INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

1. GENERAL COMMENTS

The Chief Examiner reported that the standard of the paper compared favourably with that of
the previous year.

Generally, the Chief Examiner assessed the performance of the candidates to be better as
compared to that of the previous years.

2. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ STRENGTHS

The Chief Examiners outlined the following as candidates’ strengths:

(1) Candidates’ were able to provide correct and concise responses to the questions.

(2) Candidates’ demonstrated an adequate level of knowledge in the subject.

(3) Candidates displayed an adequate level of knowledge in word processing application

and were able to differentiate between font styles, alignment types and steps involved in
underlining a text.

(4) Majority of the candidates demonstrated an in-depth understanding of basic input and
output devices, as well as functions of some stated devices.

(5) Majority of the candidates displayed appreciable knowledge in the use of computers in
everyday life.

3. SUMMARY OF CANDIDATES’ WEAKNESSES

The Chief Examiners identified the weaknesses of candidates as:

(1) Failure to follow the instructions on the question paper with regards to the number of
questions to be answered.

(2) Inability to write ICT terms and key words correctly, including those given in the
question.

(3) Inadequate command over the English Language to enable them to articulate their
responses appropriately.

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 (4) Inability to differentiate between state, list, define, explain, and advantages with regards
to their respective demands.

(5) Failure to tackle the practical aspect of the paper and answering it as English
comprehension question.

(6) Inability to assign the parts of the computer correctly.

(7) Inability to differentiate font styles from the font type.

4. SUGGESTED REMEDIES

The Chief Examiner suggested the following remedies to the candidates’ weaknesses;

(1) Candidates should pay attention to instructions. They should take their time to read the
instructions well before they attempt the questions.

(2) ICT teachers must take their students through various vocabulary building activities
such as dictation, quiz, or spelling competition in ICT terminologies to help develop
their spelling skills.

(3) Teachers should stress the difference between state, list, define, explain, and
advantages as well as what these key words require from candidates.

(4) Teachers should be mindful of the textbooks they recommend for their candidates.
Schools should thoroughly assess ICT textbooks before recommending it to teachers
and students.

(5) Candidates should be encouraged to use the approved textbooks.

(6) The practical aspect of the subject must be taken seriously and students must be made
to practice adequately.

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5. DETAILED COMMENTS

QUESTION 1
1. Study the text below carefully and use it to answer questions 1(a) to (g).

(a) Write down the application software that was used to create the above text.
………………………………………………………………………………………
(b) List two examples of the application software mentioned in (a) above. …………
……………………………………………………………………………………....
(c) Give the name of the text area labelled A. ………………………...........................
(d) Write down the name of the font styles applied to the following words in the text:
(i) Potentially deadly; ………………………………………………………...
(ii) Harmful organisms; ……………………………………………………….
(iii) Medical researchers; ………………………………………………………
(e) Write down the type of alignment applied to the paragraphs labelled B, C, and D
in the text.
B: …………………………………………………………………………………...
C: …………………………………………………………………………………...
D: …………………………………………………………………………………...
(f) List the steps used in underlining the words in the text area labelled A which was
typed with the caps lock key on. ………………………...................................
………………………………………………………………………………………
(g) Write down the name given to the process of applying the various styles and
paragraphs to the text. ……………………………………………………………

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 Candidates who attempted this question had most of their responses correct. However, few of
the candidates left most of the sub-questions unanswered while some of them had it entirely
wrong. Surprisingly, some of the candidates answered the question as English
comprehension paper, this is a clear indication of students lack in practical lessons.

(a) Majority of the candidates gave wrong responses like Microsoft word, MSword
processor, world processing, and word pad to this sub-question.

(b) Majority of the candidates answered this question correctly but surprisingly, most of
them had it very tough. They produced incorrect responses such as windows, ms office,
power point, publisher, paint, notepad, Microsoft world, Microsoft editor, and world
pad.

(c) Most of the candidates had this sub-question correctly answered but greater percentage
had it wrong due to spelling errors. This notwithstanding, some of the candidates
provided wrong responses such as title bar, header, and tittle.

(d) A good number of the candidates provided accurate responses with very few spelling
mistakes to this sub-question. However, few of the candidates provided incorrect
responses such as boid, itally boid, arial, times new roman, and calibri.

(e) Majority of the candidates understood the demand of the question but could not properly
place their responses in the rightful order. Some of the incorrect responses they provided
are justifies, centrea lignment, aligned left, left allign, and aligned right. Some of them
even picked words and phrases from the question such as bacteria, viruses, harmful
organisms, and medical research to be their answers.

(f) Majority of the candidates provided correct responses but few of them gave irrelevant
answers such as highlight the text, select bold under line.

(g) Whiles majority of the candidates provided correct responses to the sub-question, most of
them also left the question unanswered and few of them also provided incorrect responses
like editing, formatting toolbar, formatting, alignment, font formatting.

In general, the performance of the question was very good.

