Tips for B&M

[Albert.M]

 Can anyone PLEASE give me some good tips for how to study(revise) Business and management? I really regret  that I chose to do B&M but semester 1 has already passed and there's no way I can change my subject at this stage. So I know that though B&M is not my type, I really have to get into it and try really hard to get at least 5 or 6 at the end (To raise my overall grade as high as I can). The problem is that the textbook is so huge and I have no idea where to start and how I should revise since I couldn't actually concentrate during class time. Whenever I open the book trying to revise, my brain just goes totally blank by the amount of text and facts laid in front of me. B&M is so much stress for me right now. My overall grade for semester 1 has gone so much down because of this subject. Also I have spent almost entire 3 weeks holiday with this B&M textbook trying to catch up, but now I feel like I haven't gained anything like I still have the same knowledge as I did before the holidays started (I have only 4 days left till school now). This is REALLY driving me crazy. I really need to get back on track before it gets too late. I'm really desperate. I really long for some good tips and advice.  I'm also thinking of buying revision book so please recommend me some good revision books. It would be great to find out some useful websites to revise as well. So please feel free to give me some tips such as how you guys  revised B&M or how you guys received good results for B&M. Just ANYTHING useful about B&M would be appreciated. Will be waiting for some good answers!! THANK YOU!! (I take SL)

-I found out that B&M revision notes uploaded by other users, are only open to VIP members of this website , which I think is very unfair since I thought this 'IB SURVIVAL' website was for all the students who need help with their study regardless of how much they have been using this website.

Edited July 17, 2016 by Albert.M

[Sandwich]

49 minutes ago, Albert.M said:

I found out that B&M revision notes uploaded by other users, are only open to VIP members of this website , which I think is very unfair since I thought this 'IB SURVIVAL' website was for all the students who need help with their study regardless of how much they have been using this website.

The site would not exist without VIP subscribers, as it costs money in order to host this material and host this forum. You are of course welcome to receive help from other users on the forum here and equally give some out yourself where you can, as it is a reciprocal community. Regardless of how much you have been using the website.

[IB`NOT`ez]

@Sandwich Would it have killed to even give at least a single advice related to the topic, given OP's apparent panic and direness, rather than just stating why IBS files aren't available to everyone (granted he was asking, but your comment came off (to me) as cold and unhelpful to someone else that's in great need of help)

Anyways on the topic at hand , I had a similar problem with Economics. The textbook my teacher gave us was to me, straight-up incomprehensible. After about a semester of struggling in Economics, I approached my teacher with the problems I'm having and the result was that he sold me a copy of the Economics Course Companion textbook, which had a much better overall format and slightly more condensed information (emphasis on the "slightly" as there is still A LOT of content that just can't be condensed without hampering understanding). I can never follow Economics classes nor ever do the worksheets/practices he gives us since I find it all as unbearable as you're finding B&M -- that it's not my type. 

In your case, I strongly recommend talking to your B&M teacher about the issues you're facing. Likely as not, he could help you with supplement work/notes/ppts that would enable you to catch up. You can also ask your friends as well if you can borrow their notes. Worst comes down to worse, the most you can do is really just get to practicing B&M past papers. It won't acquire you an overall strong understanding of the content but as long as you still have at least some grasp of the content, practicing past papers could get you to a 5. 

Still, its only been one semester -- a long time to be sure, but its not impossible to catch up on. The most important thing is that you change your revision strategies completely -- you have to know what works for you, and what doesn't. You'll need a primary resource that's made for the IB B&M syllabus, whether its the textbook you have right now, or a different version published by a different publisher, or a course-companion guide; but you'll need a solid resource. At the end of the day, there's still a crap-load of content that you need to know and understand.

As for sites on revision books or general revision... Google is your best friend man. I've just googled "IB Business & Management Videos" and IB Business & Management Notes" and found dozens of potentially useful sites -- you can't expect others to do all the work for you. 

[Albert.M]

On 7/19/2016 at 3:59 PM, IB`ez said:

@Sandwich Would it have killed to even give at least a single advice related to the topic, given OP's apparent panic and direness, rather than just stating why IBS files aren't available to everyone (granted he was asking, but your comment came off (to me) as cold and unhelpful to someone else that's in great need of help)

Anyways on the topic at hand , I had a similar problem with Economics. The textbook my teacher gave us was to me, straight-up incomprehensible. After about a semester of struggling in Economics, I approached my teacher with the problems I'm having and the result was that he sold me a copy of the Economics Course Companion textbook, which had a much better overall format and slightly more condensed information (emphasis on the "slightly" as there is still A LOT of content that just can't be condensed without hampering understanding). I can never follow Economics classes nor ever do the worksheets/practices he gives us since I find it all as unbearable as you're finding B&M -- that it's not my type. 

In your case, I strongly recommend talking to your B&M teacher about the issues you're facing. Likely as not, he could help you with supplement work/notes/ppts that would enable you to catch up. You can also ask your friends as well if you can borrow their notes. Worst comes down to worse, the most you can do is really just get to practicing B&M past papers. It won't acquire you an overall strong understanding of the content but as long as you still have at least some grasp of the content, practicing past papers could get you to a 5. 

Still, its only been one semester -- a long time to be sure, but its not impossible to catch up on. The most important thing is that you change your revision strategies completely -- you have to know what works for you, and what doesn't. You'll need a primary resource that's made for the IB B&M syllabus, whether its the textbook you have right now, or a different version published by a different publisher, or a course-companion guide; but you'll need a solid resource. At the end of the day, there's still a crap-load of content that you need to know and understand.

