do you have a technique for case studies? (1 Viewer)

[olegna]

ok. ive finished studying and doing questions on all the theory for business studies.

my worry now is case studies. this has been my weak point in the past, and im hitting myself that i didnt start perfecting my case study knowledge earlier.

anyway. how should i go about doing it? id rather one case study for all the topics.. but should i just do a heap of business reports and put case studies in, & learn my case studies this way? or should i just read notes on a particular business across the entire syllabus? or does anyone else have a particular strategy for memorising and having their case study/ies embedded in their brain for use in business reports?

help would be greatly appreciated! tnx!

 

[hopeles5ly]

ok. ive finished studying and doing questions on all the theory for business studies.

my worry now is case studies. this has been my weak point in the past, and im hitting myself that i didnt start perfecting my case study knowledge earlier.

anyway. how should i go about doing it? id rather one case study for all the topics.. but should i just do a heap of business reports and put case studies in, & learn my case studies this way? or should i just read notes on a particular business across the entire syllabus? or does anyone else have a particular strategy for memorising and having their case study/ies embedded in their brain for use in business reports?

help would be greatly appreciated! tnx!

If you know your syllabus well, then it'll be pretty easy to make up a case study. If your stuck for ideas, just look at various other case studies and then mould it all together.

 

[olegna]

lol, is making up a case study an OK idea? actually, my business teacher even suggested that we could get away with it, as long as we knew our syllabus?

anyone had success with this method in the past? cos i know my syllabus by memory, i know the theory in-depth.. can i just make up a case study? hah!

 

[orange_blob]

You can completely make stuff up, but I think that you're better off starting with a slightly obscure case study which you know the general idea of, then you can just make up the specific details and stats as you need them.

 

[olegna]

hmm, i like that idea. i might just read over the very sparsely detailed case study of billabong in my study guide, & make the rest up, or whatever i cant remember.

tnx for the help guys!

 

[hopeles5ly]

lol, is making up a case study an OK idea? actually, my business teacher even suggested that we could get away with it, as long as we knew our syllabus?

anyone had success with this method in the past? cos i know my syllabus by memory, i know the theory in-depth.. can i just make up a case study? hah!

i got 18/20 for my made up case-study for the trials. I even told her after the exam i made it up and she just laughed.

 

[*Love-2-Hate-U*]

but how'd you do that?
did you make up a fake business name, fake statistics etc

I don't know how to make up a case study
I'm scared that I might make it look 'too fake'........and the markers might realise this.

 

[hopeles5ly]

but how'd you do that?
did you make up a fake business name, fake statistics etc

I don't know how to make up a case study
I'm scared that I might make it look 'too fake'........and the markers might realise this.

The whole thing was all bullshit lolz.
If you look at one of the student answers in 2004 who scored around the high range, the student used Fairfield Chemist as his/her case study.

EDIT: 2003, i meant

 

[B35tY]

hmm, i like that idea. i might just read over the very sparsely detailed case study of billabong in my study guide, & make the rest up, or whatever i cant remember.

tnx for the help guys!

when you say make the rest up, will 'the rest' also relate to Billabong, or just another random business? I wouldn't recommend making up info about a large business that many ppl use, the marker will probably knos you're lying.

If you meant that you'd make up a second business with info for that, then that's ok. But why not just do only that, and forget Billabong completely?

As for me, my Billabong case study was made before trials, case study is probably my strongest part of the subject.

 

[olegna]

you wouldn't recommend? well then, should i just make one ENTIRELY up then? is that a better plan, you think?

cos yeah, i was gonna get the framework of the billabong one.. then make most of the specifics up.

 

[B35tY]

Of course that's a better option, to actually learn a case study. I just think that if you're gonna make one up, make sure it's a business the markers won't know.

It's just that there's quite a reasonable chance they'll have read half a dozen papers mentioning Billabong before yours, and they'll probably pick up on your fake case study.

 

[olegna]

I would go learn an actual case study if i had the time and resources. where can i find info for a case study? hm.. i guess there are some on this site.

the thing is, billabong is an extra chapter in my study guide, though its not very detailed.. only entailing 9 pages. hmm...

 

[B35tY]

You don't need THAT much information.... you'll find enough on this site for sure.

Look at the syllabus, you don't need to know case study on all the dot points, just the stuff it outlines at the start of each topic.

For example, for BM & C...

"Students learn to:

use existing business case studies to investigate and communicate ideas and issues related to business management and change. The focus of these case studies will be to:
• analyse how management theories apply to various business situations
• explain and evaluate how change is managed in one or more businesses."

So basically, i would use the resources section to answer all the parts that the syllabus lists, and then i'd also create an introductory paragraph that you can put in the introduction of the report. Put in things like a brief history, it's profit (or sales) last year, and its basic operations, to show the marker that you know what the business is.

 

[gtcfanatic]

Hi everyone!

I was just wondering, for case studies, what do we need to remember for the financial management topic?

In the syllabus it says:

Use existing business case studies to investigate and communicate ideas and issues related to financial planning and management. The focus of these case studies will be to:
• interpret the published annual reports of one or more businesses
• analyse the financial statements of one or more businesses (real or imaginary)
• undertake comparative ratio analysis — over a period of time, with similar businesses, against common standards.

How do we interpret the published annual reports of a business if we don't have them there in the exam? Do we memorise statistics?

 

[B35tY]

Yes. Go to the business's website and get some basic info, then find the ratios and compare them to last year or a competitor.

 

[gtcfanatic]

Yes. Go to the business's website and get some basic info, then find the ratios and compare them to last year or a competitor.

ok, thanks, i'll do that today then.

 

[bananasmoothy]

Hmm... before the trials I made up a case study (meaning "made up a name and a 3-word description), and planned to go in there and make it all up.
I went in the exam, made it all up, and got 20/20.

But now I'm not sure if my teachers marked easy. If it's obvious that the business is made up, yet the student has put lots of relevant information and a bit of background etc. (which is what I did) is that alright?
Argh.
I don't want to learn a case study NOW!