hsc business studies case study

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{{item.title}}, my essentials, ask for help, contact edconnect, directory a to z, how to guides, planning, programming and assessing business studies.

Resources to help you plan, program and assess business studies in Years 11–12.

Business studies focuses on the nature and role of business, the internal and external factors of a business environment, the functions and processes of businesses and responsibilities of management.

Students investigate business information and issues, communicate in appropriate formats and apply mathematical concepts related to the business world.

Students use case studies of small and global businesses to identify and discuss the essential concepts of a business, from implementation to management and expansion of the operations. Additionally, students identify business issues, analyse problems and propose solutions.

Key topics of the course include:

• the nature of business
• business management
• business planning
• human resources.

Business Studies Stage 6 Syllabus (2010) contains the syllabus and support materials including standards packages, HSC exam specifications and past papers.

This case study is suitable for using as an example in the Business Management topic in the Preliminary Business Studies course. It will assist students to develop an understanding of financial, marketing, and operational key business functions, and their management and application to business situations.

Business management – financial management case study (DOCX 206 KB)

Business report

This guide is designed to support teachers and students in successfully planning and writing a business report. It contains an outline of the requirements of a high-quality business report, an explanation of the place of the business report in assessment, a series of learning activities to support teaching the business report and a sample response.

Business report – teacher guide (DOCX 170 KB)

Influences learning sequence

This case study is suitable for use as an example in the Operations topic in the HSC business studies course. It will assist students to develop an understanding of operations influences and their impact on business situations.

Operations influences using a business case study (DOCX 4.29 MB)

HSC revision

• Marketing revision resource (DOCX 77 KB)
• Operations revision resource (DOCX 69 KB)

Watch – HSIE – Business studies – examination preparation

Watch 'HSIE – Business studies – Examination preparation' (29:42).

Transcript of HSIE – Business studies – examination preparation

Welcome to the HSC hub presentation for Business studies. This presentation will take approximately 30 minutes. I would like to pay my respect and acknowledge the traditional custodians of all of the lands on which this video is being watched, and also pay respect to elders both past and present.

This video has been prepared to support you in your preparation for the Business studies HSC exam. This video will include an introductory look at the layout and structure of the exam, some tips on preparing for the exam before the big day, and a deeper look at the exam section by section with some discussion of specific past paper questions and feedback from the marking centre. The key message we can send to help you prepare for the exam is that to prepare well, you need to have a strong grasp of the key content and concepts, and you need to spend a lot of time practicing the ways to respond to different types of questions. Cramming or studying just before the exam will not be as effective as a long-term study approach. And at the end of the day, you need to know a lot about the Business studies topics that you have studied, to be able to write about them in an exam setting. So wide reading and engaging with the content deeply is a key to success.

Before exam day make sure to download the HSC timetable and highlight all of your exams. The 2020 examination timetable has already been released and can be found on the NESA website. The Business studies exam will be held on day 10, which is Monday the 2nd of November at 9:25 AM. Make sure you manage your time and travel so that you can arrive with plenty of time to be seated before your exam begins. Revision and exam preparation are crucial to you performing to the best of your ability as with all of your subjects, it's essential that you practice past HSC papers, this will give you a solid understanding and awareness of the structure of the HSC exam. As you practice your exam questions, make sure to read through the notes from the marking centre to identify what it is that students did that was positive and negative. The key to your revision is to know your syllabus. Ensure you're familiar with all the dot points in syllabus language, questions can be asked from any part of the syllabus and will use the language of the syllabus. Plan your revision schedule to match up with your exams. You should have a regular study routine that you're following to keep up with coursework - continue to study and revise each of your subjects. However, in the days before the exam, you may need to give it a little more emphasis to the exams that you'll complete first. As you complete exams the time that you would've spent on those subjects can then be allocated to exams yet to come.

Make sure you get a good night's sleep before each exam; late nights will harm your performance. Your brain needs time to rest, and you'll be able to engage better with the questions if you're not physically and mentally exhausted. Keep in mind that a number of studies have shown that last minute cramming isn't as beneficial as knowledge that's acquired and committed to long term memory over a period of weeks and months. Breakfast on the day of the exam is also important to support you in delivering your best performance. There's plenty of information on the internet on exam day breakfast suggestions. Most of them focus on a solid serve of slow release carbohydrates, such as grains, whole grain, bread, yogurt, eggs, and nuts. These foods will keep you feeling full for longer and provide fuel for the most important part of your body on exam day, your brain. Remember to also stay well hydrated drinking plenty of water before and during the exam, as this will help to keep your brain functioning at its optimum level. Make sure you have all of your equipment ready, pack it up in a clear pencil case or plastic sleeve the night before so that you aren't rushing and forget something on the morning of the exam.

