Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level

9713 Applied ICT November 2017

Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/02
Practical Test A

Key messages

For this examination, the main issues to note are as follows:

Candidates need to:

• be more familiar with applying their theoretical knowledge to practical tasks.

• ensure that the work they present to examiners is in a format that can be easily read without the use of
magnification devices.
• better understand the topic of corporate house styles.
• better understand the concepts of validation and verification.

General comments

Many candidates omitted one or more of the pages from the required printouts. A small number of
candidates submitted multiple printouts for some of the tasks and did not cross out those printouts that were
draft copies, which led to Examiners only marking the first occurrence of each page. Candidates must be
aware of the dangers of cutting and pasting cropped versions of evidence in order to save space on a sheet.
It often looks impressive but this invariably leads to the loss of crucial data which could achieve marks. As in
previous sessions, some candidates printed work that was too small to read even using magnification
devices, especially in the spreadsheet work. Candidates must ensure that all text can be easily read with the
naked eye.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

This question was completed well by most candidates, as evidenced by their subsequent printouts of this
Evidence Document.

Question 2

Most candidates created a presentation using the file provided to them. A small number did not use the
source file.

Question 3

The white background and entry of the candidate details was frequently completed with accuracy; however,
a number of candidates did not set the candidate details into a serif font and/or the bullets within the slides
into a sans serif font.

Question 4

This question was attempted with mixed results. If candidates’ had the underpinning knowledge they were
able to perform well on this question but unfortunately too many candidates identified the corporate house
style as related to dwellings and many mixed up their responses to validation and verification.

Question 5

Most candidates printed the presentation as specified.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 6

Many candidates created the hyperlinks as specified and directed the user, when the hyperlink was used to
the correct slides. A small number of candidates set the hyperlinks to re-open the current slide.

Question 7

Many candidates created the hyperlinks as specified and directed the user to the correct website’s URL. A
small number set this as a mailto: command to send an email rather than open the web page.

Question 8

Most candidates inserted the new row and added the correct text into cell A12.

Question 9

Most candidates replaced the word ‘Task’ with the word ‘Event’, although not all used the replace function
within the software, as evidenced by occasional spelling or spacing errors.

Question 10

Most candidates inserted the new row and added the correct text into cell A12.

Question 11

This question was completed well by most candidates with the correct data added to the correct cells.

Question 12

Almost all candidates completed this step as specified in the question paper.

Question 13

This question was not always completed as specified, in many cases candidate’s centre aligned and
emboldened either row 1 or column A, but not both, or set row 1 as specified but only the top part of column
A.

Question 14

This question was completed well by most candidates.

Question 15

This question was often completed using formulae that worked but not using an efficient method. The best
candidate responses used a single SUM function like this: =SUM(B2,F2:I2)

Question 16

Replication of these formulae was completed as instructed by the vast majority of candidates.

Question 17

Most candidate’s set columns B and J to be formatted as dd/mm/yyyy.

Question 18

The formulae inserted into column K were frequently incorrect. Many candidates did not refer to the data
from the file n17quarter.csv in their solutions or included, within the formula, the required date formatting as:
dd mmmm yyyy. There were many different attempts at concatenating the correct quarter number (in square
brackets) but few candidates used a formula that gave the correct results for this element.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 19

Most candidates attempted this with a COUNTIF function, although other attempted solutions were also
seen. A number of candidates used COUNTIFS, although this was not the most efficient method as this
function expects two or more conditions rather than the one condition expected by COUNTIF.

Question 20

This was frequently completed as specified although some typographical errors were seen.

Question 21

This question was frequently completed as specified although not all candidates included the gridlines on
their printout.

Question 22

This was frequently completed as specified although some typographical errors were seen, often relating to
the use of upper and lower case letters.

Question 23

Although this was frequently completed as specified, a significant number of candidates did not show row
and column headings or ensure all data was fully visible; often formulae were truncated.

Question 24

The data was frequently sorted into the correct order; the most common error was sorting the data but not
maintaining its integrity.

Question 25

This question was frequently completed as specified although not all candidates included the gridlines on
their printout.

Question 26

Many candidates set the print area from A13 to B20 but not all of them extracted only the quarters where a
project ended. A number of candidates did not display row and column headings and/or gridlines on their
printout.

