BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?

Business and management exam discussion - share revision tips in preparation for GCSE, A Level and other business and management exams and discuss how they went afterwards.

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  1. Theturnbull9's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by HP348)
    How do you use the market strategies of Porter and Ansoffs? How do you know which one to use/ talk about?
    Ansoff measures how risky the proposal will be. Is the business entering into a new market with a new product - high risk. Same market with similar product - low risk.
  2. TomForgione's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    what is the most important thing to do? is it evaluation or analysis? and do you need to evaluate in the first question, help! lol thankyou
  3. beth122's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    this may be a stupid question.. but each year do you get given the same formulas in the question paper?

    trying to work out which formulas to revise!
  4. jk122's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    can someone explain the ROCE ratio to me please
  5. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by beth122)
    this may be a stupid question.. but each year do you get given the same formulas in the question paper?

    trying to work out which formulas to revise!
    Yes, all the formulas will be the same. Revise them all, know the preferred ratio/ answer and a brief explanation as to what it tells you.
  6. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by jk122)
    can someone explain the ROCE ratio to me please
    ROCE - Return on Capital employed

    Work it out by doing - Operating profit / (Total equity + Non-current liabilities) X 100 (Answer as a percentage)

    What it tells you - How much money has been made by the business in comparison to how much money has been put into the business.

    A good figure? - Around 20-30%

    How it can be improved? - Pay off debt, make the business more efficient or increase operating profit
  7. HP348's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    Arghh wish i never left marketing strategies till last.
    Im getting confused with Ansoffs matrix. The exam in January was about mobile phones in the exam i said it was product development but after revising today im beginning to think it was diversification as it would have also targeted new demographics?
    How big of a step does diversification have to be?
    Last edited by HP348; 13-06-2012 at 17:07.
  8. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by HP348)
    Arghh wish i never left marketing strategies till last.
    Im getting confused with Ansoffs matrix. The exam in January was about mobile phones in the exam i said it was product development but after revising today im beginning to think it was diversification as it would have also targeted new demographics?
    How big of a step does diversification have to be?
    Think of diversification as New Product, New market. If your company is selling cheap, low end mobile phones and then decides to create a new cheap smartphone then this would be classed as diversification. Its a big risk and will require lots of R&D, Market research etc.
    In Paper 3, the chances are the product or service is going to hold a lot of risk, hence the likelihood of it being diversification.
    I hope this helps!!!
    Last edited by Sprocket25; 13-06-2012 at 17:21.
  9. HP348's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by Sprocket25)
    Think of diversification as [B}New Product, New market[/B]. If your company is selling cheap, low end mobile phones and then decides to create a new cheap smartphone then this would be classed as diversification. Its a big risk and will require lots of R&D, Market research etc.
    In Paper 3, the chances are the product or service is going to hold a lot of risk, hence the likelihood of it being diversification.
    I hope this helps!!!
    Thankyou
  10. Theturnbull9's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by TomForgione)
    what is the most important thing to do? is it evaluation or analysis? and do you need to evaluate in the first question, help! lol thankyou
    No need for Evaluation in the first question.

    And Analysis and Evaluation are both important, Relate back to the case study as much as possible
  11. scaredofexams's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    I know this may sound silly but what is the difference between analysis and evaluation? Would you say its similar to sociology?

    I interpret analysis as e.g. 'Cost will be an issue because.... e.g. it will mean less money will be able to be spent on marketing due to the businesses cash flow'

    evaluation: However, this could be overcome by changing strategy?

    There are AWFUL examples but thats literally what I just thought of.
  12. scaredofexams's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by Bemz)
    My situation is so similar to this.
    I got an A overall at AS, came into the BUSS3 paper in Jan expecting to get an A, my knowledge, application and analysis was spot on. But one problem.. I have a problem finishing papers, so I hardly got past halfway on the 34 marker, therefore had NO evaluation and shoddy analysis i didn't even need my paper back to know i f***ed up. My result: B

    I only just started revising today aswell.. i wouldn't panic I think it's more exam structure for us, and knowing how to approach it differently. For example now I'm gonna only make 1 point for and against in the 18 markers and really analysing and evaluating them thoroughly. Instead of shoddily making many points and wasting time like i did. Learn from mistakes, read over the notes made from before, look over past papers, dodgy things like CPA and Investment Appraisal and look over a few definitions and the knowledge should come back.

    Good luck! Hopefully it goes better this time.


    This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
    Good luck to you to! I am hoping the knowledge will just come back to me :L and I am going to try so hard on evaluation and timing. Just going to question every single sentence I write
  13. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by scaredofexams)
    I know this may sound silly but what is the difference between analysis and evaluation? Would you say its similar to sociology?

    I interpret analysis as e.g. 'Cost will be an issue because.... e.g. it will mean less money will be able to be spent on marketing due to the businesses cash flow'

    evaluation: However, this could be overcome by changing strategy?

    There are AWFUL examples but thats literally what I just thought of.
    This is quite a difficult question to answer, but I will give it a stab!

    Two half decent definitions I found on analysis and evaluation-

    an analysis - Finds out the parts of something, eg its elements, structure, processes.

    an evaluation - Decides the value of something. eg Tells you if something is good or bad, useful or not useful, valid or invalid.


    So that gives you a rough idea. Remember, Analysis before evaluation!
  14. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    If anyone has any questions they want answering, I'm willing to have a go (Don't rely on me mind!!!)
  15. jk122's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by Sprocket25)
    ROCE - Return on Capital employed

    Work it out by doing - Operating profit / (Total equity + Non-current liabilities) X 100 (Answer as a percentage)

    What it tells you - How much money has been made by the business in comparison to how much money has been put into the business.

    A good figure? - Around 20-30%

    How it can be improved? - Pay off debt, make the business more efficient or increase operating profit
    So say if the ROCE had increased by 20% this basically means the business is getting back 20% of what they had originally invested?? :confused:
  16. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by jk122)
    So say if the ROCE had increased by 20% this basically means the business is getting back 20% of what they had originally invested?? :confused:
    If the ROCE was 20% you would get 20% back from what you invested as PROFIT.

    To make it a little more simple, think of it as £1 in you get X amount back. So if for every £1 you put in, you get £1.20 back, your ROCE is 20%.
  17. anelehaneleh's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    Has anyone got an idea of what topics are most likely to come up tomorrow? My teacher said he had a few thoughts but went all gandhi on us and said he wouldn't tell us as not to sway our revision grrr it's his ass that'll be fired when the whole class fails...
  18. Sprocket25's Avatar
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    • Posts: 59
    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by anelehaneleh)
    Has anyone got an idea of what topics are most likely to come up tomorrow? My teacher said he had a few thoughts but went all gandhi on us and said he wouldn't tell us as not to sway our revision grrr it's his ass that'll be fired when the whole class fails...
    It's always difficult to get an idea on this on any paper, but especially this one!

    All I would say, is make sure you have a thorough idea on the financial ratios & Investment appraisal and you know your exam technique.

    Personally, I wouldn't be surprised if CPA comes up. Since 2008 its come up once (June 10) and is a pet hate of a lot of the students.
  19. HP348's Avatar
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    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    How do i analyse Anual Rate of Return rather than just saying this high or this is low.
  20. SM94's Avatar
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    • Posts: 163
    Re: BUSS3 - Thurs 14th June - Anyone?
    (Original post by HP348)
    How do i analyse Anual Rate of Return rather than just saying this high or this is low.
    Say whether its good or not, how this could effect the business e.g meets the objectives, pleases shareholders, allows the business to further expand etc...
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