You might be wondering what you can bring into your Business studies exam. To start with you should be writing in black pen. So make sure you bring multiple pens in case one of them runs out of ink. It's really important to use black pen as exam papers are scanned to allow for onscreen marking. Lot of coloured pens don't scan as well, and we'll make reading your response difficult for the marker and the last thing you want to do is make things difficult for the marker. For Business studies, other useful additional materials that you may also bring include highlighters to highlight key parts of question, pencils which should be at least 2B, and a sharpener and a bottle of water in a clear bottle. All of these items can be found relatively cheaply at stationery stores, newsagents, or even supermarkets. Don't wait until the last minute to buy these items. You should find that you're using them throughout your course to get familiar with the style of the pen and the way that it feels to write with. You may need to complete calculations for your Business studies exam, so NESA approved calculators are also allowed to be taken into the exam centre. You can find a list of approved calculators at the link on the supplementary resource for this video.

On the day that you walk into your Business studies exam, you'll be presented with a paper that consists of four sections. The first section has 20 multiple choice questions. The section is worth 20 marks. Some of the questions will be based on stimulus material and require calculations to be completed as well as the application of knowledge. Section two consists of four to six short answer questions. Each question may have several parts. A number of the questions will be based on stimulus material as well and hypothetical business situations. You'll need to respond specifically to the stimulus material provided, and you will also be required to conduct mathematical calculations and to apply your knowledge. For example, you may be asked about inventory management from the operations topic or from the finance topic monitoring and controlling. This section will be worth 40 marks. Section three is a business report based on a hypothetical scenario. You'll be provided stimulus material outlining the hypothetical business situation. This section is worth 20 marks. And section four requires you to write an essay response. You'll be provided with a choice of two questions addressing different topics from the HSC course. You need to choose an answer one question only do not answer both questions. This section's worth 20 marks. For section three and four the advice from NESA is that you should be writing approximately 800 words or six pages. This amount of writing is to ensure you're engaging in sufficient depth with the content.

The exam is a total of three hours and five minutes in duration. You'll start with five minutes reading time. During this time you're not permitted to write anything. You should take the time to read through your paper and finalise your plans for approaching the paper. The three hours writing time. During this time you are to complete the paper to the best of your ability. You must remain in the examination room for a minimum of one hour and you will not be permitted to leave in the last 15 minutes. This is to minimise disruption at the end of the exam period. Once you leave the exam room, you will not be permitted to renter. So it's strongly advised that you remain for the duration of the whole exam. Remember, you have to write in black pen this is to make it easier for the markers who are marking your exam online.

Let's take a closer look at section one which consists of 20 objective multiple choice questions. In here you may find a number of calculation questions among the topics, these questions are worth one mark each. Bear this in mind when you're answering questions in this section. Multiple choice questions are the application of knowledge, they'll require you to know your syllabus content deeply and to be able to apply that knowledge to specific questions. Read the questions very carefully, dissect each key term and phrase. They focus on higher order thinking and require the evaluation of all alternatives. Most of the options to choose from will include distractors designed to target common mistakes and simple thinking. Make sure you answer all multiple-choice questions, don't leave any out. Use the process of elimination and choose the answer that best fits the question. Keep in mind some questions may provide stimulus material for you to apply your knowledge. Make sure that you mark your answers on the multiple-choice answer sheet provided. A great way to practice your multiple-choice section is to use the NESA quiz tool. You can find it by searching for NESA quiz or following the link on the supplementary resource for this video. Be conscious of your time management during this section, you should ensure that you have enough time to think through the answers, but to not waste time here, utilising some of your reading time to strategize for this section can be worthwhile. You should allow about 35 minutes for this section.

Section two of the Business studies exam consists of four to six short answer questions. The questions may be in parts. You need to attempt each part, make sure to take notice of the amount of marks allocated to each part of the question and how much space is provided as this will be a good indication of how much you need to write in response. Section two of the exam is worth 40 marks and NESA recommends that you allow about an hour and 15 minutes to complete this section. The questions in this section may include stimulus material and require calculations to be done. You'll be provided with any relevant formulas as per the syllabus that you need to answer the questions. Questions may also require you to respond to stimulus materials, such as a hypothetical business scenario. Each question will focus on individual topics of the HSC course. You need to ensure that you can apply mathematical concepts appropriately in business situations. For example, make sure that you know what your financial ratios mean, not just how to calculate them. When approaching this section, it can be helpful to highlight the key parts of each question. This ensures that you'll address the focus of the question correctly. We'll work through a model of what this can look like shortly. Part of this involves identifying the directive verb for the question and determining what the verb requires you to do. Being aware of the different demands of the various directive verbs will be very useful for you. The NESA website has a long list of these that may support you in your study. When responding to the questions in this section, it's important that you don't just write down everything that you know on a topic. Answering the specific question asked and applying your knowledge is key as is ensuring that you take the length of the response expected into account. The paper has lines marked under each question in this section, ideally you should be able to achieve full marks for each question using just those lines. If there's a situation where you do need to go beyond the lines, ask for an exam booklet and make sure that it's very clearly marked.