Question 27

Few candidates produced evidence of attempting to edit their formulae. A variety of different methods were
seen, many worked only for the data provided, but would not work if any of the data was edited.

Question 28

The majority of candidates submitting printouts for this question completed the header with 100% accuracy
and produced the values printout as required by the question paper.

Question 29

The majority of candidates submitting printouts for this question completed the header with 100% accuracy
and produced the formulae printout as specified; however, a number did not display the row and column
headings and/or gridlines.

Question 30

Almost all candidates printed their Evidence Document.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/04
Practical Test B

General comments

Many candidates seemed unfamiliar with the concept of commission for sales and the practicalities of
modelling in general.

Comments on specific questions

Task 1(a)

In this task candidates were required to use named ranges to calculate the commission earned on sales by
staff listed in the TTSstaff file. A table in the file showed that commission was to be paid at 5% on sales up
to and including the Sales Target and paid at 10% on sales over the threshold. Many, indeed most,
candidates misunderstood that the 10% rate was only applied to the value of sales over the threshold and
applied the 10% rate to the value of all the sales if the threshold was reached. Fortunately, those candidates
with the incorrect values for commission were not disadvantaged in subsequent tasks.

Task 1(b)

Candidates were also required to calculate the value of bonus payments to staff. To qualify for a bonus, staff
had to meet three criteria and the value of the bonus payment was calculated using criteria shown in a table
of named ranges. Several candidates did not use the named ranges and applied the values only. This meant
that marks were lost for efficiency since varying the criteria for modelling purposes entailed changing the
values in formulae manually.

It was pleasing to note that many candidates tackled the logic of the conditional formula successfully,
although some did not set the final null condition to display €0 as required.

Task 1(c)

This part of the task was well done by almost all candidates. Marks for the subtotals for sales, commission
and bonuses for each branch with grand totals for the entire data set, did not depend on the correct values
being calculated in tasks 1(a) and 1(b). Many, however, did not meet the requirements for the display of the
data as specified in the bulleted list. In particular, very few ensured that the display of data for individual
branches was not split over two pages. This may have been due to lack of experience with page settings and
centres would profit from addressing this issue.

Tasks 2(a) and 2(b)

These tasks required candidates to model changes to the threshold value for commission and determine a
value to meet a criterion.

The simple change to a new threshold value caused candidates no problem; most had used the named
ranges and found this part of the task very straightforward. Very few, however, were able to determine the
threshold value needed to ensure a maximum grand total for commission of €3 000 000. Candidates were
clearly unfamiliar with either trial and error methods or the use of a goal seek facility. Both methods are
fundamental to modelling and centres should ensure that candidates have sufficient experience of such
methods.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Task 3

In this task candidates were required to calculate bonus values based upon revised criteria.

Many clearly found the efficient solution using IF(), AND() and OR() functions in the same formula too
difficult. This was clearly a skill issue since most understood the logic and formulated other less elegant
solutions successfully.

Tasks 4(a) and 4(b)

The first part of the task required candidates to examine a template merge document and determine the data
needed for the merge. To create the data, it was necessary to amend the spreadsheet to include the
appraisal category description for each member of staff and display each bonus value as a percentage of
their salary.

Whilst many candidates managed to achieve the correct insertions for the merge document created in part
4(b), not many provided the evidence specified in the question paper. With a limited set of recipients and the
possibility of manually editing the merged letters, candidates must provide evidence to support a valid mail
merge for the award of the marks for the data source.

Almost all candidates managed to insert the required mergefields successfully, but many made inefficient
use of the conditional fields for the appraisal category and the appraisal text.

For example, the condition Appraisal <C sufficed for categories A and B.

Similarly, very few candidates took enough care ensuring that all the currency values included the € sign and
the bonus percentage sign was shown where necessary.

For the award of these marks, both issues could have been addressed without penalty, by manually editing
the merge document, or indeed, manually "proofing" the merged letters.

In conclusion

For this session, the main issues for centres to bear in mind seem to be:

• developing experience of modelling methods and in particular, determining values to meet criteria
• practice with the efficient use of logic functions in conditional formulae
• practice with page settings to ensure correctly distributed data in printouts
• the provision of evidence for methods or steps that are not explicit in solutions
• the importance of manual inspection of results to ensure specifications are met.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/11
Written A

Key messages

Overall, candidates appeared to have been better prepared for this assessment.

