With two weeks left for the Business Exam, some of you might be freaking out a bit because you still haven’t memorised all the theories, processes, definitions and strategies. Well – stress less. You can still master this subject if you commit to absorbing information little by little from now till your exam.

BREAK IT DOWN

To be frank, Business is a very theory based subject and you will have to memorise a whole lot of theories and definitions if you haven’t already; however, it’s important not to let the mountain of information overwhelm you. The key to besting Business is to break it into small parts. For example, you might start by taking each Area of Study and then listing all of the theories relevant to that area of study. The subject is designed in such a way that each AoS follows smoothly into the next, so there is a chronological order and logic in studying this way that can make the information easier to remember.

ACRONYMS

As noted previously, knowing and memorising definitions and theories are essential to do well in Business. As such, you need to get a crack on remembering as much as you can right now. The biggest tip I can offer is using acronyms for theories and processes that include several steps for implementation. An obvious one is P.O.L.C for the key management roles. I recommend making acronyms for the recruitment and selection process, decision-making process, conflict resolution and literally any other process that has several stages. This is a very serious suggestion. It’s important that they be personal – the act of creating your personal set of acronyms will make you way better at remembering them, which is why I’m not providing you a set of acronyms here. A lot of students also fall into the trap of not listening to this piece of advice. They think “oh, yeah… acronyms, that’s child’s play, what a silly suggestion!”, right before they got an get a 28 raw. Instead of being an idiot – do the smart thing even if it ‘feels weird’ to you and write acronyms for EVERYTHING you can get your hands on. You could just about learn the whole Business course with an exhaustive set of acronyms and a few practise exams.

MAKE IT A GAME

One of the best ways to study, I find, is to make it fun. This game works with any type of definitions, processes and theories. All you need are small pieces of paper that you can fold in half. I’ll explain how it works with processes first. On the top of the paper, write the name of the process and an indicator of how many stages are in the process. For example, if you’re trying to remember POLC, you would write number 4 next to it, as there are 4 steps in it. On the inside of the paper you can write what the four stages are. In regards to memorising definitions, each definition will have key words you have to include when defining it; therefore I would put the number of key words as the indicator on the top. Once you have a whole pile of small papers, you take one card at a time and try to memorise the theories or definitions. The ones you get correctly, you can put aside into an “I know this” pile. If you don’t get it correctly, check the inside, try to remember it and put it back in the same pile you picked up from. Do this until you have gone through the whole pile and everything is in the “ I know this” pile. If you do this everyday for 20 minutes, each process and theory will be ingrained in your mind and you will be able to recall it immediately. However for this to work, you need to do it everyday for at least 20 minutes. To make it more fun, you can do it with a friend or a group. Help each other out.

PERSISTENCE

I get how content heavy Business is but don’t let the weight of information deter you from reaching your goal. Make time to make the cue cards and study in a way that works for you. Cramming will not help you in the stress of the exam day. Pace yourself from now till the exam. Two weeks is sufficient time to understand and memorise the content, if you do it correctly. You will not memorise things by doing it only once, you have to keep at it for the next two weeks and by the time the exam comes around, you’ll know these definitions and theories like the back of your hand. This is not the time to be slack, make Maslow proud by finding motivation to smash Business!