Are you guys looking for ways to approach business questions?

Do you guys struggle when it comes to answering the examinations questions even if you’re familiar with the terminologies?

Are you looking for suggestions and tips for answering these questions?

If you answered yes to the above question then you’re in the right place. In the following blog I’ve discussed how to approach and answer business questions for both AS and A2 level along with some sample answer for clear understanding and reference.

Before diving into how to approach business questions, make sure you’ve understood how the business examination is structured, what skills are being tested and how the marks are distributed between all the questions.

Looking at the examiner’s report form the official CIE website the most common suggestions by the checkers for the candidates appearing in the examination is to properly and carefully approach the questions. It is often found that student just dive right into the question without properly understanding it, and hence their answers tend to swift of into the wrong direction.

Hence it is very important to properly understand and approach the questions so that we can ensure that our answers are up to the CAIE standards and include all the contents that are expected in our answers which will aid us in attaining our desired grades. So now let’s dive into some insightful tips and strategies we can use while answering these questions.

For As Level

We already know that for the AS levels we will be attending short answer questions of 2, 3 and 5 marks, followed by the long answer questions that carry 8, 11, 12 marks. All these questions have different criteria set and marks are given based upon different set of skills showcased while answering the questions. The four criteria that are being tested are Knowledge and understanding (AO1), Application (AO2), Analysis (AO3) and Evaluation (AO4). Depending upon the marks carried by the question, the weightage of the marks carried by these 4 skills also vary. Do note that all these assessment skills are also tested for the A2 level.

Image source: Cambridge International examination

Short Answer Questions

How to approach 2 mark Questions :

First let’s start off with the short answer questions carrying two marks they test the AO1 criteria of the assessment skill which is Knowledge and understanding usually consisting definitions of the key terms that we study throughout our course.. For instance, questions could be:

Image source : Cambridge International examination

Define the term entrepreneur. [2]

Define the term business plan. [2]

The key skill being tested here is the Knowledge and Understanding of the candidates for the given terminology, it is best to write down the definition given by the CIE in the business course book.

There are multiple definitions for both ‘entrepreneur’ and ‘business plan’ , the two marks are awarded on the basis of the characteristics or the feature of the mentioned terms.

For instance, for the term entrepreneur an appropriate answer could be,

An individual who takes the financial risk of setting up a business by utilizing all the 4 factors of production (land, labor, capital and enterprise) and in return enjoys all the profit.

Now let’s have a look why this definition has earned the 2 points, it’s because it covers 3 main features of an entrepreneur that are.

1. They take the financial risk of setting up a business.
2. The bring together all 4 factors of production.
3. They enjoy profit as their reward.

Here each of the above-mentioned points are worth 1 mark and since I’ve stated 3 points I’ll be awarded the two points. It isn’t mandatory to state all the points as the maximum marks is 2 but its better to state all the features and the qualities of the given term to ensure we secure the full marks. It is important to make sure that we have proper understanding of the key terms of the curriculum before attending these questions so make sure to have a good look at that.

How to approach 3 mark Questions :

Now let’s move on to the 3 marks questions, these questions test the AO1 and AO2 assessment skills. Now when we start to approach the 3 marks questions we will most likely be asked to briefly explain the benefits, limitations, features, advantages, disadvantages of certain action, strategy or choice. The 3 marks question usually come as a set with the 2 marks questions like,

Image source : Cambridge International examination

1(a) Define the term entrepreneur. [2]

(b) Briefly explain two barriers faced by an entrepreneur.[3]

When question is phrased in this way we can start of with the actual problem of the question, which in this case are the challenges or obstacles that entrepreneurs face when they set up a business. Let’s look at a sample answer for this question,

An entrepreneur come across various barrier when they set up a business venture, such as difficulty in accumulating an appropriate source of finance, high competition from existing competitors, difficulty in creating brand awareness and customer base, high cost for good locations and so on.

It is usually difficult for an entrepreneur to raise capital to fund business activity and operations as their personal funds and asset might not be sufficient to cover the business operation, investment and expenditure, and at the same time banks or other financial institution may be hesitant in providing the business with loan as they aren’t confident that the business will succeed since it has no past transaction or record of success. Due to which the business may not be able to establish itself properly in the market and may lack funds to spend on the marketing of the business to create brand awareness and build a strong customer base.

In the answer you can observe that even if the question states two barriers I have mentioned multiple in the introduction paragraph, this is because it allows me to switch from one barrier to another incase I lack proper idea about a barrier that I start explaining, also another thing that you might’ve noticed is that I have connected the barriers ‘difficulty in raising finance’ with ” difficulty in creating brand awareness and customer base”  this flow of answer from one point to another helps to make my answer solid and more appealing. So it is not mandatory to state more than 2 if the question demands two, but if you state multiple may it be benefits, limitation or in this case let’s say barriers, it will help you to clearly choose two you are most confident in or a set where you can link up one with the other.

Another way these 3 marks question can be phrased are like:

1(a) Define the term business plan. [2]

(b) Briefly explain the importance of a business plan for an entrepreneur. [3]

Now in this question we can see that a new term is being asked that hasn’t been mentioned in the 2 marks question above which is the term “entrepreneur” so in this case it would be best to define our new key term before diving into the answer. So an appropriate approach to the answer would be

An individual who takes the financial risk of setting up a business by utilizing all the 4 factors of production (land, labor, capital and enterprise) and in return enjoys all the profit. There are numerous ways an entrepreneur could benefit from creating a business plan, initially a proper business plan will help an entrepreneur to have a clear overview of the business objective and help attract investors.

Having a clear overview about the business’s core aims and objectives will aid the entrepreneur to make decision that help the business to move towards achieving the given set of objectives, it will also aid the entrepreneur to lead, guide his subordinates and manage other factors of production accordingly. A well detailed business plan would also aid the entrepreneur to present the business vision and strategies to concerned investors or financial institutions which would help them to raise finances to operate the business venture, as the business plan would assure the investors and lenders that the business has a proper goal and has appropriate strategies to achieve them.

Here you can see that initially I defined the term entrepreneur to show case my knowledge and understanding of the concepts being questioned and my main body answer shows direct application to the question’s context that is, how the business plan is use especially for an entrepreneur. This way of answering aids me to secure both the knowledge and understanding, as well as the application marks.