AB1401 Information Technology

Final Examination November/December 2015

Examiners Comments

Question 1

(a) In general, students were able to relate the question to multitasking and the differences
between parallel processing and sequential processing. Some students used figures to elaborate
more. A few students even pointed out that other factors such as RAM, cache, and OS support
can also affect computer performance. However, quite a few students just went straight to argue
that the statement was not true and computer performance depends on many other factors besides
CPU without explaining why multi-core CPUs performs better than single-core CPUs in general
and thus lost points.

(b) (i) Most students were able to clearly state that cells are used in dividing large geographical
areas. Other answers were cellular technology, cellular networks. Some students, in answering
the second question, further explained that cellular technology or cellular networks were used to
divide areas. These students also get full marks. In answering the second question, most students
who get full marks from the first question were able to state that it was for frequency reuse. A
few students said it was for the full coverage of the area or for setting up networks. Such
answers are too general to receive marks.

(b) (ii) The phone loses signal because hand-off is not successful in crowded areas due to over
capacity. Most students were able to describe the hand-off process. Some students failed to relate
to the case when answering the question and end up listing other accounts such as poor signal
coverage, dead zones, signal blocked by buildings, phone failure etc.

(c) Some students were able to evaluate the case from different perspectives using different
principles. However, quite a few students fell into condemning what Facebook had done and
failed to adhere to the principle stated. Some students used the Personal Data Protection Act to
argue that Facebook infringes users privacy. Although it is acceptable, it should be pointed out
that there is a boundary between legal and ethical issues. The practice can be legal but not ethical.

Question 2

Part (a)
Majority of the students answered the first part correctly by first explaining what DDOS is and
then stating that objective. In a few cases, students could not explain specifically that objective
is to prevent legitimate customers from using the website, instead they mentioned that objective
is to crash the website. For second part, a few students used diagram to explain how the attack
occurred while majority explained the steps. Many students were clear that attack occurs when
hackers hide programs in vulnerable servers and how signal from hackers causes program to ping
network computers. Some students also explained it by using concept of botnet and creating an
army of zombie computers which prevents legitimate requests to pass to server. Common
mistakes here were that students were not very clear of the process. Sometimes they mentioned
that identity theft, SQL injection or phishing causes DDOS to occur. But students clearly
explained the harm caused by DDOS to the banks which was loss of reputation or trust. Overall,
students knew what DDOS attack is and what harm it causes, but how it occurs was still reflected
poorly in their answers.

Part (b)
The second part of the question was on E-commerce asking students to suggest an appropriate
internet business model. This part majority of the students got wrong. Only a few students were
able to correctly identify virtual storefront or mention that it is a form of B2C. Some mentioned
portal or market creator which is not correct. Another mistake was that students confused
internet models with revenue models and hence were suggesting answers like advertising model.
For the second part on how both the reach and revenue can be increased by Google, majority of
the students were able to correctly identify and explain Adwords, Adsense and search engine
optimization. Some students even went on to explain additional ways like social media or viral
marketing to improve reach.

Question 3

Part (a)
Generally, it appeared from an overall reading of the answers that students do understand what
the enterprise cloud market is, yet were unable to articulate it appropriately. Many erroneously
said that the enterprise cloud market refers to the Internet where companies choose to host their
enterprise systems and store their information, instead of doing so in their own computers. The
fact that the enterprise cloud market is the place where cloud service providers offer companies
the use of enterprise systems over the Internet as a subscribed service for a fee was often missed.
A very small minority even misunderstood the enterprise cloud market as the place where E-
commerce is carried out.

It is also observed that students repeatedly use the Total Cost of Ownership concept to explain
why the enterprise cloud market is a growing industry, to explain how a cloud platform is
different from the on-premises model, and even to explain why it is not easy when implementing
ERP systems.

Specifically, as for why the enterprise cloud market is a growing industry, students tended to
focus on the supply side of the market, and the benefits of a cloud based ERP. Those who gave
better answers focused instead on the demand side of the market, where the demand is coming
from, and how a cloud based ERP is a more viable option over an on-premises based ERP,
especially for SMEs and micro SMEs who are looking at implementing ERPs to run their
businesses.

Part (b)
As for how is a cloud platform different from the on-premises model, students tended to explain
the differences in terms of functionalities, technicalities and costs. A more important difference
between them would be in terms of ownership and maintenance of the hardware, software and IT
infrastructure that are required to run the various enterprise systems. As for what are some
reasons for businesses to stick with some form of hybrid between on-premises and cloud
platforms, students tended to point out the inadequacies of the on-premises model more than that
of the cloud platform. A more balanced answer would have been to explain the shortcomings of
the cloud platform that make companies hesitant to go fully onto a cloud platform.

