Which level is this paper for?

Secondary 4 ICT, used with the computer hardware and peripherals chapter.

What should I do after marking?

Redo only the wrong items and note whether the slip was conversion, units or concept.

S4 ICT | Computer Hardware and Peripherals Practice Paper 3

2026-11-03

Tutor Prep Guide · Secondary ICT

Paper 3 moves to the processor and system unit: clock speed, cores, cache, bus and address space.

Attempt first, mark afterwards　Allow about twenty-five minutes; keep per-core and total figures clearly apart.

01　Paper details (check answers afterwards)

Item	Detail
Questions	10 items
Suggested time	About 25 minutes
Difficulty mix	Foundation 4 · Intermediate 3 · Challenge 2 · Error redo 1
Chapter	Chapter: S4 ICT \| Computer Hardware and Peripherals Tutor Prep Guide
Level	S4 (Secondary 4) ICT

02　Questions (10 items)

FoundationWhich two units form the central processing unit (CPU)?
FoundationA 3.2 GHz clock means how many clock cycles per second?
FoundationWhat does adding more RAM mainly improve?
FoundationWhich one is not a peripheral: RAM, drawing tablet, webcam, speaker?
IntermediateA quad-core 2.5 GHz processor completes how many clock cycles per second in total?
IntermediateWhat is the main job of the system bus?
IntermediateCache memory is far smaller than RAM. Why does it still speed things up?
ChallengeA computer has 16 GB RAM, 3.5 GB used by the system, and each program needs 0.75 GB. How many programs can run at once?
ChallengeHow much memory can a 32-bit address bus address directly?
Error redoA student thinks a higher clock speed always means a faster computer. What is ignored?

03　Answers and one-line notes

#	Answer	One-line note
1	The control unit (CU) and the arithmetic logic unit (ALU)	The control unit sequences the other parts, while the ALU does arithmetic and comparisons.
2	3,200,000,000 cycles	G means 10^9, so 3.2 x 10^9 = 3,200,000,000.
3	Holding more running programs at once and reducing paging to the disk	RAM size decides how many programs can run together without using virtual memory.
4	RAM	RAM is memory inside the system unit; the other three are external peripherals.
5	10,000,000,000 cycles	2.5 x 10^9 x 4 = 1 x 10^10.
6	Carrying data, addresses and control signals between the processor, memory and peripherals	The bus is a shared channel whose width and speed set how much data moves per second.
7	It sits closest to the processor and is fastest, holding recently reused instructions and data	The processor checks the cache first, so a hit avoids waiting for slower RAM.
8	16	(16 – 3.5) / 0.75 = 16.67, so 16 whole programs.
9	4 GiB	2^32 B = 4,294,967,296 B, which is 4 GiB.
10	Core count, cache size, instructions per cycle and thermal throttling	At the same clock speed, different architectures finish very different amounts of work.

04　What to do after marking

After marking, redo only the wrong items and write down which step went wrong (formula, unit, or misread number).
Repeat the same item two days later; move to the next paper only when both attempts are correct.
Parents only need the answer and note columns; there is no need to explain every item.

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