My Band 6 notes are available for free here!!Hey guys, this guide will give a detailed explanation as to how to achieve a band 6 in HSC Business Studies! Business Studies is often described as a subject that “is easy but has too much content” and thus becomes the reason many students aren’t able to achieve their desired marks. The excessive content is obviously very overwhelming (I experienced it myself), especially due to the overlaps between the four topics.
You would find that this can especially be an issue in the short answer and extend response sections of the HSC paper, and this is mainly where students fall behind from achieving a Band 6. The specificity of the syllabus often confuses students and results in a poor response. As I kept on doing more Business past papers before my trials, I began to notice my tendencies of interpreting questions wrong due to my lack of knowledge about the syllabus. I would keep getting confused between processes and strategies, between roles and influences, etc. So I decided to have a look over the syllabus and realised that each topic is divided into “ROLES, INFLUENCES, PROCESSES and STRATEGIES”. However, this still didn’t prove to be enough as the syllabus was absolutely huge and there were tiny little things that you couldn’t remember or kept forgetting, thus leaving out vital points from your essay.
For example, questions such as the following, can be super confusing without in-depth knowledge of the syllabus and where each dot point fits in:
1) Outline and explain three different pricing methods
2) Outline and explain three different pricing strategies
Although the two questions may sound the same, they come under two completely different dotpoints and have different black and white answers.
Various extended response questions could ask you:
1) Discuss how operations strategies respond to operational influences.
2) Explain the marketing strategies available to businesses and their costs and benefits.
3) Discuss the financial strategies businesses could use to ensure sufficient cash flows.
The three examples above, along with hundreds of other combinations could appear in the exam, and students like myself begin to realise that we can’t remember every single little dotpoint of every single topic. There are 8 strategies in marketing itself – and that’s just one aspect of one topic! Remembering each and every dotpoint word-for-word would waste a lot of time.
Now, how exactly can we fix this? Obviously we can’t memorise the entire Business Studies syllabus word-for-word, so students in the past have come up with the perfect solution – an acronym version of the syllabus. Repeat the acronyms and their meanings several times out loud, and eventually you will know the syllabus inside out. As soon as you see a question, the acronym will pop into your head – and this is from experience.
OPERATIONSRole"DIG Chicks"
D - Differentiation (part of strategic role)
I - Interdependence w/ other KBFs
G - Goods and services in other industries
C - Cost leadership (other part of strategic role)
Influences"GTG le coq" + CSR
G - Globalisation
T - Technology
G - Government
L - Legal regulations
E - Environmental
Co - Cost-based competition
Q - Quality expectations
CSR - Corporate social responsibility
- legal v ethical
- env. sustainability and social responsibility
ProcessesHaven't got any for processes, sorry, other than the 4 V's under transformation processes (influence of Volume, Variety, Visibility and Variation in demand.)
Strategies"POGO SQUINT"
P - Performance objectives
O - Outsourcing
G - Global factors
O - Overcoming resistance to change
S - Supply chain management
Qu - Quality management
I - Inventory management
N - New product/service design and development
T – Technology
Performance Objectives"Quesadilla Football Club" (Mexican food, pronounced kay-sa-dee-a)
Q - Quality
S - Speed
D - Dependability
F - Flexibility
C - Customisation
C – Cost
MARKETINGRole"Tasi" (pronounce tah-see)
T - Types of markets
A - Approaches to marketing
S - Strategic role
I - Interdependence
Influences"Feck"
F - Factors influencing customer choice
E - Ethical
C - Consumer laws
Factors Influencing Customer Choice"Pegs"
P - Psychological
E - Economic
G - Government
S - Sociocultural
Ethical"Tapes"
T - Truth,
A - Accuracy and good taste in advertising
P - Products that may damage health
E - Engaging in fair competition
S - Sugging
Consumer Laws"WIPD" (pronounce whipped)
W - Warranties
I - Implied conditions
P - Price discrimination
D - Deceptive and misleading advertising
Processes"SMEIDI" (pronounce smeedy)
S - Situational analysis (SWOT and product lifecycle)
M - Market research
E - Establish marketing objectives
I - Identify target market(s)
D - Develop marketing strategies
I - Implement, monitor and control
Strategies"4 P's + PEG"
4 P's - Product, Price, Promotion and Place (channels of distribution)
P - People, processes and physical evidence
E - E-marketing
G - Global marketing
FINANCERoleObjectives"PLEGS"
P - Profitability
L - Liquidity
E - Efficiency
G - Growth
S - Solvency (aka gearing)
Strategic Role"FID"
F - Finance decisions (where do we get money from?)