Candidates showed a reasonable level of understanding though there were areas of the syllabus of which
many candidates appear to lack detailed knowledge.

On much of the paper some expansion and detail is required. It is not sufficient to give brief answers.
Questions which required a recall response were handled well by most candidates, but it would appear that
they struggled to apply their knowledge and understanding to a given scenario.

Discuss questions require advantages and disadvantages to be given. It is important that comparisons are
made rather than just giving features.

Questions requiring simple and straightforward answers were done well, while the answers to more
demanding questions needed to contain more explanation or discussion.

General comments

Candidates must read questions carefully before answering. Question 5(b), for example, required
candidates to discuss the advantages and disadvantages if using email compared to a phone conference yet
a number of candidates just described how an email is sent. Question 7(a) required candidates to describe
the features of a website without referring to visual appearance yet many ignored this and still wrote about
the visual appearance.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

Candidates did well on this question with the majority of candidates gaining at least three marks. Incorrect
answers seemed to be evenly distributed among the provided responses.

Question 2

Candidates did not do as well on this question with many only gaining two marks. Again, incorrect answers
seemed to be evenly distributed among the provided responses.

Question 3

This question was not particularly well answered. Most candidates did not appear to be familiar with the
topic. However, most candidates who gained marks did so on the continuous process control. A small
number appeared to understand batch process control in addition to continuous, but no candidate
understood discrete process control.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 4

Candidates did quite well on this question. Most achieved marks more readily on part (a) than part (b).

(a) Many candidates gained at least three marks. Most seemed to understand the VLOOKUP function
quite well.

(b) Most candidates managed to gain at least one mark usually with answers relating to the speed of
data entry.

Question 5

Candidates performed better on part (b) than part (a), but few candidates achieved more than three marks
overall.

(a) It seemed that this was a question where candidates either knew the topic well or not at all. Many
candidates did not achieve any marks although a few made a single point. A sizeable minority
appeared to know the subject matter well and gained at least three marks.

(b) Candidates who struggled on part (a) did a lot better on this part, but this was probably due to their
greater familiarity with email since their answers relied heavily on their knowledge of email rather
than that of phone conferencing.

Question 6

This question was fairly well answered with a number of candidates gaining half marks overall.

(a) Most candidates were able to correctly identify the type of advertising and some were able to
describe it fully, but were unable to give a reason why they had chosen it.

(b) A significant number of candidates did not attempt this part of the question. Of those that did, many
were unable to come up with more than two differences or similarities. The use of multimedia in
slide shows was a very popular answer as was the fact that flyers can be discarded.

Question 7

(a) Many candidates were able to give answers such as ease of searching and descriptions of items,
but little else. A number of candidates still referred to visual appearance despite being told not to in
the question.

(b) Approximately one in five of all candidates did not even attempt this part of the question. Those
that did attempt the question usually picked up at least one mark for either describing part-time
work or job-sharing, though rarely both.

Question 8

This question produced some of the best responses on the paper with many candidates achieving at least
half marks. Online shopping is a popular topic with many candidates and they were able to apply their
knowledge well on this question.

Question 9

(a) Although the question was using a different scenario, the candidates’ knowledge of transaction files
should have benefitted them here.

(b) Only the more able candidates gained one mark. Very few candidates appeared to have a grasp of
this aspect of the syllabus.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 10

(a) Most candidates were able to only give a brief, vague, description. Few candidates were able to
provide sufficient detail to gain any more than one or two marks. Many understood the need for
setting up relationships, but few managed to mention the use of primary keys.

(b) As many candidates were unable to describe how to set up a relational database, it followed that
they would also struggle to give the advantages and disadvantages of them compared to flat files.
The most popular correct answers related to the fact that data only needs to be amended once.

Question 11

This question produced very weak responses. One quarter of the candidates did not attempt the question.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/12
Written A

Key messages

Overall, candidates appeared to have been better prepared for much of this assessment.

Candidates showed a reasonable level of understanding though there were areas of the syllabus of which
many candidates appear to lack detailed knowledge.