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QUESTION 2

(a) Using the table below, indicate where the following components can be seen on the
computer system units.

CD/DVD slot, CPU, Floppy disk slot, Memory, Motherboard, Power button, Power
supply port, PS/2 port, VGA port.

BACK VIEW FRONT VIEW INSIDE VIEW

(b) What is copyright? …………………………………………………………………….

Most of the candidates tackled this question and answered it satisfactorily well, however,
few of them didn’t perform well.

(a) Whiles most of the candidates provided excellent responses, few of them were not even
familiar with the names of the components at all and ended up copying the given
components from the question and even copied them wrongly. Most of them also copied
leaving some of the words out, others copied out all the given components under one
view and repeat the same for the two other views.

(b) Majority of the candidates answered this sub-question very well, however, few of them
provided responses that were not related to the question at all while some wrote copyright
is the right that have all the copy.

Expected response for the B part should have been

(a)
BACK VIEW FRONT VIEW INSIDE VIEW
VGA Port CD/DVD slot CPU
Power Supply Port Floppy Disc slot Memory
PS/2 Port Power button Motherboard

(b) Copyright is an exclusive legal right that prohibits the copying of another person’s
intellectual property without permission.

Generally, candidate’s performance of this question is very good.

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QUESTION 3

Explain the following computer terms;

(a) Hardware: ……………………………………………………………………………..
(b) Network: ……………………………………………………………………………….
(c) Software: ……………………………………………………………………………….
(d) Virus: …………………………………………………………………………………..

The question seemed to be very popular and most familiar with a lot of the candidates.

(a) Majority of the candidates provided correct responses but few of them gave answers to the
explanation of hardcopy than hardware. Some wrote; Hardware is a process of see
something and you can touch, Hardware is a ware that all things in it is hard.

(b) Whiles most of the candidates provided excellent responses, few of them also provided
incomplete responses by omitting the very important part of the explanation such as (sharing
of resources), and some few were also explaining internet instead. Some also wrote; network
is work that if you do not have it you cannot mark, network is a collection of services
which helps in searching and receiving easy for people, network is any place which you
can stand to get information and browse with people.

(c) Most of the candidates gave exact responses but few of them provided an explanation to
softcopy instead. Some candidates also wrote software is a process of a computer that
cannot be seen and touched.

(d) Greater number of the candidates gave correct responses but few of them fumbled with the
term by explaining it as virus is a disease…, virus is a device..., virus is an abbreviation
which means vital information reason under siege, and virus is any disorder or disease or
bacteria which affect the computer.

Expected response for the question should have been

(a) Hardware: It is the physical components that make up the computer system
(b) Network: The interconnection of computers and other devices for the purpose of
handling and sharing information/resources.
(c) Software: It is a program/set of instructions that tells the computer what to do.
(d) Virus: It is a software capable of replicating itself and usually causes harm to files or
programs on the same computer or another computer over a network.

Candidate’s general performance of this question is good.

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QUESTION 4

(a) State the function of each of the following devices;

(i) floppy disk: ………………………………………………………………………..
(ii) keyboard: ………………………………………………………………………….
(iii) uninterruptible power supply: ……………………………………………….......
(b) explain each of the following terms;
(i) clicking: …………………………………………………………………………...
(ii) dragging: ………………………………………………………………………….

This question was mostly tackled by majority of the candidates considering the fact that they are
more familiar with the content.
(a) (i) Majority of the candidates provided appropriate responses but few of them ended up
giving out the function of floppy disk drive.

(iii) Most of the candidates responded correctly to score the full mark whereas few of them
gave inaccurate responses.

(iv) Majority of the candidates provided inaccurate answers such as it can be used to get
power from the main source, it prevent the power from overflowing, it supply power to
the speaker so that it will be loud whiles others were totally talking about power supply
button.

(b) Most of the candidates attempted this sub-question but it was not well answered.
(i) Some of the candidates failed to indicate correctly the part of the mouse button used
for the clicking activity. Others were making use of left and right mouse buttons.
(ii) Most of the candidates did well in this sub-question but few of them failed to indicate
moving the mouse after pressing down and holding the left mouse button.

Expected response for the A part of the question should have been
(a)
(i) Floppy disk: It is used for data storage, backup and for transfer of small amount
of data.
(ii) Keyboard: It is used to enter/input/send data/information into a
computer/computer system.
(iii) Uninterruptible Power Supply: It provides power to the computer system when
the input power source or mains power fails.

Generally, candidates’ had average performance of this question.

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QUESTION 5

State three uses of computers in each of the following areas;

(a) Education: ……………………………………………………………………………..
(b) Everyday life: ………………………………………………………………………….

This was the most widely and well-answered question by most of the candidates who tackled it.

(a) Majority of the candidates gave correct response to this part of the question. However,
few of them did not read the question correctly to understand the demand for it and ended
up writing the importance of education.

(b) Most of the candidates gave impressive answers but few of them were stating the
advantages and importance of computers in everyday life.

Candidates’ performance generally is above average.

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