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1.5.1Operating systems

OCR GCSE Computer Science (J277) · Computer systems (Paper 1) › Systems software

Practise Operating systems. 13 exam-style questions on this subtopic, at up to four difficulty levels, with full mark schemes and a progress tracker. Free, no account needed.

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Sample questions

Written for this site in the style of OCR exam questions. They are not taken from real past papers.

Question 1Easy4 marks
(a) State the purpose of an operating system.[1]
(b) Which one of the following is a function of an operating system?
Tick (✓) one box.[1]
  • Word processing
  • Memory management
  • Photo editing
  • Creating spreadsheets
(c) Identify two types of user interface.[2]
Show the answer and mark scheme
(a)
  • to manage the computer's hardware and software (resources) and provide a user interface / a platform for applications to run
(b) Answer: Memory management
(c)
  • graphical user interface (GUI)
  • command-line interface
  • menu-driven interface
  • natural language / voice interface
Question 2Medium4 marks
Describe how the operating system manages memory.[4]
Show the answer and mark scheme
  • it copies programs and data from secondary storage into RAM when they are needed
  • it allocates an area of memory to each program
  • it keeps programs separate so they do not overwrite each other's data
  • it frees up memory when a program closes
  • it moves data to and from virtual memory when RAM is full
Question 3Hard4 marks
Isla is listening to music, writing an essay and downloading a large file at the same time.
Explain how the operating system makes this possible.[4]
Show the answer and mark scheme
  • multitasking: the operating system shares the processor's time between the programs (scheduling)
  • it switches between them so quickly that they appear to run at the same time
  • memory management: each program is given its own area of RAM
  • so the programs do not interfere with each other's data
  • peripheral management: drivers are used to send sound to the speakers and read the keyboard
  • the operating system manages the network connection / buffers the data being downloaded

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