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Plasma's Guide: Unit 2 Business (Distinction)

Heya! Hope everyone is feeling good about their results today :smile:

but if you're not and want to take a resit in June then here's a short rundown on what I did. (Disclaimer: I barely got a Distinction, so if anyone who got better marks please comment advice below!)

Part A: This was the 2 hour note taking part, and I'm not gonna lie I was pretty nervous. The last few topics from previous years weren't the nicest, but somehow the stars aligned and we got Sportswear. The first thing I did was...not reading the booklet surprisingly. I wrote down all the subheadings (that I could remember) onto the A4, then opened the booklet.

Fun fact: the exam board straight up tell you what to write about. The first pages mentioned "this booklet will contain information about competitors, trends, etc" so if you're really stuck there's a nice way in. Then I highlighted relevant information and added PESTLE next to some of them. Just the word, any sentence starters and that could be seen as cheating. I don't remember much else, but you can use the Internet. I didn't want to because that's a waste of time during the exam, but you do you.

The Night Before: After getting back home and having dinner, it was time to do some research. You can't pre plan the marketing campaign on paper...but what's stopping you from planning it in your head? From the beginning I knew I wanted to do competitions since they are easy to write about, and well tons of sportswear companies already do so it clearly works.

However, at the time I didn't go any further than just "make a competition" since it may have not been relevant. Social media posts were my backup option, they're easy to write about too and can be applied to literally any business. The final thing I did (before messaging the business GC good night and good luck obviously) was watching adverts. Not because I was bored, but because my ace card was going to be "creating an advert".

I watched Nike's adverts and it should be really obvious what they're trying to promote (except fresh kicks). Resilience. Overcoming. Teamwork. Determination. Competitive. Do you see any of the footballers or swimmers give up in an ad? Hell no, they keep pushing no matter how bad the odds are. The ad that really brought it home for me was "Kick Off". All of the well known football players get replaced by clones, and their final game involves none other than the all star clones. Will the OGs win it all or will they be coming home in tears? (Slightly off topic I know but you really have to envision your marketing campaign, whether it's a video or not. Pretend that if you had to do it for real or else idk aliens invade us)

Part B: This was it. 3 hours of typing. Notes get checked over before you start so don't even try anything dodgy. Head down and just type. You can either read the booklet first or use your notes, I just went straight into it so I'd get the adrenaline rush and focus. Luckily Option A involved social media so that was the obviously choice for me. Whatever is easier for you just do.

General tips:
- This is NOT a memory test. You don't have to remember anything assuming your notes are good.
- If you get hungry, eat before the exam. If you need to go to the toilet a lot, go before the exam. Pretty obvious but damn the amount of people who had to do is just 😑
- Format your work nicely. Examiners are gonna see hundreds, at least make your easy to read. No fancy fonts. And you get bonus marks for presentation. Not a ton but they're the easiest marks ever.
- Time management. If you are running out of time, the most important part is the 7Ps. It's worth a solid chunk of marks. Miss it, and you aren't getting higher than a merit.
- Remember it's not what you write, it's how you write it. If the examiner can't understand what's you're saying, it's gonna score low no matter what. Having a clear structure, connectives, reasoning is essential.
- Justify why. Why did I use tiktok not Facebook? Because my target market primarily used tiktok. Why did I make my advert a comedy and not serious? Because it would relate better with my audience.
- My final tip. One step at a time. 3 hours is more than enough time to do every section. Getting overwhelmed is all too easy. Take a quick minute break if you can't think. Remember to use both booklets! There might be information in the second one. And if they're isn't...make it up. Statistics that are realistic are fine, you won't get marked down for misquoting a statistic on Google. As soon as you panic and lose composure, the problems don't stop. So try your very best. Remember pressure turns crap into diamonds, but also diamonds into dust. Let's hope it's the former.

See ya :smile:

Reply 1

hads1k

Thank you for the tips 🤝