It's important to look at the marking criteria from past papers. This will give you an understanding of what the examiners are looking for. As you look across several years, you'll see similarities in skills that the examiners are looking to be demonstrated despite the actual content changing from year to year. The notes from NESAs 2019 marking centre for the Business studies exam highlighted that for this section, students need to have a clear understanding of the key words in the question and recognise the different requirements, as well as ensuring that they read the question carefully to ensure that they do not miss important components of the question. Students will also be expected to incorporate relevant Business studies terminology to support their judgment throughout their responses. So practicing the use of that terminology will be an important part of studying for Business studies.

Let's take a look at an example from section two. The question on the screen is question 24 from the 2019 Business studies exam and it was worth 10 marks total. Notice that there are multiple parts of the question, and each part is worth a different number of marks. This is a common structure for questions in section two, the question begins with an opening statement. “A juice bar is operating in a shopping centre. The juice is served to customers in plastic cups with plastic straws. The high sales volume and quick turnover demands an efficient operations process”. You're required to answer three parts of this question in response to the statement. Part A asks you for two marks to “identify two transforming resources used in this business”. The directive verb circled in red is identify, identify requires you to simply recognize and name. So for this part of the question, you need to name two transforming resources. It can be assumed that the marks breakdown here would be one mark per transforming resource. Part B of the questions asks, “how does variety impact the transformation process of this business?” For part B of this question the directive verb circle in red is ‘how’. This may feel a bit trickier as it's not on the list of NESA directed verbs but in the context of this question, it's asking you to explain. This is a good example of the examiners not always using the directive verbs you may have come across more commonly. If this is the case, make sure you stop and think about what you actually need to do to correctly answer the question. Part C of this question has another non-regular directive verb. The question is ‘why might this business be reluctant to become more socially responsible?’ And is worth four marks. In this case, again in red - why indicates you're required to explain and give reasons for your answer. You can get a hint from the number of marks this part of the question is worth. Going through the question and breaking it down like this is a good strategy to ensure that you're reading the whole question in full, and understanding exactly what it's asking you to do. Make sure you use the reading time effectively to plan your questions as you need to be straight to the point in this section. You'll need to answer your questions in the spaces provided and this will give you a good indication of the length of your response.

If we take a look at the notes from the 2019 marking centre for question 24, the markers indicated that the better responses were seen when students were able to use the stimulus where appropriate to show their understanding. And for part C specifically, they mentioned that being able to give strong reasons for business’ being reluctant to become more socially responsible, as well as being able to show a clear understanding of what social responsibility means in this context and for this business. They discussed areas for students to improve including showing an understanding of the differences between transformed and transforming resources, as well as being able to give clear impacts on how variety influences elements of the transformation process. They mentioned the importance of avoiding generic and general statements about the business and highlighted that students that attempted to use pre-prepared responses did not do very well in this section.

Moving on to section three. Section three is where you'll be asked to write a business report. You'll be provided with a business scenario and you're required to respond with strategies to address the issues raised in the scenario. The questions will require you to apply knowledge from across at least two of the four HSC course topics. The marking criteria for this section states that your answer will be assessed on how well you one, demonstrate knowledge and understanding relevant to the question, two, apply the hypothetical business situation and three, communicate using relevant business terminology and concepts, four present a sustained logical and cohesive response in the form of a business report. It's really important that you follow the rubric for this section which specifically relates to applying the hypothetical business situation, as well as communicating using appropriate business terminology and demonstrating knowledge and understanding relevant to the question. In this section, you're expected to right around 800 words or approximately six pages from the writing booklet. This section is worth 20 marks and you should allow about 35 minutes to complete this section. You need to recommend strategies the business could adopt to address the issues identified in the scenario, and you'll need to justify why the specific strategies you've identified are appropriate for this scenario.