On much of the paper some expansion and detail is required. It is not sufficient to give brief answers.
Questions which required a recall response were handled well by most candidates, but they struggled to
apply their knowledge and understanding to a given scenario.

Discuss questions also require advantages and disadvantages to be given. It is important that comparisons
are made rather than just giving features.

Questions requiring simple and straightforward answers were done well, while the answers to more
demanding questions needed to contain more explanation or discussion.

General comments

Candidates must read questions carefully before answering. Question 5, for example, required candidates
to give advantages and disadvantages of the methods of storage, but candidates were happy just to list the
features of them without making any comparisons. Several wrote at length about memory cards and sticks
despite the question clearly stating Solid State Drives. Question 7(a) required candidates to describe how
they would download an image but many described how they would go on to edit the image which was not
necessary. Question 9(a) required a formula to be written which would be easily replicable, but this last point
was ignored by many candidates.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

Few candidates gained full marks for this question. Many candidates thought that laser printers were best
suited to continuous stationery and that graph plotters produced output which was inferior to dot matrix
printers, both of which gained no credit.

Question 2

Candidates did better on this question than Question 1 with many gaining full marks. The majority of those
that did not thought that MICR is used to read bar codes.

Question 3

This question was not well answered as a whole with many candidates struggling to get more than two
marks overall. A sizeable number of candidates did not attempt part (b).

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

(a) Most candidates were able to identify the term ‘Conditional Formatting’. They then, however, did
not clearly describe any steps regarding how it would be achieved. A lot of candidates did not
clearly describe how to use conditional formatting in terms of how to create a rule and then format
the background colour based on the rule.

(b) Many candidates managed to answer this part of the question using examples of the different types
of data. However, there was a distinct lack of mention of live data.

Question 4

Many candidates were able to gain some marks for this question, though very few achieved full marks. A lot
of candidates’ answers did not include a description of how the feature they mentioned would have an
impact on the students’ learning. A number of candidates answered this from the teacher’s point of view
rather than the students. There were a lot of answers based on improving the students’ IT skills and other
such answers that were not relevant.

Question 5

A lot of candidates did not give a comparison between SSD, HDD and Magnetic Tape. There were a lot of
answers that were too vague as candidates were not able to use the correct terminology to describe clearly
what the advantages and disadvantages were between these alternatives. Many candidates appeared to
have some knowledge of these methods but were unable to apply knowledge in a manner that would enable
them to make comparisons.

Question 6

On the whole, this question was well answered although candidates appeared to struggle with part (c).

(a) The majority of candidates gained marks on this question. It was generally well answered, although
some candidates repeated the example used in the scenario of being well motivated and so could
not gain credit for this answer. A number of candidates based their answers on the equipment
needed to work from home rather than the personal characteristics.

(b) This part of the question was reasonably well answered with the majority of candidates gaining two
or more marks. There were a number of vague answers based on ‘working from the comfort of his
home’ or similar which were too vague, but on the whole candidates came up with good answers.

(c) Most candidates did not fare so well on this part of the question with many unable to gain more
than one mark. Many candidates concentrated on how it would affect the workers without saying
how this would benefit the company.

Question 7

This question provided very mixed responses with part (a) producing slightly better responses than part (b).

(a) Most candidates made a reasonable attempt at this question making at least two valid points,
although some did not clearly describe what they needed to do to carry out the task. A lot of
candidates made vague references to their searching technique without providing sufficient detail.
There were a number of candidates who used brand names such as Google etc. Many candidates
did not read the question carefully and described how the images would be edited despite the
question only requiring candidates to describe how images would be downloaded, nothing more.

(b) Very few candidates did very well on this part of the question. There were a lot of vague answers in
particularly involving the description of images of low resolution. Some candidates did not gain
marks as they were unable to make a comparison between the two different methods merely
stating the features of each method.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 8

This was well answered by candidates with the majority able to describe at least three valid steps.

Question 9

Candidates often struggled to gain more than one mark for each part of this question.

(a) Most candidates did not identify the correct function, and those that did, then struggled to give the
correct range and order of items.

(b) Several candidates gave vague answers and did not mention replicating or copying the formula.
Where candidates had used the formula from their answer to Question 9(a), they were mostly
unable to explain how the different elements were examples of either absolute or relative
referencing and what that meant.

