Review of Business paper, by Shauna Mujic and Mary Kelly.
Overall, a nice, manageable business paper, with plenty of time, that students were pleased with.
Short questions (section 1):
A nice mix of questions from all units, some requiring quite a lot of detail. Students will have welcomed the variety of question styles, including multiple choice, business abbreviations and calculations. Given that students were required to only answer four out of twelve questions, all found this very straight forward.
Applied Business Question (section 2):
In line with previous years, a challenging ABQ for students, allowing stronger students the opportunity to shine. As with all ABQ questions, the points lie within the case study. Part A, focusing on the types of planning, will have been well practised. Part B, on insurance and taxation, was new to the ABQ, however most students will have been well prepared for this, as these topics usually appear in the long questions. Part C was a common ABQ question, on evaluating two elements of the marketing mix. All students will have been expecting some version of the marketing mix to appear on this year’s exam.
Long Questions (section 3):
A very nice mix of long questions in section 3 that will have rewarded the student who can adapt their learned material.
Students were required to answer three out of eight long questions. As speculated, the additional long question in part one was on Unit 1, giving students even more choice than usual.
Questions 1 and 4 both based on unit 1, with a nice of mix, including elements of a contract, the anticipated CCPC, industrial disputes and types of relationships between competing producers.
Question 2 on unit 6 was very approachable, as was question 3 on unit 7. Question 5 was a very manageable question on units 2 and 3, students will have been glad to see the skills and characteristics of an entrepreneur, communication and delegation.
A balanced blend of topics from unit 4 within question 6. Students will have welcomed the appearance of the Breakeven chart in question 7, which was very manageable for the prepared student. Question 8 was a lovely question on unit 5, where stages of the product development process and market segmentation were examined.
