Applied Business Question (ABQ – Units 2,3 & 4)
The ABQ is always Section B of the exam is worth 80 marks or 20% of the total marks
This year’s ABQ units are Units 2, 3 and 4 (Chapters 4-13 in the book). They will feature on the ABQ [20%] and usually Long Q4 [15%] and Long Q5 [15%] as well. They will also feature on the short questions. Therefore these units could well account for 50% to 55% of the paper in June. Make sure that you know them inside out.
See sample ABQs for 2015 here
A suggested strategy for completing the ABQ:
- Read the three questions before you begin.
- Read the ABQ underlining or highlighting points that you may need for part (a) and answer part (a)
- Do the same for parts (b) and (c)
- When Answering the ABQ use the SEE approach (State, Explain, Example from the text you highlighted above)
Tips for the ABQ:
- Spend no more than 35 minutes on this section.
- Refer to the text as much as possible even when you are not asked. You can use the same reference more than once but try not to.
- 70/80% of the marks are for given for talking about the topic in general (communications, ICT, TQM, etc) and then the remaining percentage must show a link or a quote to the reading.
- See the questions from 2005 and 2010 as they are also from units 2,3 and 4
- It’s normally 5 marks per point (Heading – 2 marks, development of answer – 3 marks). 20 Marks = 4 points x 5 marks each
- Practice as many past questions as you can – sometimes questions that have appeared on the exam before come up again. Only allow yourself the exact time to answer them that you will have in the exam.
- Use examinations.ie to source all the past exam papers and more importantly, the marking schemes.
Timing:
20 marks should take you 8 minutes
30 marks should take you 14 minutes
In 2012 (Most recent statistics), the average mark attained by students was 54 out of 80 (68%) , this means 26 marks were lost equalling to 6.5% of the total 400 marks. Most marks were lost due to the manner in which they answered the ABQ.
