**HL Business Before/After**

JamesDundalk

smithy77 wrote: »

JamesDundalk wrote: »

What makes you think it's going to be marked hard? It was by no means an easy paper, was very nitty gritty.

I thought it was very hard. I probably only got 5/8 short questions correct!! Hope its not marked too hard:o

I know, I hope so too. It was really specific with the questions. Not too sure why that other person thinks it's going to be marked hard?!

Canard

Agreed!! I found the shorts/ABQ very easy but the long questions not so much.

smithy77

Yeah long questions were hard too, only found the ABQ to be the section i could do better in. Short & Long questions were disastrous!

Mysteriouschic

I heard business is marked hard and they don't allow any waffle answers. Not sure how true it is.

PictureFrame

teacher30 wrote: »

There were two As in my mocks - but I'm delighted it was marked hard.
Bet my very last cent that there will not be 17As in the results in the real thing!! In fact, I'll give you a grand in cash if there are!! ;-) That paper is going to be marked very hard :-(

That's a bit presumptuous, we have an amazing Teacher and everyone has upped the workload from the Mocks as she gave us 2 hour Friday grinds for free and we had to do 5 Mock papers for her and we had the course off to a tee. Everyone, the 25 of us that sat the paper yesterday came out absolutely delighted, everyone I talked to is fairly sure of getting an A2 at least.

I can't understand why you'd assume it's going to be marked hard? You really had to know your Business well, especially to answer Q.2 (A+B), 3(A+B), 4(B), 6(A) and 7(A+C) as they had never asked questions so specifically on the paper before! Although the ABQ was easy, a number of the shorts really needed you to think about what was being asked and apply your knowledge from all aspects of the course to get the right answer, for example Q's: 3, 5, 6, 7, 9.

I don't think it will be marked hard to be honest. A lot of people, i'd imagine, failed to even finish the paper due to the time restrictions.

JamesDundalk

I'm repeating, I got an A1 the first time I did it. Worried that's not the case this time. Really messed up the ratios and analysis.

imelle

ha getting an A in the mock doesn't guarantee it in the real thing. and for the mocks a lot of people got spoilers and knew what was coming up on the paper...

business is actually one of the hardest subjects to get an A1 in, it's something like 3% get A1s

Newteacher

This paper will not be marked hard.

It was a very challenging paper that required a lot of higher level thinking within a very tight time constraint. It will be marked fairly and with compassion, however there will be no room for wafflle. The examiners will be asking themselves...is there evidence that this student studied the course? and can this student think critically using this information?

If the whole country found a question easy and everyone in the whole country got 20/20 in it, this would mean that it was not suitably challenging for higher level students. If something looks too simple for higher level then there usually is some requirement for critical thinking.

For example in the ABQ. ( Remember, I haven't seen the marking scheme yet so I don't know anything for sure...I am only supposing from prior experience) Most students doing the sources of finance will be answering the question from the sources of finance chapter. However the examiner will want to see if you can look at it from the perspective of Community development so it would not surprise me if one source would be required to be Grant aid eg leader 2. Most students will not have this.

For the stall holders, again, the A1 student will be expected to have spotted the reference to raw materialx, stock and expenses and would be expected to think of working capital management so I imagine in the marking scheme they will be looking for one source to be either accrued expenses or extension of trade credit. Most students will not have spotted that.

So although everyone came out saying the ABQ was a cinch. The examiners may put these restrictions on part A to adhere to the bell curve. This way A1 students will get 20/20 and everyone else will lose 10 marks on part A.

Remember the examiners are human and all sat the leaving themselves and all teach students just like you. They are always compassionate and will never "mark hard" in fact they are so restricted within the marking scheme, this will not be possible.

Now everyone relax and have a lovely Summer knowing that your paper will be treated in such a way as to give you the maximum grade that you deserve. In my experience, students always do better than expected and examiners just love to go over the paper to find that extra mark to pull you up a grade. Good luck everyone!

JamesDundalk

Newteacher wrote: »

This paper will not be marked hard.

It was a very challenging paper that required a lot of higher level thinking within a very tight time constraint. It will be marked fairly and with compassion, however there will be no room for wafflle. The examiners will be asking themselves...is there evidence that this student studied the course? and can this student think critically using this information?

If the whole country found a question easy and everyone in the whole country got 20/20 in it, this would mean that it was not suitably challenging for higher level students. If something looks too simple for higher level then there usually is some requirement for critical thinking.

