3 bytes as it is stored as an integer 1 mark

Question Answer Marks

11 Six from: 6

Send emails to every person being invited informing them of the

conference
Rajvinder sends log in details to the directors/users
Uploads any necessary documents for the meeting
Sends a link to the website
Enter his user name and password (obtained from the provider)
Select a start time and end time
In the meeting area, type an agenda
Using the software select participants
Select appropriate meeting space/room
Select those participants who can enter the room
Choose those who can be presenters/those that can modify documents
Limit the participation of participants/mute volume/disable
messaging/disable cameras.

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Question Answer Marks

12 Discussion based on: 8

Benefits
Testing nuclear reactor designs using computer models avoids safety
problems
such as explosions/meltdowns
Testing nuclear reactor designs using computer models cuts costs
as do not have to pay as much money for workers/materials to replace
damaged reactors
Can obtain results in a short period of time regarding reactions that take
a long time in real life
Re-designing computer models is cheaper than re-building a nuclear
reactor
Researchers will have the tools to simulate scenarios that are hard to
observe in operating reactors

Drawbacks
Researchers will need to know how to apply simple modelling techniques
in some situations and more complicated ones in others
Models cannot always recreate exactly the real-world experiment
In order to carry out test efficiently researchers will need specialist
knowledge
of mechanical engineering/materials science/reactor physics
Most researchers who are specialists in one discipline will need to
retrain/extend their studies
which costs money
Not every possible variable may be included in the model
leading to inaccurate results.

Allow one mark for a reasoned conclusion.

Question Answer Marks

13 Four from: 4

Example of appropriate title

Appropriately labelled sectors including example
Percentages attached to sectors including examples
Number of students taking each course in each sector including
examples
Different colour sectors
Description of chart legend including example.

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Question Answer Marks

14 Eight from: 8

Inclusion of all fields mentioned in question

Must be text boxes or individual character boxes
Title space bigger than author, ISBN and borrower number similar size
and generally sensible spacing
Drop down dates for date borrowed or clear view of calendar
Radio buttons for borrowed (Y/N)
Navigation buttons
Help button/information on how to complete the form
Appropriate title
Appropriate white space and information fills the page.

Question Answer Marks

15(a) Customer record table Sales record table 4

ᴕ Invoice_number
ᴕ Customer_id 1
Item_number
Name
Item_description
Contact_phone
∞ Item_cost
Card_number
Customer_ref

All customer records and Sales records data with

correctly titled tables 1 mark
Primary key fields identified 1 mark
Relationship line between correct two fields 1 mark
One to many indicated 1 mark

15(b) Four from: 4

Customer_id is identified as the primary key in the customer record table

and Invoice_number as the primary key in the Sales record table
Add these two tables in the relationships view/option
Select Customer_id in customer records table and connect it to
Customer_ref in the Sales records table
Check/select relationship type is one to many
Ensure that relationship is saved.

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