The general notes from the 2019 marking centre for this section focused on the importance of students having a clear understanding of directive verbs again, as well as that vitally important skill of reading the question carefully. They also stress the importance of relevant business terminology, and relevant examples and case studies, make note of the repetition of the word relevant through these marking centre notes. They are highlighting relevance to encourage students not to pre-prepare a response and expect to be able to mould the question to fit what you walked into the exam wanting to say. You need to have a wide range of knowledge and deep understanding of the syllabus with examples that can be used across a range of questions. The importance of answering the question that's in front of you is hard to undersell. The marker’s notes also identified the importance of structuring your response clearly in a well organised, cohesive and sustained way. Well organised responses are easier for the marker to read and therefore easier for them to mark - bear that in mind during your preparation for these sections that have longer responses.

A business report needs to have an executive summary, a body, and a conclusion. Each part of the report is important in conveying information succinctly. In a business report, you're able to structure your writing in the most effective way possible. You may wish to include dot points, calculations, tables, graphs, diagrams, subheadings, underlining, and any other forms you deem appropriate and beneficial in conveying your message. The key is that you create a response that is logical, well organised and sustained. Make it easy for the marker to see exactly what you're trying to say, and where your evidence is within your response. Business reports allow examiners to assess how well you have developed your ability to analyse situations, assess the key problems and propose solutions. Remember the idea behind a business report is that the report is conveying information succinctly and clearly. The executive summary needs to concisely convey the main points of the report, including your suggested strategies for resolving the issues highlighted in the scenario. It should briefly identify the issues raised in the scenario, strategies proposed to resolve the issues identified, and the intended outcomes of those strategies.

The purpose of an executive summary is to quickly and concisely convey the main points of the report to a busy person who may not have time to read the entire report. Although obviously the examiners will read it all. In the body, you need to address all the components of the question, ensure that you're using course terminology, use headings and subheadings to identify the aspect of the question that you're addressing, you need to make sure you refer back to the scenario all the way through your answer. This will demonstrate your understanding of business knowledge. The conclusion is where you provide an overview of the information that you've just presented, and as such it's quite similar to the executive summary at the start. The key aspect of the business report that appears in the conclusion is the recommendations that the report is making to address the issues highlighted in the business’s scenario provided. Don't introduce any new material in your conclusion.

Let's take a look at a question from the 2019 business studies exam question 25. The hypothetical business situation presented was “a business Roo's Outback Eatery Pty Ltd, is opening an additional restaurant in New South Wales. They plan to position the restaurant as an exclusive restaurant specialising in modern Australian food with quality customer service. The owners require assistance with the following, the acquisition and development of suitable staff, additional funds for the day-to-day running of the business, and the close monitoring of working capital. You've been hired as a consultant to write a report for the owners. In your report, discuss methods this business could use in the acquisition and development of staff, and recommend two appropriate working capital management strategies for this business. “

The first thing to do after reading the question in full is to orientate yourself to the syllabus topics being explicitly examined. In this example, it is human resource management and financial management. To be able to assess this quickly in the exam situation, it's very important that you have strong knowledge of your syllabus and different types of questions that can be asked for each section. Take some time to plan your response, identifying business management strategies that are appropriate to respond to this specific scenario. pay attention to the directive verbs which are circled in red. You're being asked to discuss, which means identify issues and provide points for and or against various methods that the business could use to acquire and develop staff in this scenario. It can be helpful to write a little note beside the directive with the definition, so that you keep it in the centre of your mind throughout the exam. Be mindful of the signposts in exam questions that relate to how much you need to do. In this dot point we can say that they want methods, plural, thus ensure that you come up with more than one. This may seem pretty obvious, but sometimes it can be simple things in the question that trip people up. In the second dot point you're being asked to recommend, which means provide reasons in favour for appropriate working capital management strategies with two being the specific number of strategies that you are expected to discuss. Breaking the question down like this is a really great way to get your head around it in a structured and careful way.

Read the rubric that's written above the question, the criteria used to mark the exam are written there, and it can provide you with guidance about what your focus needs to be. For this question, so one of the things that you could discuss include acquisition, development, job design, both general or specific tasks. You could also discuss recruitment, general or specific skills and training and development, and current and future skills. Other considerations include performance management, development or administration, cashflow statements and distribution of payments. And in regards to working capital management, you could mention control of current assets that is cash, receivables, inventories, control of current liabilities such as payables, loans, overdrafts, or strategies such as leasing, sale, and lease back among other examples.

In the marking criteria in the exam pack, the key things that NESA were looking for in student responses that achieved the best results for this particular question, were providing detailed points for and or against methods that this business could use in the acquisition and development of staff, providing detailed reasons in favour of two appropriate working capital management strategies, and making effective use of the information provided making sure to demonstrate extensive knowledge and understanding again relevant to the question. Also make sure that you integrate relevant business terminology and concepts.

