Practical exam preparation Paper 2

Paper 2 is a practical exam on the computer. Practise it the way it is set: scenario-based tasks in real software, against the clock, with the evidence an examiner needs to see.

About the real Paper 2

  • 3 hours on a computer, including time to print or save your evidence.
  • 100 marks, half of the whole qualification.
  • Two sections, each a series of tasks about one organisation (a scenario). You are given data files such as a database, a spreadsheet, text and images.
  • You hand in the files you make and an evidence document with screenshots (for example of database queries) and short written answers.
  • It tests Topics 5 and 6 (applying ICT and software skills), and you may need knowledge from Topics 1 to 4.

Check the current details with your teacher and on Pearson’s 4IT1 page. The practice papers on this site are original and are not Pearson papers.

What else is on this site

The Paper 2: Theory knowledge check is a short written quiz on the facts behind Topics 5 and 6. It is not a mock of the practical exam: use the tasks on this page for that.

Learn each skill first in the Practical topics: each subtopic has notes, live tools and short skill-building tasks.

Exam technique for the practical paper

Time

The marks are a guide to time. 100 marks in 3 hours is under 2 minutes a mark. Leave 10–15 minutes at the end to check your files and evidence.

Screenshots

An examiner can only mark what they can see. Widen columns so no field name or value is cut off, and make screenshots big enough to read.

Files and folders

Save with the exact file names asked for, in one exam folder. Copy images into the website folder and use relative links (images/cat.png).

Follow the brief exactly

Use the page size (A4, not Letter), orientation, fonts, sizes and colours given. “Leave the cell empty” means "", not a dash or 0.

Written parts

The short theory questions are often the marks students lose. Give a reason as well as a point, and link it to the scenario.

Check

Proofread with the spelling checker, open your web pages in a browser, and re-read every step to make sure nothing is missing.

Timed practice papers

Each paper has two 90-minute sections. Do a whole section with one timer, or open one task at a time. When you finish, tick the mark scheme to get your own mark, then compare your work with the model solution.

Practise one skill at a time

Exam-style tasks from the papers above, grouped by software, plus the shorter skill-building tasks on each subtopic page.