(c) Few candidates gained both marks for this question. Most candidates successfully identified ‘D3–
E3’, but few candidates were able to complete the formula with ‘+F3’.

(d) Candidates seemed to not fully understand what the question was asking them. Answers were too
vague and although a few candidates were able to identify the correct validation rule, most were
unable to describe its use in detail and on the correct data. There were a lot of answers based on
items not shown in the spreadsheet which was provided for the candidates.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/13
Written A

Key messages

Overall, candidates appeared to have been better prepared for this assessment.

Candidates showed a reasonable level of understanding though there were areas of the syllabus of which
many candidates appear to lack detailed knowledge.

On much of the paper some expansion and detail is required. It is not sufficient to give brief answers.
Questions which required a recall response were handled well by most candidates, but it would appear that
they struggled to apply their knowledge and understanding to a given scenario.

Discuss questions require advantages and disadvantages to be given. It is important that comparisons are
made rather than just giving features.

Questions requiring simple and straightforward answers were done well, while the answers to more
demanding questions needed to contain more explanation or discussion.

General comments

Candidates must read questions carefully before answering. Question 5(b), for example, required
candidates to discuss the advantages and disadvantages if using email compared to a phone conference yet
a number of candidates just described how an email is sent. Question 7(a) required candidates to describe
the features of a website without referring to visual appearance yet many ignored this and still wrote about
the visual appearance.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

Candidates did well on this question with the majority of candidates gaining at least three marks. Incorrect
answers seemed to be evenly distributed among the provided responses.

Question 2

Candidates did not do as well on this question with many only gaining two marks. Again, incorrect answers
seemed to be evenly distributed among the provided responses.

Question 3

This question was not particularly well answered. Most candidates did not appear to be familiar with the
topic. However, most candidates who gained marks did so on the continuous process control. A small
number appeared to understand batch process control in addition to continuous, but no candidate
understood discrete process control.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 4

Candidates did quite well on this question. Most achieved marks more readily on part (a) than part (b).

(a) Many candidates gained at least three marks. Most seemed to understand the VLOOKUP function
quite well.

(b) Most candidates managed to gain at least one mark usually with answers relating to the speed of
data entry.

Question 5

Candidates performed better on part (b) than part (a), but few candidates achieved more than three marks
overall.

(a) It seemed that this was a question where candidates either knew the topic well or not at all. Many
candidates did not achieve any marks although a few made a single point. A sizeable minority
appeared to know the subject matter well and gained at least three marks.

(b) Candidates who struggled on part (a) did a lot better on this part, but this was probably due to their
greater familiarity with email since their answers relied heavily on their knowledge of email rather
than that of phone conferencing.

Question 6

This question was fairly well answered with a number of candidates gaining half marks overall.

(a) Most candidates were able to correctly identify the type of advertising and some were able to
describe it fully, but were unable to give a reason why they had chosen it.

(b) A significant number of candidates did not attempt this part of the question. Of those that did, many
were unable to come up with more than two differences or similarities. The use of multimedia in
slide shows was a very popular answer as was the fact that flyers can be discarded.

Question 7

(a) Many candidates were able to give answers such as ease of searching and descriptions of items,
but little else. A number of candidates still referred to visual appearance despite being told not to in
the question.

(b) Approximately one in five of all candidates did not even attempt this part of the question. Those
that did attempt the question usually picked up at least one mark for either describing part-time
work or job-sharing, though rarely both.

Question 8

This question produced some of the best responses on the paper with many candidates achieving at least
half marks. Online shopping is a popular topic with many candidates and they were able to apply their
knowledge well on this question.

Question 9

(a) Although the question was using a different scenario, the candidates’ knowledge of transaction files
should have benefitted them here.

(b) Only the more able candidates gained one mark. Very few candidates appeared to have a grasp of
this aspect of the syllabus.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 10

(a) Most candidates were able to only give a brief, vague, description. Few candidates were able to
provide sufficient detail to gain any more than one or two marks. Many understood the need for
setting up relationships, but few managed to mention the use of primary keys.

(b) As many candidates were unable to describe how to set up a relational database, it followed that
they would also struggle to give the advantages and disadvantages of them compared to flat files.
The most popular correct answers related to the fact that data only needs to be amended once.