The feedback from the marking centre was that in better responses students were able to use and apply the stimulus material in a meaningful way, as well as providing points for and against two human resource methods. For example, job interviews and coaching. Also when students were doing a great job of this particular response, they were covering both acquisition and development and providing reasons in favour of two appropriate working capital management strategies, not just stating what they were. Better students also clearly showed an understanding of relevant syllabus content in a logical and sustained manner. Ways that students could improve would be developing that content knowledge and really knowing your syllabus deeply. Also ensuring that you use appropriate and relevant examples and provide a balanced response to cover evenly weighted sections of the question.

Finally, you'll come to section four, which is your final extended response question. You'll be provided with a choice of two questions relating to two different topics within the HSC course. These topics will be different to the topics examined in the business report in the previous question. You'll be required to answer just one of the two questions. So, make sure you take some time, perhaps during the five minutes reading time to consider both options before deciding which one would be best suited to your knowledge and understanding, and that you have good case studies to support your response. This response is worth 20 marks and you should allow about 35 minutes to write it. In this section it is imperative that you include case study information to support your arguments.

The marking criteria for this section states that you'll be assessed on how well you, one, demonstrate knowledge and understanding relevant to the question, two, apply relevant business case study or studies and contemporary business issues, three, communicate using relevant business terminology and concepts, and four, present a sustained logical and cohesive response. The section is also expected to be around 800 words or six pages similar to the business report. The structure of your response will be different to that of the business report though, you're being assessed on presenting a sustained logical and cohesive response. This could mean a traditional essay structure, but it's also possible to write a strong response with subheadings to break up the writing slightly. Your teacher will be best placed to walk you through ways to respond to this section, as they'll be aware of your strengths as a writer.

Let's take a look at an example from section four from the 2019 business studies exam. For this video we'll look at question 27, which was the second option. The question is analyse the relationship between performance objectives, and operations strategies. In this question, the directive verb is analyse which you can see in the red circle. Analyse requires you to identify components and the relationship between them, draw out and relate implications. You're not required to make a judgment here. Next, take a look at the syllabus content that is being referred to here. In this case it's performance objectives and operation strategies, which we can see in the blue boxes. Now, if you're familiar enough with your syllabus, you'll immediately recognise that this question has been drawn from the operations topic specifically, the operation strategies section of that topic. Knowing your syllabus deeply will allow you to quickly place and process the question content and come up with relevant and appropriate examples to use in response to the question.

Finally, to understand the question fully, look what it's asking you to do with the content. Here we're looking to consider the relationship between the two content points. So your response we'll need to draw out the relationship between performance objectives and operation strategies, and consider the implications of this relationship. Case studies are a required aspect of responding to the long response questions. Through the use of case studies students are able to demonstrate their awareness of the application and relevance of their knowledge to real world situations. Make sure that you have a number of case study examples to use in your exam, as it's important that you use case studies and contemporary business examples that are both relevant and appropriate. This can make a huge difference.

The marking rubric for this response in the 2019 exam pack shows that the high level responses need to be able to clearly relate the implications of the relationship between performance objectives and operation strategies. Apply relevant case studies and contemporary business issues and present a sustained logical and cohesive response while communicating clearly using relevant business terminology and concepts. That's a lot to think about, but if we break it down essentially the markers are looking for students to answer the question directly, with good examples to support their answer, and that their answer be written clearly using business terminology.

Feedback from the 2019 marking centre for this question was the better responses clearly demonstrated the relationships between performance objectives and operations strategies, and managed to incorporate the case study throughout the response in a smooth and sustained way. They were also able to draw out an implication from the relationship between performance objectives and operations strategies. Going to that deeper level than simply identifying the relationship. Areas for student improvement that were identified by the marking centre included ensuring that relevant business terminology and concepts were used in the response in a cohesive way, rather than providing generalised information. Also, students could have improved by demonstrating a clear understanding of performance objectives and operations strategies from the syllabus, not just general business activities or operations processes such as the four V's. This feedback really highlights the importance of deep knowledge and understanding of your syllabus. Being able to think on your feet in the exam will be much easier with a strong foundation of knowledge across all syllabus topics, and will allow you to respond to the questions in front of you without the issue of pre-prepared responses.

This video has been a very brief introduction to the business studies HSC examination, and should be used as a starting point only. Your teacher is best place to support you in your preparation for the exam and is an expert in both the specific topics that you've been learning about, and how to teach them to your class. If you have any questions about the exam, your topics in business studies, or where to next, have a chat with your teacher about the websites that you can use to help you study and how to access the range of past papers available. Good luck with your exams.

