AS & A Level Information Technology 9626 · Topic 11

Video and audio editing: past paper questions

29 real questionsasked in 7 of the last 10 exam series2019–2025usually: Describe, Give, State, Explain, Compare

Real questions on video and audio editing

The newest 20 of 29 written questions. Open one to see it on the real paper.

9626/12 · October/November 2025 · Q8c[4]
Compare the impact on quality of video of using each of these methods of compression.
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9626/13 · October/November 2025 · Q8a[2]
overdubbing
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9626/13 · October/November 2025 · Q8b[2]
equalisation
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9626/13 · October/November 2025 · Q8c[2]
reverberation
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9626/13 · May/June 2025 · Q6a[2]
Give reasons why a person editing a video would use fading effects.
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9626/13 · May/June 2025 · Q6b[2]
Give reasons why a person editing a video would use captions.
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9626/12 · February/March 2025 · Q10a[2]
normalisation
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9626/12 · February/March 2025 · Q10b[2]
noise reduction.
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9626/11 · October/November 2024 · Q11[4]
Describe the effects of the different methods of compression on audio quality.
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9626/12 · May/June 2024 · Q8a[2]
State two reasons why an audio clip may need to be trimmed. Reason Reason
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9626/12 · May/June 2024 · Q8b[1]
State one reason why separate audio clips may need to be spliced together.
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9626/12 · May/June 2024 · Q8c[3]
Describe the term equalisation when applied to audio clips.
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9626/13 · May/June 2024 · Q8a[2]
Creating credits
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9626/13 · May/June 2024 · Q8b[2]
Extracting a still image
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9626/13 · May/June 2024 · Q8c[2]
Exporting a video clip in a different file format ,
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9626/12 · February/March 2024 · Q10a[2]
Explain what is meant by the term sampling rate.
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9626/12 · February/March 2024 · Q10b[2]
Explain how the sampling rate can affect the audio files.
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9626/12 · October/November 2023 · Q10a[2]
trimming a video clip
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9626/12 · October/November 2023 · Q10b[2]
adding subtitles to a video
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9626/12 · October/November 2023 · Q10c[2]
adding sound to a video
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What examiners said

Most responses gained credit for describing the need to remove unwanted parts of a video clip. Stronger responses were also able to identify other points including how the desired effect could be achieved.
— Examiner report, October/November 2021, 9626/11 Q14(a) (Cambridge)

Most responses gained credit for referring to making videos more accessible to viewers with hearing disabilities and also for translation purposes if the language used in a video is foreign to the viewer.
— Examiner report, October/November 2021, 9626/11 Q14(b) (Cambridge)

On this question, candidates struggled to define what is meant by sampling. However, many candidates were able to describe sampling rate, though some candidates referred to the “number of bits per second” rather than the number of samples per second. Many candidates were able to gain marks for writing that the higher the sample rate, the better the audio quality but the larger the file size. Lots...
— Examiner report, February/March 2020, 9626/12 Q12 (Cambridge)

Practise this topic

Answer these questions online and get each one marked against the official mark scheme, with what you missed and how to fix it.

Practise video and audio editing

In the syllabus

11.1 Video editing

Editing a video clip to meet the requirements of its intended application and audience, including: – setting an aspect ratio – trimming a video clip to remove unwanted footage – splicing/joining together video clips – adding titles, subtitles and captions – adding credits with appropriate source information – using scrolling credits with appropriate blank lines – ensuring readability of text – adding fading effects – adding pan and zoom effects – adding transitions – extracting a still image from a video clip – resizing and cropping a still image to match a video’s aspect ratio – inserting a still image – adding audio to a video clip – editing audio within a video clip – removing audio from a video clip – altering the speed of a video clip – using filters and colour correction – exporting a video clip in different file formats (including: MP4, AVI, MOV, WMV) – compressing a video to different resolutions to suit different media (including: DVD, internet, mobile devices)
The effects of different methods of compression on video, including: – how the different compression methods affect video quality
Why typical features found in video editing software are used, including: – trimming and cropping a video clip – creating text-based slides – creating credits – adding captions and subtitles – adding fading effects – extracting a still image from a video clip – inserting a still image – editing audio within a video clip – exporting a video clip in different file formats – compressing a video to different resolutions
Advantages and disadvantages of export file formats

11.2 Audio editing

Editing an audio clip to meet the requirements of its intended application and audience, including: – importing new tracks – adding a track to an existing audio clip – normalising an audio clip, including removing any DC offset – trimming an audio clip to remove unwanted material – splicing/joining together two audio clips – fading in and fading out – altering the clip speed – changing the pitch – adding or adjusting delay/echo – adding or adjusting reverberation – changing an audio clip from stereo to mono – applying equalisation, high and low pass filters – applying noise reduction – overdubbing an audio clip, including voiceover – compressing an audio file to different sample rates to suit different media – exporting an audio clip in different file formats, including: MP3, MP4a, WAV, AAC
How and why typical features found in audio editing software are used, including: – trimming – splicing/joining together two audio clips – fading in and fading out – normalising audio – applying noise reduction – overdubbing an audio clip, including voiceover – exporting an audio clip in different file formats – compressing an audio file
Advantages and disadvantages of export file formats
Why file sizes depend on sampling rate and sampling resolution, including: – describing sampling rate and sampling resolution
The effects of different methods of compression on audio, including: – how the different compression methods affect the audio quality – saving in files v containers – lossy and lossless

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