For example in the ABQ. ( Remember, I haven't seen the marking scheme yet so I don't know anything for sure...I am only supposing from prior experience) Most students doing the sources of finance will be answering the question from the sources of finance chapter. However the examiner will want to see if you can look at it from the perspective of Community development so it would not surprise me if one source would be required to be Grant aid eg leader 2. Most students will not have this.

For the stall holders, again, the A1 student will be expected to have spotted the reference to raw materialx, stock and expenses and would be expected to think of working capital management so I imagine in the marking scheme they will be looking for one source to be either accrued expenses or extension of trade credit. Most students will not have spotted that.

So although everyone came out saying the ABQ was a cinch. The examiners may put these restrictions on part A to adhere to the bell curve. This way A1 students will get 20/20 and everyone else will lose 10 marks on part A.

Remember the examiners are human and all sat the leaving themselves and all teach students just like you. They are always compassionate and will never "mark hard" in fact they are so restricted within the marking scheme, this will not be possible.

Now everyone relax and have a lovely Summer knowing that your paper will be treated in such a way as to give you the maximum grade that you deserve. In my experience, students always do better than expected and examiners just love to go over the paper to find that extra mark to pull you up a grade. Good luck everyone!

You have no idea how happy I am to read this. I wrote about 'Grants - Leader Plus' (It's plus, not 2 in my book), because it is a sustainable rural development, also due to the craft aspect as well. I also discussed 'share/equity capital' for financing as they are a limited company.

Then, for stall holders I said 'accrued expenses' have a feeling I took a misguided response though as I said the €50 a day for store rental could be paid weekly or forthnightly to ease budgeting and cash-flow etc. Then I said term loan for the transport as it was a capital investment.

However ratio analysis completely let me down. Overall it was a tricky paper. I'm a repeat and got an A1 first time, it's my favourite subject, but have a feeling the paper didn't go as well as I had hoped.

Newteacher

From what you have written there, you appear to be an A1 student to me and you will have made an excellent impression on the examiner with that answer. Not easy to do under pressure. They will be correcting your long questions with the idea in mind that you are a high calibre student....they are human. Remember with the Ratio question too that you had 20 marks in the bag already(letter) before ever you wrote a ratio. I always tell top students that you need to drop a lot of marks to fall from A1 to A2 and I think you have every reason to be confident!!!

JamesDundalk

Newteacher wrote: »

From what you have written there, you appear to be an A1 student to me and you will have made an excellent impression on the examiner with that answer. Not easy to do under pressure. They will be correcting your long questions with the idea in mind that you are a high calibre student....they are human. Remember with the Ratio question too that you had 20 marks in the bag already(letter) before ever you wrote a ratio. I always tell top students that you need to drop a lot of marks to fall from A1 to A2 and I think you have every reason to be confident!!!

Thanks for taking the time to post here. Made a mistake on ROI so won't be 20 in the bag unfortunately, however the rest were fine. I just hope my other long questions were good enough. The timing of the exam is tough, writing till the very last minute to get it all done. The writing may have been slightly hard to decipher for the last question, but the correct material was there I hope. Thanks for taking the time to post, I would think you've calmed a lot of people's nerves.

Just copped you were referring to the business letter recommending insurance, thanks!

Newteacher

No problem. A student of mine emailed me this link as he was upset about talk of hard marking. Glad to shed light on how fair the system is and how sympathetic examiners are. Be confident in your own work and know that every chance will be given to you.

Good luck everyone...I'm back to my summer holidays now...hope ye all have lots of fun when you finish up. Bye!:)

padocon

Newteacher wrote: »

This paper will not be marked hard.

It was a very challenging paper that required a lot of higher level thinking within a very tight time constraint. It will be marked fairly and with compassion, however there will be no room for wafflle. The examiners will be asking themselves...is there evidence that this student studied the course? and can this student think critically using this information?

I definitely agree like when they asked two situations where different types of leaders are beneficial. The paper is defiantly getting less predictable and the question 1's are getting much harder in my op.

It would not surprise me if one source would be required to be Grant aid eg leader 2. Most students will not have this.

For the stall holders, again, the A1 student will be expected to have spotted the reference to raw materialx, stock and expenses and would be expected to think of working capital management so I imagine in the marking scheme they will be looking for one source to be either accrued expenses or extension of trade credit. Most students will not have spotted that.