[End of Transcript]

To support your learning and teaching of this topic, access the Business Studies – success in the written examination support booklet (DOCX 74 KB) .

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Business Unit:

How to Write a Band 6 Business Studies Essay

Studying HSC Business Studies and have no clue where to begin when it comes to the essay you’ll need to write in the final exam?

That’s okay! We’re here to help with this handy guide to writing in this style that you’re not as familiar with.

What are you waiting for? Let’s get started!

What Does the HSC Business Studies Essay Involve? Step 1: Decide on Your Approach Step 2: Plan Your Essay Step 3: Finish Your Introduction Strong Step 4: Choose Your Case Studies Step 5: Write the Essay Step 6: Practise Writing HSC Business Studies Essay Plans How to Write a Band 6 Thesis For Your HSC Business Studies Essay How to Write Band 6 Body Paragraphs For Your HSC Business Studies Essay

What Does the HSC Business Studies Essay Involve?

The HSC Business Studies Essay makes up 20 marks of Section IV in the HSC exam.

It is also often known as the ‘ Case Study’ essay , because students are expected to integrate case studies or real life business examples into their response.

The general marking criteria for a Band 6 in the HSC Business Studies Essay is that a student:

• Applies relevant case study/studies and contemporary business issues
• Presents a sustained, logical and cohesive response and communicates clearly using relevant business terminology and concepts

As usual they are based on the guidelines and comments from HSC markers: the ones who mark hundreds of essays year in year out.

Example Question

Here is the example question we’re going to use throughout this article to demonstrate what to do to get that Band 6 in your HSC Business Studies Essay:

Step #1: Decide on Your Approach

The 30-70 rule.

As mentioned above, there are two ways to approach a HSC Business Studies essay:

• 70% case studies and 30% theory explanation
• 70% theory explanation 30% case studies

It’s important to understand that either approach, if executed well, is FINE.

The 30-70 Rule:  all essays had either 30% theory and 70% case study or vice versa. 

If you look at many top scoring HSC Business Studies essay responses over multiple years, all of them followed the 30-70 Rule.

Provided you follow the 30-70 Rule, pick the approach you find most logical and you are most comfortable writing with and you are well on your way to crafting that Band 6 HSC Business Studies essay!

Note: Students often you stress too much about the structure or approach of your essays. While structure is important, don’t forget to provide  well explained and supported arguments that answer the question .

Which Approach Should You Take?

There are essentially two schools of thought when it comes to writing a Band 6 HSC Business Studies essay.

Some teachers and markers believe that the case study should be the driving factor in your essay , adding theory to explain the case where needed. On the other hand, some believe that the case study should only be used as evidence to highlight or accentuate your theory and explanation.

For your school assessments, it’s best to follow your marker’s preferred school of thought. However, for the HSC exam, choose whichever approach suits you the best!

This is a similar approach to using statistics in an Economics essay, which if you also study, you can check out a similar guide to writing a Band 6 Economics essay !

Access our HSC Business Studies Essay Structure and Template

Step #2: Plan Your Essay

As you probably have experienced, the HSC Business Studies syllabus encompasses a large variety of dot points you will be expected to recall.

#1: Write Down All Relevant Syllabus Dot Points

To make sure that this doesn’t trip you over, use the first page of your writing booklet to sketch a plan of your response. Importantly, include the syllabus dot points you will be referring to.

By jotting these down on the page you ensure you first of all don’t forget any , but secondly also give yourself an opportunity to draw connections between different syllabus dot points to better answer the question!

If you are finding it hard to memorise the syllabus content, check out memorisation tips for Business Studies !

#2: Use the Directive Verb to Create Your Thesis

Before we plan, we must understand the NESA directive verbs . This will determine the level of depth and how the markers want you to answer the question.

With a plan, it makes your essay structure clearer and allows you to organise your ideas in a way which keeps your response  sustained, which is a key component of the A range marking criteria.

Your essay must continually drive towards developing your thesis — the actual answer to the essay question itself.

Step #3: Write A Strong Introduction

A strong introduction includes a strong thesis that provides context for the essay.

Now, connect your paragraph points to answering the thesis  and introduce your case studies. This is better than simply stating which external influences you will be looking at, which is not as effective and thesis-driven.

For example, rather than saying:

Globalisation, quality expectations and corporate social responsibility are the external influences which operations management must respond to. These influences are best represented by leading pizza franchise Domino’s Pizza, local school textbook manufacturer Secondary Textbooks, and leading sportswear and footwear manufacturer Nike.

