Disclaimer I'm sorry all these answers are sooo delayed!!! Am doing my best to answer you all

Really appreciate you all helping each other and being one awesome cohort/community!!! <3
does anyone have a tip on how to best nail the MC...??
they always seem to be about random, specific content that we haven't necessarily covered in class... 
thanks in advance for the tips
Hi BK,
In terms of smashing out multiple choice - my top tips are:
1. Read every multiple choice answer and cross out the part of each answer that is incorrect.
This is especially useful when answers have two parts to them (tables with two columns).
I also recommend this because sometimes one answer will be more correct and if you choose answer A cos it seems correct you can lose easy marks.
When you cross out answers, you eliminate the wrong ones and narrow down your choices, making it easier to isolate what part of the syllabus you need to recall and more easily answer the question.
2. Read the question more than once
When you have all this stress and pressure it is easy to quickly skim the question and miss vital parts. So I definitely recommend looking over the question more than once and completely understanding what its asking you. Definitely agree with the others above: use highlighters and underline the key words of the question.
3. Another tip that I've heard is to try and think of the answer before you look at the possible answers. So to do this, read the question and think of what the answer is. This could help save time in the exam.
4. Another tip is to do the majority of your multiple choice questions in reading time and make a mental note of what each answer is so that you can just put those answers down and you've done the majority of the multiple choice giving you more time for your other sections.
Those are the tips of the top of my head; good luck for your hsc exam!!!
How would you structure the following:
1. explain the potential conflicts between short-terms and long-term financial objectives
2. explain why goods and/or services are central to both marketing and operations
3. explain how operations strategy can help a business sustain its competitive advantage
4. examine the advantages of a diverse, culturally competent workforce for a global business
5. compare the process of negotiating enterprise/collective agreements with the negotiation of individual contracts
Thank you so much !! xx
Hey there,
Since there are quite a few questions to get thorugh I'll just give you some ideas on how to answer the questions:
1. Short v long term goals
This is usually a short answer questions and depending on the mark value I would look at the conflicts between long and short term financial objectives. E.g. Growth v Profitability, Short term Growth v Long term solvency and explain how they would conflict between each other. Giving examples if you feel you need to enhance your answer.
2. marketing and ops for G+S
So for this question I would split it between marketing and operations.
Marketing: Goods and services are central to the KBF because marketing is concerned with how best to communicate the features and value of the product. As well, marketing takes in consumer feedback and analyse trends in order to modify the good or service to best satisfy the needs of consumers.
Operations: Operations makes the goods and services and is concerned with how best to create the product efficiently and effectively. Also quality management is required to ensure high standards of the product.
3. explain how operations strategy can help a business sustain its competitive advantage
So you would look at specific strategies that can enhance the operations to the point that they have a competitive advantage over their competitiors
So I would structure this by strategy and explain (Cause and effect) How a business could utilise this strategy to achieve a competitive advantange --> e.g. quality management and be better quality and more prestigious than the others - give a case study (Tiffany & Co) or something like that.
4. examine the advantages of a diverse, culturally competent workforce for a global business
For this one I would look at benefits and separate those. SO things like having diversity in ideas and different ways to approach --> brainstorming allows you to generate better ideas and realise flaws to create best strategies and outcomes.
5. compare the process of negotiating enterprise/collective agreements with the negotiation of individual contracts
For this one I'd split up the different employment contracts and look at the features/benefits of each and then compare them throughout (MA, EA, CLC) etc. so sentence starters like "Unlike how MA are set by the Fair Work Commission, Common Law Contracts are created ...)
Hope that gives you some ideas, sorry I couldnt' give you more in depth advice.
Hey guys,
Are outsourcing and contracting the same thing? The textbook seems to give virtually identical definitions of them. I was wondering if there's any distinct features that separate the two.
Hey there,
So in a general sense, they are very similar in that you are giving work to an external party to do for you. They are a little bit different in that if you outsource you are giving them control to do that job. You would normally outsource one particular function or task to a company/business. Contracting is something like getting one person to do the job in the existing plant (getting someone to design your logo/fix the tap etc.)
Hope that helps

Yo
So within MC in past papers there is generally a couple questions asking what kind of legislation applies to situations. Just wondering what legislation/laws/acts we need to know cause I have nothing on it in my notes. E.g q1 and 5 in the 2016 paper.
Hey there,
Definitely agree with everyone else's answers (You are all amazing!) Just to add to that; business studies doesn't utilise many legislation and because of that you need to specifically know what the legislation is. This is different to legal studies where there is no set legislation you need to know.
The main ones are:
Australian Competition and Consumers Act (and other australian consumer law)
Fair Work Act (other industrial relations laws)
Sex Discrimination Act
Workplace Health and Safety Act
Corporations Act
There are others but definitely know these ones (havent checked the textbook but I think those are the ones to know)
Good luck

Hey, is it okay to make up case studies for the final section of the paper?
Hi there,
Definitely okay to make up case studies in section 4 - I always did - you just have to do it in a way that proves your point really well and doesnt sound too fake (e.g. $50 trillion profit in 1st year).
Good luck

Helloo,
If they ask to implement marketing strategies in response to changes internal and external influences? How would you all talk about it?
Also, could you please give me some fake names? I couldn't think of at least 2 
Hi Julie;
As the others said you could use the ones from the Yr 11 syllabus - it is however safer to use the ones in the year 12 syllabus since the marker will be reading many scripts and looking for key words such as the syllabus dot points to ensure you are answering the question (makes it easier on the marker). In saying this one of the critical parts of the course in achieving those high marks is to see the relationship between the syllabus dot points - strategies and influences. So looking at psychological influences; a business could use market segmentation and market research in that in order to fully understand the target market so that their promotional strategies and product suit the intended audience to ensure the best possible reception of the product.
Things like that; unfortunately I struggle heaps to come up with fake names - low point for me in the trial --> Bob's Burgers, second business Bob's Boots, third business = Bob's Books. Don't do that ahahha but good luck!!

Hi,
HR Processes - Development - Does it include training, development and performance appraisal?
Hi again,
For the processes dot point - it just means training and development --> so after choosing and selecting the right staff you must train them to their appropriate tasks - includes things like types of training and ways of developing. It's important to know the difference between each and the methods of training and developing staff.
Hope this helps

Could someone help me with 19 and 20, found here: https://imgur.com/a/N2gwE
Additionally, if someone could redirect or provide me with a business formula sheet, that'd be great.
Hey there,
so for the first question - the return on equity formula is net profit/total equity --> using this we get 23,000/92,000 --> I got this as total equity = share capital ($70k) and retained earnings which is net profit ($23k) this was the only way i got the balance sheet to balance. Then using this i got 24.7% which is A.
for Q20: we look at current asset/current liabilities to test liquidity (current ratio) in this case we have $40k of current assets (cash, inventory and accounts receivable) and $22k of current liabilities (accounts payable and overdraft) this gives us 1.8:1 and therefore B.
Hope this helps sorry for the late reply