I really can't see it being that tight in the marking. Leader provide partial funding for community developments so others would have to be accepted too. An overdraft would also be suitable for the sellers expenses.

Now everyone relax and have a lovely Summer knowing that your paper will be treated in such a way as to give you the maximum grade that you deserve. In my experience, students always do better than expected and examiners just love to go over the paper to find that extra mark to pull you up a grade. Good luck everyone!

Fingers Crossed Good luck to you and everyone else here.

Iony94

padocon wrote: »

A co-op has unlimited liability ie personal assets will be taken in the event of bankruptcy.

I have 3 different business books all saying co-ops have limited liability . They only lose what they invested . It's quite strange though cause than a trade union could declare bankruptcy and walk off with everyone's money ?

Brenn2345

Illustrate the factors that a business needs to consider when communicating with its various stakeholders.
what points did people make for this ?

padocon

Iony94 wrote: »

I have 3 different business books all saying co-ops have limited liability . They only lose what they invested . It's quite strange though cause than a trade union could declare bankruptcy and walk off with everyone's money ?

Yes you are right. I corrected my mistake after my wrong post:

padocon wrote: »

Sorry I have my definition mixed up. A Co-op has limited liability ie personal assets will not be touched in the event of bankruptcy.

I actually got it wrong in the exam. TG its only about 4 marks

Illustrate the factors that a business needs to consider when communicating with its various stakeholders.

Wasnt sure I said
-Time
-Convenience
-Cost
I said another can't remember it now, but I just thought of confidentiality.

JamesDundalk

Urgency
Cost
Legality
Record
Nature of message - eg if it was talking about a discipline issue or possible redundancy.

Brenn2345

Phew!!! thanks! thought i made a mistake ! yeah had exact same as you! repeating was devastated i f***ked it up!

JamesDundalk

No prob. What did everyone say for analysing profitability and liquidity? My worst question..

Iony94

For profitability i said although it's worst than the average 11 % you still get more than depositing in a bank . For the liquidity i said again that although is not as good as the average it's still a good ratio showing that the firm would be capable to cover the debts from their assets .

I wrote more than that but i can't remember ....

JamesDundalk

Iony94 wrote: »

For profitability i said although it's worst than the average 11 % you still get more than depositing in a bank . For the liquidity i said again that although is not as good as the average it's still a good ratio showing that the firm would be capable to cover the debts from their assets .

I wrote more than that but i can't remember ....

I can't really remember what I wrote, I wad basing it on an incorrect ROI figure though, think it was 6.75% or something.

For liquidity I talked about the working capital (current ratio), I said that despite it been below the ideal of 2:1 as demonstrated by the industry, they still weren't too bad off. I didn't mention acid-test ratio in the liquidity analysis.

Also I made a recommendation of reinvesting their retained earnings back into the company to expand their practice leading to eventual increased profitability.

That was about the height of what I wrote, think it might have still been enough to merit half marks - 10 out of 20?

Brenn2345

Anyone else find question three part C on section C a bit ambiguous? like there wasn't that much to say for 20 marks and you were trying to pull crap out nowheres hole!

LoonyLovegood

I thought it was a challenging paper, but it was higher so you'd expect it. I went in thinking I'd be happy to pass, now I'm hoping I'll get a C3,or even a C2.

grizzly_bear

Barriers to trade?

PictureFrame

grizzly_bear wrote: »

Barriers to trade?

'd that question, I had it studied in Economics though! I wrote about Quotas, Tariffs, Embargos and Administrative Barriers!

grizzly_bear

PictureFrame wrote: »

'd that question, I had it studied in Economics though! I wrote about Quotas, Tariffs, Embargos and Administrative Barriers!

So had I but I couldn't think of a 4th so I put 3 more down. I said growth of trading blocks isn't helping countries outside,the use of different currencies and political differences. I had embargo,quotas and tariffs too though :P

I do English,history,geography and business so I was fairly used to time constraints :rolleyes:

Iony94

I used Exchange Control as my 4th

AllyMcFearless

I love ratios. I actually loved the second section of long questions, did 3/4 but would have happily done all 4. Didn't like the ABQ too much, but it was a nice enough paper.

reznov

That was a handy exam.
Ran out of time! Instant loss of 60 marks.
But the questions were lovely.