General:

The paper was relatively easy and direct questions were asked to test the knowledge of the candidates. Still the level of performance was not up to the level desired from the students of a professional discipline.

Candidates generally try to write each and every thing they know about the subject without paying attention to the requirement of the question. As a result a lot of irrelevant material is produced that only wastes time and earns no marks.

Question wise remarks are as under:

Q.1

(a)

This question required explaining the categories of information systems and giving examples. The explanation part was handled reasonably well by most of the students; however, most of the candidates did not give proper examples of the systems. It shows that candidates only memorize the definitions without developing an understanding of the subject.

(b)

It was a straight forward question requiring the candidates to list down the characteristics of MIRS. There was no need to give detailed definitions of information systems and their subsystems. Instances were noted where candidates also included the characteristics of TPS and DSS in their answers that was totally unnecessary.

Q.2

Following major problems were noted in the answers of the candidates:

·        There were many cases where candidates produced differences of magnetic and optic media instead of distinguishing between sequential and direct access devices.

·        A majority of the candidates termed sequential access devices as an obsolete technology that is no longer in use. They obviously did not know that sequential access devices are still preferred where a large volume of data is to be backed up.

Q.3

(a)

It was an easy question and most candidates secured good marks in it.

(b)

It was a 3 marks question requiring the candidates to list the utilities required to convert data into information. However in some instances a lot of time was wasted in giving the characteristics of Market Research Application, its sources of input and users of its reports.

(c)

This part was attempted reasonably well but in a few cases candidates confused the requirement, i.e. “value of information”, with the value of products of Sun Word Enterprises. As a result their questions were based on assessing the value and acceptability of products instead of the value of information collected.

Q.4

(a)

A very simple and straight forward question, answered correctly by most of the candidates.

(b)

Most of the candidates who answered the (a) part correctly were able to attempt this part reasonably well. However, it was strange to note that in many cases candidates after declaring in part (a) that outsiders cannot take decisions relating to an organization, started giving examples of situation in which decisions are taken by outsiders.

Q.5

It was a direct question and very few candidates were able to attempt this question properly. The rest tried to do guess work that generally did not work. Generally following deficiencies in the answers were noted:

·        Control was in most cases explained as password protection and access control, instead of the core function of the operating system that is the control of input and output devices.

·        Call up was generally mixed up with loading and explained as the utility that loads programs from external storage to the primary memory.

·        Loading was confused with installation by most of the candidates.

Q.6

Part (a) and (b) of this question were well attempted and most of the candidates were able to identify the users of information correctly and scored good marks.

Part (c) was attempted reasonably well but there were certain candidates who categorized the information requirements of an organization as national/ international information and internal/external information. These categories might have been relevant if the question required identification of types of information but when we say information requirements of an organization then it means categorization of information with respect to its utilization in an organization.

Q.7

Candidates generally did not have a clear idea about software controls and in most of the cases an effort was made to create an answer just by using the text of the question. For instance many answers followed the following pattern:

“File identification check is a software control through which corrupted data can be identified and recreated”.

“Check points and recovery provisions are also software controls that help in identifying corrupted data and its recovery”.

Such answers show that the candidate does not have any idea whatsoever about the topic and they feel they can mislead the examiner.

Q.8

This question was attempted reasonably well by most of the candidates. However, following deficiencies were noted in general:

·        Compiler and interpreter do a similar job so it becomes important to give their distinguishing features while explaining.

·        In a few instances candidates mixed up source program with object program again showing the lack of understanding of the subject.

Q.9

This was a question requiring practical application and knowledge of MS Excel and it was attempted relatively well by most examinees. Though some of them made some silly syntax mistakes which cost them marks but overall this question was done quite well by majority.

Q.10

This was a simple questions of Microsoft Excel which requires the examinees to correctly apply formulae for sum, average, maximum and minimum values. However, it was disappointing to note that a few students were unable to secure good marks in this question.

Q.11

First part of this question was attempted well enough but the second part was almost always wrong. Examinees seemed completely of the mark in their answers which showed a lack of practice in using menu commands of MS Excel. Also those who did attempt it tried to explain the functions instead of simply writing the syntax of the functions which is what was asked.