Edexcel A2 Business exam - Unit 4 thread (22nd June 2016)

Poll

Unit 4 : What grade do you think you got?

I was looking for a thread, didn't seem that there was one, so i figured id make one, guess everyone is focusing on unit 3 at the moment.

Anyone else finding unit 4 a bit more difficult?

Would be good if we could predict/guess possible questions based on the new balance case study, and possibly make some model answers, or at least discuss the possible answers, especially for the final essay question.

Feel free to ask any questions or post any resources.

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Reply 1

Nath98

Finally someone doing Edexcel A2 business! Not going to lie I am really nervous for Unit 4, everything in it is just so much more difficult than Unit 3!

You got any predictions? I feel like there might be a large Culture question as its not come up for a few years which I really don't want, culture is probably my worst topic in unit 4 :/

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Reply 2

SamuelN98

Original post by Nath98

At the moment i only have the few questions that my teacher set. I`m just trying to revise anything that relates to the case study.But definitely i think there is going to be a culture question, the way the case study is worded around the importance of culture and social responsibility i wouldn't be surprised if it was the essay question.

And i guess there will be some question on the data, maybe a ratio question of some kind?

But to be honest don`t really have much of a clue.

Reply 3

Yousf

Original post by Nath98

What are you using to revise for unit 4?

Reply 4

Yousf

Original post by Nath98

Btw a culture questions came up last year

Reply 5

Nath98

Original post by Yousf

What are you using to revise for unit 4?

I'm just using my class notes and the old mark schemes. You can change the wording of lots of the past questions to apply to New Balance so I do that for all the different bits of theory. Currently I'm just working my way through all the topics.

What about you?

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Reply 6

Nath98

Original post by Yousf

Btw a culture questions came up last year

Last year it came up a single 2 mark definition question. This year i bet it will be either the 20 or 30 marker (unfortunately)

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Reply 7

Yousf

Original post by Nath98

Last year it came up a single 2 mark definition question. This year i bet it will be either the 20 or 30 marker (unfortunately)

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Thats odd because in the 2015 paper it asked,
'Assess the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility to Center Parcs', unless im mixing up csr with corporate culture, are they different?

Also i was wondering for the questions, they can only ask based off case study right?, because for evidence D where they provided figures for a profit and loss account they can only ask us like 2/3 formulas based off the figures out of like 15-20 formulas on the spec so is it worth even learning all the formulas? ROCE seems likely.

As for revision, i'm also using class notes and tutor2u provided a long presentation with guidance for the case study so im also using that. I don't mid swapping notes and questions, i think it would be beneficial for us both

Sorry for the long message :P

Reply 8

Nath98

Original post by Yousf

CSR is different to Culture, CSR is how the company is ethical and environmental etc (solar panels for new balance etc) whereas culture is 'the unwritten code of the organisation' and it's about how like staff behave and stuff. I'm actually very jealous that CSR came up as an essay question last year because it's such an easy thing to write loads about whereas I hate the culture topic.

And yeah that's kinda true about the formulas, however they give us one extra piece of case study information in the exam remember so for all we know they could put some more financial figures in. Best to be safe and learn them all I guess.

Also do you have a link to that PowerPoint? :biggrin:

sounds really useful!

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(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 9

Yousf

Original post by Nath98

sounds really useful!

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I'm afraid not its like 70ish pages of slides which i have as a booklet. My teacher has't given anyone the pdf or link for it

Reply 10

Yousf

Anybody else have predictions what they think is likely to come up

Reply 11

Nath98

Original post by Yousf

I'm afraid not its like 70ish pages of slides which i have as a booklet. My teacher has't given anyone the pdf or link for it

No worries, just had a look on tutor2u and bought a copy on a disk for £3. Hopefully get it soon!

Good luck on Tuesdays unit 3 exam, hopefully its a nice paper!

Reply 12

username1410667

Am currently panicking as i have done hardly any work for unit 4 this year apart from analysing the new balance material.

So much material to get through, and so little time!

Edit: I was wondering if any of you could give me some advice some something? You see i'm home schooled and earlier this year my online tutor just quit without any notice so i've been pretty much having to learn this stuff all on my own with the help of some family.

To get to the point, please can you tell me what advice your teachers have given you for answering a 30 or 20 mark question? I just have no idea how to go about it to be honest.

Thanks :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 13

unisheep

Is this thread for unit 4a or 4b??

Reply 14

username1410667

Original post by millie.gd

Is this thread for unit 4a or 4b??

Reply 15

gekkelekkebekke

Original post by Devinely

I'm kind of in the same situation as you tbh, focussed on unit 3 (which went really well wbu?) so I could afford to do worse on unit 4a. My teacher has been absolutely useless all year and it's just me and a friend of mine that keep writing up essays and trying to revise together to see what they may ask looking at the pre release.

If you want you can add me on skype and maybe we can help each other or something? :smile:

Reply 16

Jay2kt

The difference between unit 3 and unit 4a is huge. The amount of material we need for unit 4a from things like investment appraisal forumlas, to CPA to tree diagrams its so much wish they sort of spread it out more evenly. How are you guys approaching revision for this unit? and what are you advices on answering the 30 markers like how many points should we make ect.

Reply 17

stown22

Does anyone have any links to websites or powerpoints they find useful? My tutor left half way through the year and we was given an awful replacement so i'm concerned that i haven't got all the notes!
Thank you and good luck to you all :smile:

Reply 18

alex9711

are formulas essential to know for this exam? if so which ones?

Reply 19

username1410667

Original post by gekkelekkebekke

Sorry to here about your teacher, i've had problems in the past like that before my most recent teacher quit.

Unit 3 went ok-ish for me, but if I want to pull my overall score from this year up i'm going to have to do well on Wednesday. Thanks for asking :smile:

I don't actually have an account skype but if you want to keep chatting here or PM me that's fine

Do you have the official a2 revision guide for this year? It's been really helpful for all the term definitions.

I'm personally about to die from all the maths i'm having to do, ARR is so annoying.

Edit: Forget what I said about ARR, it's nothing compared to net present value and discounted cash flow, ugh.