QCE Business IA and External Assessment exam technique quiz

Identify and name each relevant item briefly, with no elaboration or supporting detail at all

Make a judgement against criteria, weighing strengths and limitations to reach a conclusion

Describe the main features in detail without offering any judgement or comparison

List every possible option without selecting, ranking or recommending any single one

Writing down only the final number on its own, with no formula stated, no values substituted and no interpretation offered

Interpreting the result against a benchmark without ever stating the formula or showing any of the working

Stating the formula, substituting the values, giving the answer with units, then interpreting it against a benchmark

Listing several possible formulas one after another without choosing which one actually applies here

Product, price, promotion, place, people, process and physical evidence, the seven elements of the extended services marketing mix

Political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors (PESTEL analysis)

Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the four quadrants of a SWOT matrix

Industry rivalry, bargaining power of suppliers, bargaining power of buyers, threat of new entrants, threat of substitutes

Give a high, moderate or low verdict for each force with evidence from the stimulus, then show how they combine to determine attractiveness

Define each of the five forces in general textbook terms without ever applying any of them to the evidence in the stimulus material provided

Name only the two forces you judge to be strongest and ignore the remaining three forces entirely

Describe the company marketing mix in detail instead of analysing the industry structure at all

Foreign direct investment, joint venture, indirect exporting

Indirect exporting, joint venture, foreign direct investment

Joint venture, licensing, foreign direct investment

Franchising, indirect exporting, then licensing

6.7 percent

20 percent

15 percent

30 percent

More debt than equity, signalling dangerously high gearing and solvency risk

The business is technically insolvent and cannot meet its debts

The business carries no liabilities and is funded entirely by equity

Conservative gearing with substantial debt headroom for further borrowing

Caps the marks because it answers below the cognitive verb, which requires a defended decision

Earns full marks because it is comprehensive and gives fair, balanced coverage of every option

Is exactly the approach the cognitive verb is asking the student to take here

Is only a problem in short-response items, not in extended-response writing

Plan, do, check

Unfreeze, change, refreeze

Analyse, implement, review

Identify, assess, treat

It simply makes the overall report longer, and markers are known to reward a higher word count on its own regardless of the content

QCAA explicitly penalises the use of clear section headings in a report, so writing one single continuous block of unbroken prose will reliably score more highly

A real business decision is interdependent, so an integrated recommendation is coherent and defensible while separate lists are disconnected

Finance is the only section that genuinely matters, so the marketing and operations sections can safely be left out of the report