Question 11

This question produced very weak responses. One quarter of the candidates did not attempt the question.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/32
Written B

Key messages

Centres are reminded to ensure that candidates read the questions carefully before attempting their answers
as candidates appear to look for, or ‘spot’, ‘key words’ in the question and then proceed to write answers
based on those keywords; there is often little application of their knowledge to the question or scenario. This
type of answer may score a few marks but will not give access to the full range of available marks.

It is essential that candidates read the scenarios before a set of questions very carefully and apply their
knowledge when answering the subsequent questions. Many candidates appeared to have subject
knowledge and some good technical descriptions were seen but most did not apply their knowledge to the
given scenarios or to the context set in the questions. This lead to answers being generic and not addressing
the scenario set. As noted in previous reports, the consequence of this was that, while they appeared to
know the syllabus content quite well, they did not score the higher marks because their knowledge was not
appropriately applied.

It is very important that, when answering questions, candidates read the rubric and answer the question in
the appropriate manner. There were a significant number of candidates who created numbered bullet points
for questions that required a free-response set of descriptions. As has been noted in previous reports, this is
to be discouraged as, for example in questions 2 and 3, candidates are asked to ‘describe’ and ‘explain’ a
topic but when using numbered bullet points they rarely produce little more than simple points or short
statements with no description or explanations. These answers rarely score the marks. Candidates who
wrote in sentences and paragraphs produced descriptions/explanations that scored marks. E.g. in Question 12
to simply state ‘use an Anti-virus package’ is not sufficient; to gain credit a candidate must describe what the
anti-virus software will do and to describe this in some detail.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

This question required candidates to describe what was meant by a climate model. The question was not
well answered as candidates tended to describe weather forecasting or expert systems and this lead to few
marks being awarded. Good answers should have referred to climate models describing the behaviour of
factors affecting Earth systems and examples of the climate drivers should have been ecosystems, cloud
cover and ice masses instead of just temperature, rainfall and amount of sunlight.

Question 2

Even though Question 1 was not well answered this question allowed candidates to gain more credit and in
many cases all four marks were awarded. Good answers referred to, e.g. the use of sensors connected to a
computer system, the need for an ADC to convert the analogue signal to digital so that it can be read by the
computer and the different sensors that could be used with the reason for their use. Weaker answers still
gained marks for giving suitable sensors.

Question 3

Some candidates answered this question well by explaining that data from the past could be input into the
model and then the results from the model could be compared with the actual results that had happened.
Weaker answers looked at inputting current data and then waiting for a number of months/years.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 4

Since candidates did not answer Question 1 very well, this question was also answered poorly, since they
assumed that climate models and weather forecasting were the same. Good answers should have referred
to climate models only predicting trends in weather patterns and weather forecasting and climate models
using different physical variables.

Question 5

This question was answered well with most candidates gaining one if not both of the marks. Good answers
included, e.g. ‘csv files have the data stored in tabular form with commas to separate each piece of
information’. Weaker answers referenced the fact that the data was stored in a spreadsheet which did not
gain any credit.

Question 6

Many candidates gained one of the two marks available for this question. These answers referenced, e.g.
‘many software applications are able to read csv files’ but often this was not explained sufficiently to gain the
second mark.

Question 7

The use of commas in the actual data and this ‘causing the data to be inaccurate’ was the most common
answer to this question gaining many candidates one of the two marks available. Few candidates were able
to give any further explanation or suggest any method of correction, e.g. using quotation marks to enclose
fields that contain commas to gain the second mark.

Question 8

This question was not well answered. Poor answers lacked any detail, e.g. merely giving ‘the file contains
some formatting’ as a benefit. Better answers included benefits and drawbacks of the rtf format but they were
still limited in their discussion.

Question 9

This question was answered well by most candidates who could describe the limitations of using a wireless
access point to connect computers to a cabled network. Disappointingly, some candidates gave answers that
described the advantages of using wireless access points which did not gain them credit. Other weaker
answers described the limitations of the cabled network instead of the wireless access points.

Question 10

This question required candidates to describe how a system could be set up so that staff could securely
access servers in different offices around the world. Points that were not expanded did not score many
marks. Good answers referred to using (virtual private network) VPN with the use of encryption setting up a
secure ‘tunnel’ over public communication systems. Weaker answers were vague and referred loosely to
‘needing a login’ and making sure anti-virus software was used and up to date; some candidates described
how the physical system would have to be setup describing the type of network, e.g. star, bus, etc.