Part (c)
It is also observed that students were not quite able to explain what change management is,
beyond saying that when companies implement an ERP system there are many things that need
to be managed which take time and incur cost. Only a minority highlighted that change
management refers to managing the change in the business processes as a result of implementing
an ERP system, and also managing the people affected by this change.

Question 4

Part(a)
Most students were able to identify the relevant entities. However, some students added
unnecessary entity such as Country. Some students made the following mistakes in identifying
the relationships:
- Identifying the relationship between Team and Player incorrectly. Quit a few students
indicated Team and Player as M:M relationship
- Identifying the relationship between Player and Match incorrectly. Quit a few students
indicated Player and Match as 1:M relationship.
- Adding some unnecessary relationships: some students indicated that Team and Match also
has a 1:M relationship.

Part (b)
Because of identifying some relationships incorrectly, some students got incorrect database
schema. In general, following mistakes were observed in the database schema:

- Some students did not know where to put foreign key for 1:M and M:M relationships.
- Some students missed some fields in the table especially for the intersection table.
- Some students added unnecessary tables as a result of identifying incorrect relationships in part
(a).

Question 5

All parts of Q5 are generally not answered well. The common mistakes for each part are listed
below:

Part (a) Common mistakes:

- Combining functions that have mismatched input and output. Clearly this is the result of
not knowing how each individual function works. For example there is no such thing as
 DATE(TODAY()) or TODAY(+3) or DATE(15) etc, or not knowing the difference
between DAY(TODAY()+30) and DAY(TODAY())+30, etc.

- Writing excessively long answers, for example writing

DATE(YEAR(TODAY()),MONTH(TODAY()),DAY(TODAY())) instead of simply
TODAY(), etc.

- Do not know how the double quotation mark works. For example
IF(DAY(TODAY()+30)>15, TODAY()+33,TODAY()+30) will not result in the
evaluation of either TODAY()+33 or TODAY()+30. Instead it will simply display
whatever content that is typed within the double quotation mark. Some even go to the
extent of using double quotation mark for every parameter entry in a function.

- Do not understand the question, for example giving answers like: =IF(M18>15, )
where cell M18 is included in the formula when cell M18 is supposed to be the cell that
contains the formula as required in the question.

Part (b) Common mistakes:

- Do not understand the output of the MONTH function which is simply a numerical value.
The question asked for the month to be displayed in text which then requires the
CHOOSE function to be used together with the MONTH function instead of just the
MONTH function alone. For some who do use the CHOOSE and MONTH function
correctly there are quite a number of answers that look like the following:
=CHOOSE(MONTH(IF(..), Jan, Feb, ..) which will certainly result in a #NAME?
error because Jan, Feb, etc are not in double quotation marks.

- Writing excessively long answers for example using the IF function together with the
CHOOSE and MONTH function twice leading to an answer that is almost 3 times the
length of the required answer. However, partial marks are still awarded if the answer is
still logically correct.

Part (c) Common mistakes:

- Unable to formulate the logic required to answer the question, this being the most
common mistake for this particular question
- Combining functions that have mismatched input and output, for example
=IFERROR(M10,Enter Length) will never produce an error no matter what the content
of M10 is unless there is a deliberate effort to enter say a division by zero entry which
still doesnt serve the purpose of the formula which is to capture a situation when M10 is
blank, and thus rendering the IFERROR function useless.
- Do not know how to test a cell for blank. For example to test if cell M9 is blank or not, a
large number of wrong answers are as follows, some involving non-existent functions:

IF(M9=0, )
IFERROR(M9, )
 IF(M9<>, )
IF(M9=Empty, )
ISEMPTY(M9, )
IF(COUNT(M9)=0, )
IF(BLANK(M9), )
Etc

Part (d) Common mistakes:

- Do not know or is unaware of the SUMIFS function or how it works although it is

already given in the appendix and thus resulted in answers that uses the AND,
VLOOKUP, MATCH, etc functions to try to perform the task of a SUMIFS which will
not work.

Other common mistakes:

- Wrong syntax despite an appendix of functions is already given, for example writing
TODAY instead of TODAY() or writing the arguments of a function in the wrong order.
Syntax errors are unacceptable because an appendix of functions had already been
provided in the exam paper
- Random use of operators such as &, *, etc
- Mismatched parentheses
- Using functions not found in the appendix or doesnt even exist. For example, BLANK,
IFERRORS, ISEMPTY, VLOOKUPS, etc