ICT Applications (Cambridge (CIE) IGCSE ICT): Exam Questions

Many media companies now provide media streaming for users to watch their television programmes.

Describe the benefits and drawbacks of media streaming.

A smartphone has many uses, for example making and receiving telephone calls.

Give four other uses of a smartphone.

A taxi company tracks the routes their cars have travelled and the current location of each one using a Global Positioning System (GPS).

A map showing the route taken and current location of each car is displayed on the office monitor

Describe in detail how this system could work.

Microprocessor-controlled devices in the home have had positive effects on people’s lifestyles. One of the positive effects of using these devices is that we can now set a cooker to switch on whilst we are out so that we arrive home to a cooked meal.

Describe the positive effects of using other microprocessor-controlled devices in the home

Tawara Retail is an online store. This online store does not have physical shops. Customers buy products from this store using internet shopping.

Describe the advantages to Tawara Retail of offering internet shopping.

A manager in a hospital has decided to ask a software company to develop a computer system. The system should allow patients to book all their medical appointments online.

The manager of the hospital has purchased an expert system to help diagnose their patients’ illnesses.

Name three components of an expert system.

Many bank cards now use contactless technology.

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of using these cards rather than cards that use chip and PIN.

A customer is booking a seat on a theatre’s online booking system. The customer reserves seats using the theatre’s website and a debit card. The website displays the seats that are available and a database stores the customer details, the payment details and the seat details.

When the customer enters their debit card details for a seat, the theatre’s computer communicates with the bank’s computer.

Describe four checks that the bank’s computer will make on the customer’s bank account.

Describe the processing carried out by the theatre’s computer when making a booking.

A library is considering the way it issues books. The librarians are planning to use RFID rather than bar codes.

Describe the advantages of using RFID rather than bar codes.

The manager of a cinema has purchased a new booking system. There are 26 rows in the cinema with 20 seats on a row. Each seat is identified by a unique ID. The seat ID consists of the row letter 5 followed by the position of the seat on the row. An example of the seat on row F position 12 would be F12.

He is setting up a test plan to test the system.

When a ticket is produced for the new system it contains a QR code.

Here is an example of a QR code

Describe the benefits of using a QR code.

People can manage their banking transactions using the internet. However, if the internet signal is poor telephone banking can be used.

A person wishes to use telephone banking without speaking to an operator to transfer money from one bank account to another.

Describe the steps needed to do this.

Rockit Motors recently created a new car sales website. The website uses internet shopping features. Customers can ask questions of the virtual salespeople on the website, and then purchase the car on the website.

Describe two other features of internet shopping.

Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of using internet shopping for Rockit Motors.

A library system has two tables; one for borrowers and one for books. Extracts from these tables are shown.

Borrowers table

At the end of each day the tables are searched to issue reminders to borrowers about books that are overdue.

Describe the automatic processing involved in searching and issuing of reminders for overdue books.

Many customers now use contactless payment and internet banking.

Describe the computer processing involved in using contactless bank cards to pay for purchases.

Fewer and fewer customers now use high street banks, preferring to bank online using the internet.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of internet banking for the customer.

Many banks have reduced the number of staff in their branches and replaced them with automatic teller machines (ATMs). These ATMs, which can be located within the bank, can be used by customers to deposit and withdraw money from their bank accounts.

Customers can visit these banks or use internet banking.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to a customer of visiting the bank rather than using internet banking.

One of the uses of a smartphone is the sending and receiving of emails

Describe four other uses of a smartphone.

Compare Optical Mark Readers (OMRs) with Optical Character Readers (OCRs).

Your answer must include similarities and differences.

A manager in a hospital has decided to ask a software company to develop a computer system. The system should allow patients to book all their medical appointments online.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to both the patients and the medical staff of this type of system.

A car manufacturing company uses computer-controlled robots to manufacture its cars.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to the company of using computer-controlled robots rather than using humans to manufacture the cars.

The manager of a cinema has purchased a new booking system. There are 26 rows in the cinema with 20 seats on a row. Each seat is identified by a unique ID. The seat ID consists of the row letter 5 followed by the position of the seat on the row. An example of the seat on row F position 12 would be F12.

He is setting up a test plan to test the system

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using manual booking systems rather than online booking systems.

Tawara Stores has realised that the number of people shopping for food online has increased over the past few years.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages to the customer of shopping for food online.

Tawara Hotel uses magnetic stripe cards to allow guests access to their bedrooms. The hotel is changing the electronic lock it uses on its bedroom doors so the lock can work with RFID cards.

Compare the use of magnetic stripe cards and RFID cards for key entry.

Your answer must include similarities and differences.

Tawara Tours has created a new online booking system to allow customers to book holidays. The system was written using modules.

Tawara Tours used to book holidays using a manual booking system. This used a pen and paper to make the bookings.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using online booking systems rather than a manual booking system.

Robots are used to spray paint cars in a car production company.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the introduction of robots rather than employing humans to spray paint the cars.

Many banks have reduced the number of staff in their branches and replaced them with automatic teller machines (ATMs). These ATMs, which can be located within the bank, can be used by customers to deposit and withdraw money from their bank accounts.

ATMs can be used to deposit cheques.

Describe the computer processing involved in depositing a cheque at an ATM.

RockIT Airlines representatives use a computer booking system to book flights for customers.

A representative from the airline types in the customer reference number, the number of passengers, departure time, departure date, departure airport and the destination airport.

A customer is planning to take a flight from London Heathrow Airport. The representative types in a code LHR for London Heathrow Airport. One of the reasons for using a code for the airport is to improve data accuracy.

Describe the processing and outputs involved in making the booking.