General:

Overall it was a straight forward and easy paper and most of the students attempted all questions, however, they were unable to perform up to the mark mainly because they did not try to understand the question well before answering.

Q.1

(a)

Though easy, the answers were mostly irrelevant. The two basic characteristics of reports i.e. data and presentation were seldom mentioned.

(b)

Varied answers were seen in this question. Most of the students correctly categorized reports into scheduled, exception, predictive, ad-hoc and on-demand reports and secured good marks. 

Q.2

This question called upon the students to write the general attributes of a good quality of information system. Most students did not pay attention to the question and listed the general attributes of Information instead of information system and lost easy marks.

General attributes of a good quality information system include:

(i)

It meets the users’ needs / desired objectives.

(ii)

It has a structure that stays intact over a reasonable time period.

(iii)

It is user friendly.

(iv)

It is efficient (response time is minimum). 

(v)

Its operational cost is less than its benefits.

(vi)

It has built in security features.

(vii)

It is environment friendly.

Q.3

(a)

This was well answered and a scoring question for students. Majority of the students correctly explained that operational level information is day to day information which is required by ‘front-line’ managers to ensure that specific tasks such as invoice generation or stock replenishment etc are carried out properly as per plan. Such information is derived almost entirely from internal sources, is highly detailed and largely quantitative and is used for taking structured decisions.

(b)

Students could describe what structured decisions are but most of them could not give relevant examples of structured decisions at different management levels. Most of them were of the opinion that no such decisions are taken at the top level. Examples of structured decisions taken at operational level include stock re-order formulae and rules for granting credit to customers whereas selection of products on discount, employee appraisals, budget analysis etc are examples of structured decisions taken at tactical level. Major investment decisions, budget approvals, responsibility/authority matrix etc are examples of structured decisions at strategic level.

Q.4

This was a simple question regarding external and internal data collection and the production of information thereof in a banking environment. A number of students were not clear about the difference between data and information. Some of the students gave broad based and generalized examples instead of examples relevant to the given scenario. In banking environment examples of external data include inter-bank foreign currency rates, daily account transactions received from third parties, cheques for clearing and market research data. Daily account transactions generated internally, payroll and utility usage/expense etc are examples of internal data. Information produced include, customers’ account statements, reconciliation reports and bank’s profit & loss statements etc.

Q.5

The question required identification of  key differences between a transaction processing system (TPS) and a decision support system (DSS). Although majority of the students performed well in this question, there were students who listed features of each system but were unable to produce the distinguishing features of TPS and DSS. Such students might have got better marks if they were able to distinguish between users, focus, application, running frequency and sources of data of the two systems.  

Q.6

(a)

This part was attempted well by majority of the students.

(b)

In this part, a few students didn’t concentrate on the question. They were asked about the devices used to automate data input whereas their replies were revolving around simple input devices.

(c)

In this part the students were required to explain motherboard and memory. Majority of students successfully explained memory, however, incase of motherboard most of the students emphasized that it is the most important component of a computer but couldn’t really describe it and its role.

Q.7

A very poor performance was shown in this question. It was obvious from the answers that majority of the students had no idea about UNIX. They knew about Windows but could not compare it with UNIX.  Most of them thought of UNIX as something obsolete.

Students should note that Unix is more flexible and can be installed on different types of machines, including main-frame computers, supercomputers and micro-computers. It is more stable and does not go down as often as Windows and therefore requires less administration and maintenance. It has greater built-in security and permission features than Windows. It possesses much greater processing power than Windows. It is the leader in serving the Web. About 90% of the Internet relies on Unix operating systems running on Apache, the world's most widely used Web server. Software upgrades from Microsoft often require the user to purchase new or more hardware or prerequisite software. That is not the case with Unix.

Q.8

(a)

In this part students were required to briefly explain three key technologies that are used in e-commerce to capture, transmit and process/present information in an electronic form. E-commerce makes use of electronic data capturing tools i.e., scanners, point of sale systems, telephone related systems and voice recognition systems etc., to capture information. It uses publishing tools like electronic forms, electronic catalogues, electronic publishing and interactive television etc., to transmit information and communication tools like e-mail, bulletin boards, discussion lists, web broadcasting and public access kiosks etc., to process or present information.

(b)

This part was well answered by most of the students as they successfully described the credit/debit card systems, digital cash and electronic funds transfer etc.

(c)

A very bad performance was shown in this part. Most of the students think that passwords and restricted rights are security technologies. The technologies that are available to address the concern of security and privacy of the online transaction information are firewall, secure socket layer, digital signatures and public key encryption (public key infrastructure) etc.

Q.9

It was a high scoring question as majority of the students knew the commands required in DOS mode for the given operations.

Q.10

(a)

This was a poor scoring question. Students were required to list the steps for turning on the tables and borders toolbars in Microsoft Word which can be done by a number of ways, for example, press Alt+V+T then choose ‘Tables and Borders’ or click the icon with ‘pencil in a table’ in standard toolbar or Choose View > Toolbars > Tables and Borders etc.

(b)

In this part the students were required to list four types of documents that may be created by using mail merge facility of Microsoft Word. Majority of the students were able to come up with only two types of documents i.e., letters and labels. Other types of documents that can be created using mail merge facility include e-mail messages, directory and envelopes.

Q.11

This was a simple question which required basic knowledge of data types defined in Microsoft Access and understanding of the fundamental concept of primary key. Although this question was attempted well by majority, a number of students were unable to select an appropriate field for the primary key. In this case ‘Customer#’ was the most appropriate field for the primary key as it could uniquely identify a record in the database.

Q.12

This question required basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel and was generally well attempted.

Q.13

In this question most of the students did not perform well. The students were required to prepare a schedule of cash receipts under specified conditions. Although it was clearly mentioned in the question that calculations were not required, a number of students showed the entire calculations but did not give the required formula.