Units of information exam tips

Exam tips

• Use the power-of-two rule

  For a question asking how many different values n bits can represent, use 2^n.

  Each bit has two possible values, 0 and 1, so n bits produce 2^n different configurations.

• Check both the prefix spelling and symbol

  Before calculating or selecting an answer, identify whether the unit uses a decimal prefix such as k, M, G or T, or a binary prefix such as Ki, Mi, Gi or Ti.

  Similar-looking names can represent different powers. Separating powers of 2 from powers of 10 prevents errors such as treating 1 KiB as 1000 B.