MODEL ANSWERS
Principles of Business
WORKED SOLUTIONS
FOR CSEC® EXAMINATIONS
2007–2011
Alvin Ramsaroop
CSEC® is a registered trade mark of the Caribbean Examinations Council
(CXC). PRINCIPLES OF BUSINESS Worked Solutions for CSEC®
Examinations 2007–2011 is an independent publication and has not been
authorised, sponsored, or otherwise approved by CXC.
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Macmillan Education
Between Towns Road, Oxford, OX4 3PP
A division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
Companies and representatives throughout the world
www.macmillan-caribbean.com
ISBN 978-0-230-40741-1
Text © Alvin Ramsaroop 2012
Design and illustration © Macmillan Publishers Limited 2012
First published 2012
All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be
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when accessing them.
Printed and bound in Malaysia
2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
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CONTENTS
1
Introduction
5
2
Time to do some revision
7
3
Paper 01 – Multiple choice questions
12
4
Principles of Business Paper 02 – General proficiency – May/June 2007
75
5
Principles of Business Paper 02 – General proficiency – May/June 2008
91
6
Principles of Business Paper 02 – General proficiency – May/June 2009
104
7
Principles of Business Paper 02 – General proficiency – May/June 2010
116
8
Principles of Business Paper 02 – General proficiency – May/June 2011
128
9
How did you do?
139
10
Table of topics from the Principles of Business syllabus
141
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1
INTRODUCTION
What is this book about?
This book is your companion to the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) Secondary Education Certificate
examination in Principles of Business at General Proficiency level.
It contains five sets of 60 multiple choice questions similar to those that will appear on Principles of Business
Paper 01, together with answers to these questions.
It also contains complete answers to the questions set on the Principles of Business Paper 02 in the June
series of examinations between the years 2007 and 2011. There is also an indication of how the marks are
distributed so you can see how you might get partial credit for an answer even if it isn’t totally correct.
How can I use this book?
This book is designed to help you increase your knowledge of Principles of Business and improve your
chances of success in your forthcoming examination.
One of the best ways for you to find out exactly what you know (or don’t know) and how well you can
organise your knowledge is to try to answer actual examination questions taken from past papers.
In addition to examination questions there is a chapter on how to revise. This will help you to draw up
a revision timetable, and to stay focused on what you have to do. The chapter also includes tips from
experienced examiners on how to avoid throwing away marks by making silly mistakes and how to squeeze
those few extra marks by writing down what you know in the clearest possible way. Those few extra marks
just might earn you a higher grade!
This book is a very flexible revision aid and you can use it in different ways depending on what best suits
your revision programme.
• A
t the end of your revision programme you could simply try to answer the questions on the examination
papers to check how much you know about Principles of Business by comparing your answers with those
in this book.
However, this book allows you to make far better use of the examination questions as an actual part of your
revision programme.
At the back of the book there is a Table of Topics from the Principles of Business Syllabus.
This is a list of topics that together cover the entire content of the Principles of Business syllabus. Alongside
each topic there is a list of questions about that topic that appear in the multiple choice tests and in the
2007–2011 examination papers.
• A
hard and daunting task, such as revising for your Principles of Business examination, is often made
easier by breaking it down into smaller parts. You may decide to organise your revision programme topic
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by topic and test yourself at the end of each topic. Each time you complete a topic you will have the
s­ atisfaction of knowing a little more, and that will give you the confidence to carry on with your studies.
• Y
ou may be having trouble with particular topics. You can use the topic list to identify the questions
about these topics very easily and concentrate your time on them. This might be useful at the end of your
revision when time is short.
After completing the questions, you might like to compare your marks with the grade indicators provided by
the examination board. This will give you some idea of what grade you are likely to get in your forthcoming
examination.
There is far more to this book than simply providing a set of correct answers. Read the explanation given
for each question carefully, even if you got the question correct. It will help you to organise your answers in
order to get all of the marks available. You will be able to apply much of the advice given on examination
technique and organisation when you come to answer the questions in your examination.