Question 11

This question was not well answered by candidates with many describing different types of viruses as
examples instead of describing other malware. Good answers referred to, e.g. the method of phishing to
steal confidential information by sending bogus emails to employees and the interception of data whist it is
being transferred around the network.

Question 12

This question was quite well answered with many candidates gaining credit for, e.g. ‘running anti-virus
software so that you continually scan for viruses in files’. Good answers then continued to describe other
methods, e.g. using firewalls to prevent unauthorised access, restricting or stopping employees from using
external storage devices/memory sticks. Weaker answers referred to getting anti-virus software but then not
describing what to do with the software.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 13

Some candidates answered this question with generic answers referring to ‘quicker’, ‘easier’, and ‘faster’ to
book their seats which did not gain then any credit. Good answers were seen and they referred to, e.g.
allowing the customer to pick their seats from an image of the theatre, allowing customers to choose the
number of seats required and confirmation emails are sent to the customer telling them what they have
booked.

Question 14

Again this question was answered with generic answers, e.g. can be done from anywhere, easier for
people/disabled people as they do not have to go out and therefore no travel needed. These answers did not
refer specifically to the booking of theatre tickets and therefore did not gain credit. Good answers from
Question 13 then continued their answers through into this question and discussed the advantage of
receiving confirmation of your booking straight away and the ability to have their tickets sent by email and not
have to wait for them to be posted.

Question 15

Very few candidates linked their answers to this question to how a database would prevent the double
booking of seats. Weaker answers described how a list of available seats would be checked to see if the
requested seat was available and then the seat would be taken off this list once it was booked, with no
reference to fields or flags. A number of good answers were seen and these referred to a field being set up
called ‘Booked’, with a data type set as Boolean which would change from N to Y when the seat was booked
by a customer.

Question 16

This question required candidates to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of making legal information
available on the government website. Good answers referred to, e.g. legal information being available to
everyone as the benefit and some people thinking that the little amount of information they have gained from
the website makes then experts as the drawback.

Question 17

Many candidates did not explain their answers to this question in sufficient detail to gain the higher marks,
some candidates simply giving a list of requirements for the design of the website so that it would be suitable
for disabled users with no further explanation. Weaker candidates strayed from the design of the website into
the hardware that could be used with no reference to how it would link with the website. Good answers
should have referred to, e.g. viewers having sufficient time to complete tasks on screen, for people who have
motor disabilities, colour vision deficiencies should be catered for by ensuring suitable colours are used and
that text and background colours can be seen easily.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

APPLIED ICT

Paper 9713/33
Written B

Key messages

Centres are reminded to ensure that candidates read the questions carefully before attempting their answers
as candidates appear to look for, or ‘spot’, ‘key words’ in the question and then proceed to write answers
based on those keywords; there is often little application of their knowledge to the question or scenario. This
type of answer may score a few marks but will not give access to the full range of available marks.

It is essential that candidates also read the scenarios before a set of questions very carefully and apply their
knowledge when answering the subsequent questions. Many candidates appeared to have subject
knowledge and some good technical descriptions were seen but most did not apply their knowledge to the
given scenarios or to the context set in the questions. This lead to answers being generic and not addressing
the scenario set. As noted in previous reports, the consequence of this was that, while they appeared to
know the syllabus content quite well, they did not score the higher marks because their knowledge was not
appropriately applied.

It is very important that, when answering questions, candidates read the rubric and answer the question in
the appropriate manner. There were a significant number of candidates who created numbered bullet points
for questions that required a free-response set of descriptions. As has been noted in previous reports, this is
to be discouraged as, for example in questions 1 and 2, candidates are asked to ‘describe’ and ‘explain’ a
topic but when using numbered bullet points they rarely produce little more than simple points or short
statements with no description or explanations. These answers rarely score the marks. Candidates who
wrote in sentences and paragraphs produced descriptions/explanations that scored marks. E.g. in Question 4
to simply state CAPI, CASI and/or CATI is not sufficient; to gain credit a candidate must describe each of
these interviewing techniques in some detail.