I - Investment decisions (what should we do with our money to generate more income?)
D - Dividend decisions (how do we distribute any earnings?)
Influences"Sigg"
S - Sources of finance (internal v external)
I - Institutions
G - Government
G - Global market influences
Financial Institutions"Buf sail"
B - Banks
U - Unit trusts
F - Finance companies
S - Superannuation funds
A - Australian Securities Exchange
I - Investment banks
L - Life insurance companies
Processes"PIMFLE" (pronounce pim-full)
P - Planning
I - and Implementing
M - Monitoring and controlling
F - Financial ratios
L - Limitations of financial reports
E - Ethical issues related to financial reports
Planning and Implementing"Red and Blue Corner"
R - Record systems
B - Budgets
C - Financial controls
N - Financial needs
R - Financial risks
Limitations of Financial Reports"DR CEN has TINEA"
DR - Debt repayments
CE - Capitalising expenses
N - Notes to financial statements
TI - Timing issues
NE - Normalised earnings
A - Asset valuation
Strategies"Good Work Charlie's Pony”
G - Global financial management
W - Working capital management
C - Cash flow management
P - Profitability management
Global financial management"Hm, die"
H - Hedging
M - Methods of international payment
D - Derivatives
I - Interest rates
E - Exchange rates
HUMAN RESOURCESRole"OHUSI" (I'm a huge Dave Hughes fan, so in my head I say this like Oh, Hughesy!)
O - Outsourcing
H - Human resources function
U - Using contractors
S - Strategic role
I - Interdependence
Influences"STEELS"
S - Stakeholders
T - Technological
E - Economic
E - Ethics and CSR
L - Legal
S - Social
Processes"ADMS" (I think of it as Adams)
A - Acquisition
D - Development
M - Maintenance
S - Separation
Strategies"PaRTLy GRaDD" (I think of it as partly gradd, and then just lose all the vowels as well as the 'y')
P - Performance management
R - Recruitment (internal/external; general/specific skills)
T - Training and development (current/future)
L - Leadership style
G - Global (costs, skills, supply)
R - Rewards (monetary/non-monetary; individual/group; performance pay)
D - Design (ie job design; general or specific)
D - Dispute resolution
Effectiveness of Human Resource ManagementIndicators"What black" (again, it's important to remember which letters aren't part of the acronym)
W - Worker satisfaction
A - Absenteeism
T - Turnover
B - Benchmarking key variables
L - Levels of disputation
A - Accidents
C - Corporate culture
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Again, read over these acronyms several times and the answers will pop into your head as soon as you see the questions. Going back to the earlier example, in the case of:
1) Discuss how operations strategies respond to operational influences.
You would instantly think:
“Operations Strategies = POGO SQUINT and Operation Influences = GTG le coq + CSR”, and thus be able to deduce exactly what the question is asking for and answer the question effectively.
It is not the conventional way to study, but it is EFFECTIVE and EFFICIENT, and a true Business student knows exactly why that’s helpful! Apart from knowing the syllabus inside out, do practice past papers that follow the new syllabus and its layout – whether its past HSC, or CSSA, QAT’s, Independent, etc.
If at any point you need some extra detail or explanation, there are awesome notes available in the Notes section.And of course, if anything is unclear, pop a question below! Either myself or one of your fellow HSC-ers will be sure to help you out.