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2
TIME TO DO SOME REVISION
School folklore abounds with stories of students who ‘never did any revision and got a grade I in the
examination’. Do you believe them? Well, I suppose that every once in a while there might be a really gifted
individual for whom this is true, but for the vast majority of us lesser mortals the secret to examination
success (and it isn’t really a secret – it’s just common sense) is revision.
A long-term plan
Be honest with yourself and realistic in your expectations. Do you really believe you can leave things until the
last minute and then do well in your examination? Of course you can’t! In order to prepare yourself properly
for an examination you need time. How much time depends on how hard you have worked over the period
of the course, how much natural ability you have and how well you want to do in the examination.
Revision is not about sitting down, opening your book at some random page and reading the text. Revision
is about dividing the content of a syllabus into manageable sections and spending time specifically revising
those sections so that, over a period of several weeks, you cover all of the syllabus content.
In order to revise efficiently, you will find it useful to keep a record of what you have done. The following
table is a sample record of the revision carried out by a student in preparation for the Principles of Business
examination. The topics in the table are taken from the syllabus. You will need a similar table for each of your
other subjects.
Subject
Topic
Nature of Business
Principles of Business General Proficiency
Week
1
2.5h
Internal Organisational
Environment
Week
2
Week
3
Week
4
Week
5
0.5h
3.5h
Week
6
Week
7
0.5h
0.5h
Establishing a Business
1.5h
Legal Aspects of a Business
3.0h
Production
0.5h
0.5h
4.0h
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
Marketing
Exam
week
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
4.0h
Business Finance
0.5h
0.5h
4.0h
Role of Government in an
Economy
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
4.0h
Social Accounting and Global Trade
0.5h
4.0h
Regional and Global Business
Environment
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
0.5h
TOTAL HOURS
3.0h
4.5h
5.5h
5.5h
5.5h
6.0h
6.0h
6.0h
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What advantages does drawing up such a table have?
• It divides the syllabus content up into smaller parts so you can focus on each one individually.
• It provides a visible record of what you have revised so that no topics are left out or neglected.
• It provides a visible record of how long you spent revising the subject so that time can be slowly
increased as the examination week comes nearer.
• It provides a visible record of what you have achieved to date which, in turn, increases confidence.
The timetable gives a recommended study plan over the course of a week. It is important to spend some time
revising core areas on a regular basis. On any given day a student should spend between 15 minutes and 1
hour revising a particular aspect of a topic area. Over the course of a study week students should have spent
between 3 and 6 hours in studying an entire topic.
• Revising something for less than 15 minutes doesn’t really allow you enough time to get into the topic
so you will achieve very little.
• Revise for more than 1 hour and you will probably get very tired and stop being effective. However,
we are all different; you might find that your tiredness threshold comes after 45 minutes or even
sooner. You must decide on the maximum length of time you can revise effectively and organise your
timetable accordingly.
Sitting reading notes for even a short time can be very boring so try to make your revision time as
interesting as possible by doing short bursts of different things. For example, in a 45-minute revision
session you might spend the first 10 minutes revising the topic, the next 10 minutes writing down key facts
and the final 25 minutes attempting an examination question. Please note that each Paper 02 question is
worth 20 marks and you have 5 questions to do in 2 hours. This means that you have at most 24 minutes to
do each question.
The environment within which you revise is also very important. The ideal conditions for revision will vary
from student to student. Some might be happiest sitting at a table somewhere cool and quiet, while others
might prefer to sit in a comfortable chair, books on their lap, with quiet music playing in the background.
You may need to experiment in order to find which conditions work best for you. However, in doing this,
be honest with yourself. Revising whilst you are watching your favourite television programmes might appear
to be killing two birds with one stone but can you really say you are learning effectively like that? I don’t
think so.
The night before the examination
• Never work late the night before an examination.
You need a good night’s sleep before an examination. There is no problem with doing an hour or two
of revision in the evening as long as you finish at least a couple of hours before you go to bed. This
gives you time to unwind so that you don’t lie awake in bed worrying about knowing this or knowing
that.
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