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1. Syllabus Flashcards — remembering (and understanding) the entirety of the Business Studies syllabus is of vital importance to each student’s success in this subject. For example, if a question asks a student to “Evaluate the responses to operations management to external influences,” the student will be unable to answer the question unless they know both the strategies and influences section of the Operations syllabus by heart.

Flashcards are a good way of memorising these syllabuses because they are easy to make and use. A student may quickly go over their finance syllabus on the bus ride home or in the morning before an assessment.

Other great ways of memorising the Business Studies syllabus is through syllabus mind maps as well as mnemonics e.g. Marketing Processes –> SMEIDI
Situational analysis
Market Research
Establish marketing objectives
Identifying target market(s)
Developing marketing strategies
Implement, monitor and control

2. Exemplar Section 4 Essays for each core section of the syllabus i.e. Processes, Strategies and Influences for all four topics — Section 4 of the business studies exam requires students to write a business report on a case study business. Since there is quite a lot of content to learn for this section but quite a limited scope of questions, I would recommend the student to work on 3 key exemplar essays for each topic (processes, strategies and influences) covering all aspects of the syllabus. The questions in this section tend to focus on just one section of the syllabus e.g. marketing processes or financial management strategies. As such, a student’s exemplar reports can be adapted and moulded to fit the changing nature of some of the questions. For example, in the given example; “Evaluate the responses to operations management to external influences” (HSC 2016) , the student could combine their strategies and influences case study essays to gain maximum marks in this area.

3. Content mind maps with case study examples — In this subject, it is essential that students have case study examples for each element of the syllabus. This is useful for; questions that explicitly ask for a real life example, the section 4 business report, and improving the quality of short answer questions that do not explicitly ask for these case studies. As such, creating these mind maps will help the student to visualise these examples and as such, will be more likely to remember them during an exam or assessment! Be sure to put these up in your bedroom or somewhere you will see them daily as this will allow for maximum benefit from this task.

4. Definitions flashcards — Much of the Business Studies course is littered with key terms and definitions that a student should attempt to memorise. Having a specific, clear definition for each of the key syllabus terms will allow the student to quickly and easily demonstrate their understanding and knowledge to a marker during the SAQs and Business Report sections of the exam. This is especially important for “explain” questions such as “Explain a potential conflict between a short-term and a long-term financial” (HSC 2016) which require the student to link cause (definitions) with effect (outcomes.) Having a set of definitions flashcards may really help students to memorise these definitions to use when answering these types of questions during the exam.

5. Consistently doing practise HSC questions or past papers — The only way for a student to understand how to attack an HSC exam is to regularly do HSC style practise questions as well as exam style tasks. Doing these tasks under exam conditions i.e. closed book and timed, will allow the student to be comfortable with the style and types of questions that will be asked of them during the exam, as well as the experience of sitting a high pressure exam such as trials and the HSC. Whilst these types of tasks are important for all of the core topics, it is especially useful for the Finance topic! This is because without real life examples of types of questions, students often have difficulty putting the concepts like financial ratios and statements into practise. In general, the more practise questions you can do the better!

6.  Google alert for case study business — Putting google alerts on for a student’s case study business will allow them to keep up with the developments of the business as they come to light. The student can then use this information in a business report will really enhance the quality of the students business report come the final exam, and show the marker the breadth of the students knowledge.

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HSC Business Studies relies on understanding key definitions and frameworks fluently and importantly being able to apply these to real business case studies. Having a strong understanding of definitions is just, if not more important than knowing the precise layout of the syllabus, so make sure time is invested into this.

Multiple-Choice

The multiple-choice component of this exam is generally pretty straightforward. It relies primarily on testing those fundamental definitions of each of the four syllabus topics – operations, marketing, finance and human resources. Also be prepared for some tables with figures such as sales and financial ratios where you will be asked to assess business success and effectiveness of programs. This may require some simple calculations!