These influences are exemplified by globalisation, which has opened businesses to the influence of global factors and increasingly demanding supply chain management needs, increased quality expectations that have created more stringent quality processes and management strategies, and an emerging emphasis on corporate social responsible behaviours to ensure legal compliance and ethical responsibility. Leading pizza franchise Domino’s Pizza, local school textbook manufacturer Secondary Textbooks, and leading sportswear and footwear manufacturer Nike are businesses that respectively demonstrate the crucial response of operations management.

It is much more impressive to the marker if you are able to show a direct link between your points and the thesis you are addressing , as it shows a more logical and well-planned response.

Together the intro would look like:

Operations management involves the set of processes used by businesses to transform inputs into outputs. These processes are continually influenced by external influences which can significantly hinder or promote a business’ competitive advantage. Operations management therefore must respond to these external influences using its operations strategies to capitalise on new developments and adapt, hence highlighting the importance of responding to external influences. These influences are exemplified by globalisation, which has opened businesses to the influence of global factors and increasingly demanding supply chain management needs, increased quality expectations that have created more stringent quality processes and management strategies, and an emerging emphasis on corporate social responsible behaviours to ensure legal compliance and ethical responsibility. Leading pizza franchise Domino’s Pizza, local school textbook manufacturer Secondary Textbooks, and leading sportswear and footwear manufacturer Nike are businesses that respectively demonstrate the crucial response of operations management.

Step #4: Choose Your Business Studies Case Studies

In addition to choosing how much of the essay to focus on case studies, you will also need to decide which case studies (and how many) to use in your HSC Business Studies essay. Again, it varies and depends on what you are comfortable with .

Top responses have however followed these trends:

• Use more than one case study (usually three in total, or one per body paragraph)
• Typically been large real life businesses where there is a wide range of information available .
• Use the most recent events and issues 
• Have not used hypothetical

Think about it this way — would you trust someone if they said that a certain business strategy has worked if it hasn’t actually happened in real life?

Should You Use Hypothetical Case Studies in Your Business Studies Essay?

This is isn’t saying to stay away from hypothetical case studies (i.e. a made up business). It’s not impossible to  get 20/20 with hypothetical case studies .

However, markers have found that hypothetical businesses are often a ‘super business’ that is perfect in every single way and therefore have no issues.

This ultimately does not give you much to write about and hence, you fail to show adequate knowledge of contemporary business issues. Which is obviously a problem for your HSC Business Studies Essay.

If you do choose to use a hypothetical (which I did in my plan), remember to make it realistic and that the whole point of the hypothetical is to show understanding, not to be a perfect business.

Tip : I recommend that you come up with the entire business as part of your exam preparation and also write out how it connects to each syllabus dot point. You can be creative, but don’t take too many liberties, it still needs to be realistic. 

Step #5: Write the Essay

The other general criteria in an HSC Business Studies essay is the related to the way you write and use language , including business terminology and concepts. 

This of course means you must know your content well and be able to connect different parts of the syllabus together and understand their relationships.

Once you have mastered your content, the criteria then asks for a ‘ sustained, logical and cohesive ‘ response. In order to achieve this, it is best to use a clear structure (which we have planned for in Step 1) as it forces you to retain a logical and cohesive structure.

Here’s how to do it:

#1: Use DPEEL (writing structure)

To provide a basic structure, follow DPEEL  which will ensure you are using business terminology and concepts consistently in your essay.

Definition:  assume the marker is a layperson (has limited knowledge of the course) and ensure you are defining the business term or concept to reflect your understanding. Can be integrated into the response and does not need its own sentence. Point:  Attack the question and pinpoint what your overall answer will be, akin to a mini thesis. Explain:  Provide further details that elaborate on your point. Depending on which directive verb you are asked, this is also where you can start to show relationships (analyse), provide additional economic theories that demonstrate a cause and effect (explain) or make a judgement (assess/evaluate). Evidence:  Use your case study to illustrate how real life businesses apply the business studies content to achieve their goals rather than simply telling the reader that the business uses a specific strategy and not elaborating on how. Also be careful of simply ‘retelling the story’ of what the business does but not connecting it to your thesis! Link:  Conclude your paragraph by linking your points back to your original thesis.

#2: Use Transition Signals

The ‘sustained’ element of the marking criteria means the markers want the essay to flow uninterrupted . No additional details or sidetracks.

The best way to achieve this is through the use of transition signals.

Transition signals include words such as furthermore, hence, as a result, this leads to, but, however.

These are ‘linking’ words which along with the DPEEL structure FORCE  you to stay on track and sustain your attack on the thesis, as each sentence must relate to the previous. This makes it more difficult for you to stray off topic, allowing you to create a sustained response!

