Personalised Feedback Sheet for IGCSE Section 1 Types and Components of Computers

Name: Sarah Stamps-Butts

Target grade:
Score on this assessment: 36/58
Grade for this assessment: C
General feedback/class needs:
Overall performance in this group was mediocre most of you managed around half marks, but not
much better. Whilst this was the first test, and some questions can be difficult, I would expect better
from a group of capable, competent students like you lot!
The biggest issues were a lack of revision, which led to some truly crazy answers to questions; a lack
of exam technique (not reading the questions, putting too many options down for multiple choice);
and finally, virtually none of you were good at operating systems or types of computers.
Generally, I would recommend all of you check through your lesson notes on operating systems and
check you have a list of things an operating does/is responsible for, and you have detailed notes on
the features, functions, advantages and disadvantages of GUIs and CLIs
As for types of computers, this is a revision thing. You all had access to detailed sources for this task
and, so longs as you were bothered to produce decent work in the lesson, shouldve all had an
excellent foundation on which to answer the questions given here.
No excuses, however, for those of you who answered questions such as Name two types of users of
Desktop computers and gave either one answer instead of two, or failed to read the question and
started to write about organisations.
Every mark counts in GCSEs, ladies and gentlemen, and the drive to get them starts now.
Your personal targets:
1. To understand and be able to describe the purpose of backing storage, recognising that it
has nothing to do with backing storage.
2. To revise the types of computers and learn the key uses and features of each to enable me
to make comparisons between the different devices.
3. To revise the components of a computer in more detail.
Summary
One question I got completely right was question 21: who would use a main frame
computer? Give 2 examples [2 Marks] I managed to get full marks because i added
keywords from my revision and I added two examples.
One question I nearly got right was question 11: give one advantage of GUI? [1 marks]I
nearly got this right because I put the question right but got one word wrong.
One question I got completely wrong was question 5: Give a reason why each of the
following are needed in a computer system [3marks]the reason I got this question
completely wrong was because I didnt read the question which lead to it not making sense.
Challenge/Extension
You will have been allocated an exam question to further your knowledge or help you to overcome a
misconception. Copy out the question here in full and answer it.

1. Name 4 features of ROM?(Read Only Memory)4 features of rom are , its stores the basic
input and output system, also it has non-volatile storage so the memory is permanent when
turned off. As well rom is intuitive which means it is hard to alter and work. Finally rom is
very slow to alter because of the fact that its non-volatile.

2. Explain why computer systems have both backing storage and ram? computers have both
ram and a backing storage because a backing storage permanently saves the data but its
much slower to access because of that storage whereas ram temporarily saves the data but
is really fast and easily to access so then youve got both options for specific entered data.

3. Explain the difference between a command line interface and a graphical user interface? The
difference between a GUI and a CLI is that GUI allows a user to interact with a computer
through graphical interface such as wimp: windows icons menus and pointers. Whereas CLI
allows users to interact with the computer with searching things by typing in a search
engine.

4. Describe 4 drawbacks of using a command line interface? One drawback of using a CLI is that
when searching you cant make a mistake because although it says there is an error it does
not tell you what error or predict what you meant to say. Another example is that people
with sight problems or forgetfulness would struggle with this component. Also CLI is not
intuitive so its quite hard to manage .finally the last example is that when you type
something in and make a mistake its very hard and slow process to try and recover it.