Assessment can be one of the biggest challenges for learners and their teachers. Alex Smith, author from the Business Management series, is here to help with his advice on how to prepare learners for Business Management for the IB Diploma assessment. You can find more inspiring business management content on our blog, including a webinar with experienced teacher, author and examiner Adamantia Charchalaki.
Alex Smith is a head of department, senior examiner and experienced author. He is joint author of the Inthinking Economics website.
Approaching the new Business Management for the IB Diploma assessment
One of the challenges for teachers and students is the new methods of external assessment. The format of the examinations that students will do in 2024 will be different from the old papers. Here, we set out how teachers and students might prepare for the new method of assessment.
Paper 1
Higher Level (25% weighting) and Standard level (35% weighting)
This is a case study paper that is unseen and released at the same time as the questions. There is a pre-released statement that sets out the context and background of the case material. The statement notifies candidates of topics and terminology not in the business management guide but will be in the case study. It is important to get students to go through all additional theory and terms. In the specimen paper, there are three pieces of theory and ten terms to learn.
This paper is 90 minutes with 30 marks allocated, which means students should allocate three minutes per mark when they are answering a question. A two mark question, for example, should be answered in four minutes.
This paper is the same for HL as it is for SL and should be approached in the same way. The questions are the same and the material does not include the HL extension topics.
Students need to answer all the short answer questions, which are based on the case study, in section A . When completing section B, students need to choose one 10 mark question from two where they need to show the skills needed to structure a longer answer and be evaluative.
What does a model answer look like?
A top-grade answer to section B needs to:
- Clearly answer the question
- Use accurate business management tools and theories
- Support the answer with fully integrated information from the stimulus material
- Develop a balanced evaluative argument that considers the limitations of the stimulus material
Paper 2
Higher Level (30% weighting) and Standard level (35% weighting)
This paper is based on short case examples with structured questions. The questions in paper 2 have a quantitative focus. The structure of HL paper 2 is the same as SL paper 2, although some of the questions on the paper may be the same as the SL paper and some might be different. The HL questions used in paper 2 can be drawn from the HL extension material.
In section A, there are two 10 mark questions that are broken down into sub-sections – the questions are worth two, four and six marks. There are 40 marks available for this paper to be completed in 90 minutes, which means students should allocate roughly two minutes per mark for each question.
In section B, there is a choice of one from two questions. Each question is made up of one and two mark questions and finishes with a 10 mark question that has an evaluative theme.
What does a model answer look like?
To achieve the top mark band in section B, students need to meet the same criteria used in paper 1 (see above).
Paper 3
Higher Level (25% weighting)
This is a 75 minute paper with 25 marks available, which means students should allocate three minutes per mark when they are answering questions. Students should spend, for example, 12 minutes on a four mark question.
HL paper 3 uses stimulus case material as a basis for the questions asked. This could be a newspaper article, an email, and some financial data.
Students need to answer all the questions. They are structured as two short answer questions and one final question where students have to recommend a business plan. In the specimen paper, this question is worth 17 marks.
What does a model answer look like?
The criteria students need to reach to achieve a top grade answer are:
- Make full reference to resource materials provided to support their action plan
- Use appropriate business management tools and theories
- Evaluate the expected impact of their plan of action on the relevant areas of the business by considering the trade-offs involved
- Structure their ideas and action plan in a clear, logical way
Using Business Management for the IB Diploma series
In the coursebook, there are plenty of opportunities for students to practise IB questions based on the approach used in papers 1, 2 and 3. Each chapter has case examples and exam style questions that use the specific exam question approach used by the IB. The case example and exam style questions test the skills needed to answer IB Business Management questions by using definition, outline and explain command terms. There are also longer evaluative questions that test students’ ability to build and structure a business argument.
Students who practise answering case and exam-style questions are going to be in a very strong position when they reach the final Business Management examinations in two year’s time.