Comments on specific questions

Question 1

To score the higher marks, candidates had to refer to several possible benefits of storing the database on
more than one server. Good answers referred to the benefits of, e.g. easier expansion and increased
reliability due to data replication. Weaker answers focused on only one benefit.
.
Question 2

Most candidates answered this question well. Good answers referred to different functions of a DBMS, e.g.
the ability to define how the data is organised by adding, modifying or deleting tables or relationships and the
ability to search or sort the database and display the results in graphs or reports. Weak answers did not give
more than, e.g. ‘Create a report’, or ‘Sort the data’ without any further explanation of the function.

Question 3

Many candidates answered this question well giving good answers for the advantages such as ‘people can
answer the questions in their own time when it is convenient’ and for the disadvantages such as ‘some
people may fail to respond to the questionnaire as they do not have internet access’. Weak answers were
those that listed the advantages and disadvantages without any discussion, e.g. ‘cheaper’ and ‘no one
asking the questions’. Candidates must provide discussion points and not just bullet points if they are to
successfully access the marks.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 4

Many candidates could provide good descriptions of how computers can be used when carrying out research
by personal interviewing and many scored good marks. Good answers included descriptions of, e.g.
Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing allowing the interviewer to ask questions and then enter the
answers on the computer, Computer Assisted Self Interviewing in which the interviewer is not present and
the person being interviewed can answer questions using the computer and Computer Assisted Telephone
Interviewing where the computer dials a number and then people answer questions over the phone.
However, weaker answers limited their response to just CAPI, CASI and CATI with no further description of
the method.

Question 5

This question required candidates to explain the features of a computer that could be used as a server for a
bank’s online banking service. Good answers referred to the need for large amounts of secondary storage in
order to store the vast amounts of customer records and the requirement of high performance processors so
that many customers can access the system at the same time. Weaker answers strayed from the hardware
requirements of the answer into software and security requirements which did not gain them credit.

Question 6

Many candidates were able to gain marks on this question and described the use of a VPN to allow branches
to appear as if they are all on the same network and the use of encryption to ensure that transmitted data
remains secure. Weaker answers referred to the use of a router or modem to connect the LANs into a WAN.

Question 7

This question was not well answered by candidates. Candidates gave generic answers such as ‘can be
accessed at any time and from anywhere’ which did not gain credit as the question clearly refers to the use
of online banking by disabled users and answers must relate to the question/scenario.

Question 8

Good answers showed an understanding of data transfer by HTTPS, describing using secure socket layer
and/or digital certificates so that unauthorised people were prevented from seeing customers’ details.
Weaker answers lacked any description and often just referred to scrambling the data so that it is
unreadable.

Question 9

Again this question was not well answered by candidates. Candidates gave generic answers such as
‘students can access work at any time and from anywhere’ which did not gain credit as the question clearly
refers to the assessment of progress of the students’ learning. Good answers should have referred to the
customisation of tests for individual students, the analysis of the results in different formats and over a period
of time so that students’ progress can be monitored and the use of spreadsheets and/or databases so that
results can be analysed easier and students compared.

Question 10

(a) This question required candidates to describe the features of web authoring software that a teacher
could use to prepare an online presentation. Many candidates described creating the presentation
using presentation software with no mention of web authoring software and this gained them little
or no credit. Good answers described the use of links to move around the presentation or access
other web pages and the ability to use style sheets to control the style of the presentation.

(b) This question was not answered well by candidates. Some candidates could indicate that overlay
software could be used to make an image transparent or to rotate or scale the image but few
answers went any further.

© 2017
 Cambridge International Advanced Subsidiary and Advanced Level
9713 Applied ICT November 2017
Principal Examiner Report for Teachers

Question 11

This question required candidates to compare and contrast the use of computers with traditional methods
which do not use computers to help learning. Many candidates were able to gain credit for this question and
answers included, e.g. students’ motivation being increased by the use of computers as they are more
engaged, students are able to work at their own pace when using computers and group sizes are larger
when using traditional methods. Weaker answers tended to look at the argument from one side and compare
the two methods.

Question 12

This question was generally answered quite well by candidates. Good answers referred to the need for
security of question papers before and after the exam; and the possibility of plagiarism occurring if students
are given access to the internet or USB drives.

© 2017