It will be specific and there will be only minor differences between answers. Therefore having a good understanding of content is so important to ensure you are confident when choosing between those 2 answers you just can’t distinguish between. As a rule of thumb, usually in business studies the simpler response is correct. Don’t get bogged down with sophisticated wording when the more obvious, simple answer is accurate. And as with all multiple choice questions – your first instinct is usually right.

Short Answer

Next in the exam is the short answer component. The SAQ part is composed of three questions, each of which includes questions taken from one of the key business areas, or the four syllabus topics. In general, you will be given a short business stimulus and then the question will be broken down into smaller parts for answering. Marks allocated to these parts vary from 2 to 6.

This part of the exam tests how well you can explain key definitions and elaborate on certain parts of the syllabus. Before answering a question, underline key words and then identify exactly where in the syllabus the answer will come from. This ensures you are not mixing up topics. If the question asks for STRATEGIES you have to provide these and not PROCESESS. Write with clarity and be succinct. Be sure to include the precise and accurate terminology that is used throughout the course to maximize marks. Finally, pay attention to text type and understand the important difference between for example, describe and analyse questions. For analytical questions you need to be pointing out advantages and disadvantages and drawing a relevant conclusion.

Section 3 – Stimulus based extended response

It is a fair assumption that the majority of the State will find the first two sections of the exam relatively easy. It is this section and section 4, where you can shine and show the marker that you know what you are talking about. The business report components are where you should be aiming to get a top mark of 18-20 to differentiate yourself and score a band 6.

Be familiar with the layout of a business report – structure is key!

• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY as the heading (underlined)
• Use the relevant syllabus dot points as your headings (underlined) throughout the point and answer the question systematically
• Use subheadings if required, for example if the question asks you to explain the marketing strategy use this as your heading and each of the 4 P’s as your subheadings
• Write clearly and briefly – you don’t need to use sophisticated language
• Use short paragraphs rather than longer ones
• Understand the text type that is being asked and answer according to that
• If the question is asking you to link to business success, you must define what ‘business success’ is for that business in the executive summary (is this increase in revenue, geographical expansion, new product development?) and throughout the report refer back to the achievement of that business success with evidence such as KPI’s, sales data etc.
• Finish with the CONCLUSION, giving a brief wrap up of what you ahev covered within the report

The section 3 report will provide you with a stimulus of a hypothetical business. You are then asked to address the business with reference to two of the four topics, for example operations and marketing.

When you first read the stimulus highlight key terms that you can link to syllabus dot points and then jot down what those syllabus points are. This will ensure that the syllabus is at the forefront of your mind and help you with the layout of the report. Next, come up with your structure and your headings and subheadings (if needed). Writing a good executive summary that addresses key points is also useful as if you get lost when writing your report you can refer back there for some direction.

The biggest mistake you could make with this report is forgetting to REFER TO THE STIMULUS. A good structure of each paragraph would be to define and outline the key theory, then address how it specifically relates to the business case study providing accurate and realistic examples.

Section 4 – Case Study based business report

The final section of the business studies exam is the business report where you are to refer to a business case you study throughout the year with your class. You will be a given a choice of two questions which each ask you about one of the key business functions from the syllabus topics – for example one could be HR and the other finance. The structure should be the same as section 3 – especially in terms of explaining key frameworks then elaborating with business specific examples.

My biggest piece of advice for this component is to stay up to date with current news related to your business case study. Make sure you know if they are launching a new product, have a new CEO, have a new slogan or logo. As most schools seem to choose Apple or Qantas having unique information to set your response apart from other students will show you went above and beyond and did independent research. You need to include some information to keep the marker engaged and not bored!

Something helpful that will save you time and stress is to understand the linkages between the syllabus. This will generally come once you’ve learnt all the content and really understand and can apply it. Ask yourself if a marketing strategy your business adopts can employ promotion and personal selling? Is a CSR strategy also part of global sourcing operations? Being able to draw these comparisons indicates you really do understand the course. Importantly, it also means that you can use your case study examples across multiple topics so you don’t need to remember as many, how great!

I hope this blog has been helpful and that you can understand that business studies, is more than just the syllabus.

Good luck!

Lauren Ferrarin, Junior Coach

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