#3: Prepare a case study table for your Business Studies essay

Just like with English, Business Studies is also a subject with high demands on memory.

Not only must you remember course content, you must also remember relevant case studies. An efficient way to facilitate this process is a simple table that allows you to organise your information.

Here’s an example of a good HSC Business Studies Case Study Table: 

This will increase your mind’s ability to chunk the information without feeling overwhelmed, and it will be easier to remember!

Don’t wait until it’s too late! At Art of Smart Education our Hills District HSC Business Studies Tutors  can support you with tutoring at our Castle Hill campus, or tutoring in your home or online across NSW!

#4: Write a Strong Conclusion

Good news — HSC Business Studies essay conclusions are quite straightforward!

They need to:

Reaffirm your position and perspectives by restating your thesis — your answer to the question. Tie up your points and case studies and summarise how they have supported your thesis.

Make sure you don’t overdo the conclusion. 3-4 sentences is more than enough and the last thing a marker wants to see is a conclusion that has overstayed its welcome!

Step 6: Practise Writing HSC Business Studies Essay Plans

The final and most important tip is to practise this approach using different styles and topics of essay questions. It is also important that you plan the essays as you would in an exam to give you practice for planning for unseen questions.

Apply these steps to build your consistency in writing logically and systematically.

That is the only way you will improve and when you do improve, you will notice that you have become a better overall writer and this should reflect in your other subjects too. If you need more essay questions you can use past HSC exams , your textbook, or ask your teacher.

How to Write a Good Thesis for your HSC Business Studies Essay

The most important thing about any essay is the answer to the question itself with your thesis.  All paragraphs, business theory and case studies are simply used to support the thesis .

As a result, begin the plan by writing a direct answer to the question. In your thesis you want to:

• Provide context for the question — include definitions of key terms such as external influences and operations management
• Then use qualifiers or intensifiers (to some extent, significantly, is ineffective) to answer the essay question.

For our example, the thesis for our example questions would look like this:

Operations management involves the set of processes used by businesses to transform inputs into outputs. These processes are continually influenced by external influences which can significantly hinder or promote a business’ competitive advantage. Operations management therefore must respond to these external influences using its operations strategies to capitalise on new developments and adapt, hence highlighting the importance of responding to external influences.

How to Write Band 6 Body Paragraphs for your HSC Business Studies Essay

Now you should organise your ideas into dot points which you will write your paragraphs about. 

Also note down any sub points or arguments you think of underneath. This can include theory or case study events.

As this is the planning stage, it isn’t essential to get it all down perfectly — even just a word or key term to retain your train of thought is fine.

Below is an IDEAL plan using our example question. I’ve used more words than I normally would to help you read along (in reality, a few word dot points are fine, as long as you can understand what you’ve written).

If there are natural links and connections between paragraphs this can also be useful in transitioning in between different paragraphs to maintain the  cohesiveness  of the essay, i.e. making it flow better.

Preparing for your Visual Arts exam too? Check out our Band 6 Essay Scaffold for HSC Visual Arts ! 

On the hunt for other HSC Business studies resources?

Check out our other guides and articles below:

Everything You Need To Know About HSC Business Studies

• HSC Business Studies Practice Essay Questions
• How to Write Killer Short Answer Responses for Business Studies
• How to Write a Band 6 Business Report for Business Studies

Are you looking for some extra help with your HSC Business Studies Essay writing?

We pride ourselves on our inspirational hsc business studies coaches and mentors.

We offer tutoring and mentoring for Years K-12 in a large variety of subjects, with personalised lessons conducted one-on-one in your home or at one of our state of the art campuses in Hornsby or the Hills!

To find out more and get started with an inspirational tutor and mentor  get in touch today! 

Give us a ring on 1300 267 888, email us at  [email protected]  or check us out on  TikTok !

Terry Huang  completed his Bachelor of Secondary Education with a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of New South Wales. A strong believer that lessons should be engaging, relevant, and effective, his hustle and teaching approach have led to his recognition on the UNSW Faculty of Social Sciences Dean’s List for Academic Excellence, the NSW Teachers Federation Future Teacher scholarship, and the New Colombo Plan program. Terry enjoys listening to Kanye West, learning about cryptocurrency and memorising scenes from  The Office .

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Author Topic: HSC Business - Case studies  (Read 62401 times)  Tweet   Share  

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Re: HSC Business - Case studies

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this is awesome thanks!! Would you suggest looking at a bunch of different case studies like you have depending on the dot point, or is it better to look at 1-2 in depth?

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