As for sites on revision books or general revision... Google is your best friend man. I've just googled "IB Business & Management Videos" and IB Business & Management Notes" and found dozens of potentially useful sites -- you can't expect others to do all the work for you. 

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your advice. I should definitely approach my B&M teacher for some more advice and probably for other additional text books that could help. Also, as you have said, changing my revision strategies would be the first thing I should do right now  Hope you have achieved satisfying result for economics at the end (If you finished ur IB diploma). Anyways thank you so much!! It definitely helped me a lot.

 

Edited July 20, 2016 by Albert.M

[Albert.M]

On 7/19/2016 at 3:59 PM, IB`ez said:

 

@Sandwich Would it have killed to even give at least a single advice related to the topic, given OP's apparent panic and direness, rather than just stating why IBS files aren't available to everyone (granted he was asking, but your comment came off (to me) as cold and unhelpful to someone else that's in great need of help)

 

Also I totally agree with what you have said here.

@Sandwich you could do a lot better than this as an administrator. I do appreciate for your explanation on my complaint. However, as an administrator (whom i believe has a certain goal to help IB students with what they long for), you could have just at least wrote a sentence of advice for me. An explanation on my complaint is something that I should definitely appreciate but that wasn't really what I was expecting for. Even a simple sentence of advice would have been a big help for me-which you didn't even bother to. Also your explanation came off quite cold and unhelpful to me as well. One more emphasis on "you could have done better than this really as an administrator". Just one more thing I'd like to talk to you. You said 'this site would not exist without VIP subscribers'. Of course I know that this website doesn't work without VIPs as I, at least have some ideas of how things work. However, what i want to say is that I'm not happy with the contents and the access you guys have blocked from other normal users. The notes are really important and greatly desired for some users and blocking those resources were definitely a wrong decision you guys have made-in my opinion. There are lots of other things you can give privilege from, just for VIP members. Anyways this was just my opinion.

One more big thanks to IB'ez!!

[IB`NOT`ez]

1 hour ago, Albert.M said:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate your advice. I should definitely approach my B&M teacher for some more advice and probably for other additional text books that could help. Also, as you have said, changing my revision strategies would be the first thing I should do right now  Hope you have achieved satisfying result for economics at the end (If you finished ur IB diploma). Anyways thank you so much!! It definitely helped me a lot.

 

No problem! I actually forgot a couple more thing actually: Use flashcards & mind-maps/flow-charts. The former is an excellent tool for memorizing vast amounts of content; the latter being superbly helpful in making connections between different topics, as well as their more specific sub-topics.

Also as you're still only halfway through your first year in the IB, I can't stress how much you don't need to be too stressed about things (unless you're currently at a 3> out of 7) -- there's still a lot of time to catch up. If you're still worried though, I'd suggest you start thinking about your B&M IA. If I'm not mistaken (though I'm pretty sure about this), your IA would count for 20% of your final grade. A strong level 6 or 7 IA can turn a high 5 into a low 6. Also considering you still have 1.5 years with which to plan and create a solid IA, there's not much to worry about -- also, most schools begin IAs starting the second year of DP, but you can already start looking for possible topics/areas of interests for your IA, and even begin drafting/collecting data for it. It's not a guarantee but you could also ask your teacher for guidance on it and seeing how passionate you are with trying to make a very early start on your IA, he could help.

As for my economics, it's at an alright spot, thanks for asking  (I'm also still a year away from finishing the DP). 

Good luck with Business & Management! 

[Albert.M]

7 hours ago, IB`ez said:

No problem! I actually forgot a couple more thing actually: Use flashcards & mind-maps/flow-charts. The former is an excellent tool for memorizing vast amounts of content; the latter being superbly helpful in making connections between different topics, as well as their more specific sub-topics.

Also as you're still only halfway through your first year in the IB, I can't stress how much you don't need to be too stressed about things (unless you're currently at a 3> out of 7) -- there's still a lot of time to catch up. If you're still worried though, I'd suggest you start thinking about your B&M IA. If I'm not mistaken (though I'm pretty sure about this), your IA would count for 20% of your final grade. A strong level 6 or 7 IA can turn a high 5 into a low 6. Also considering you still have 1.5 years with which to plan and create a solid IA, there's not much to worry about -- also, most schools begin IAs starting the second year of DP, but you can already start looking for possible topics/areas of interests for your IA, and even begin drafting/collecting data for it. It's not a guarantee but you could also ask your teacher for guidance on it and seeing how passionate you are with trying to make a very early start on your IA, he could help.

As for my economics, it's at an alright spot, thanks for asking  (I'm also still a year away from finishing the DP). 

Good luck with Business & Management! 

A huge thanks again!! I really appreciate it. I guess we are starting our IA straight after the holidays as my teacher told us to think about it. Anyways cheers!!

[Djsporting]

Having taken Business this session (May 2016) I feel like I can give my two cents worth of advice here. First off, just like you I started off Business and Management with a horrendous teacher, which resulted in quite low scores. However, as soon as she left my scores rised immensely. I would like to give you some advice: 

 

1. Practice Past Papers and Use the Markschemes:  Past papers and Markschemes are your best friends throughout this course. The Business and Management markschemes contain a lot of information and are presented just like the examiner wants the answer to be presented in order for you to achieve a 7. As soon as you practice enough past paper questions you will get the hang of it and answers will begin to come naturally to you as you become more and more confident. To prepare for my examination I did all papers from 2003-Nov. 2015 and when I got to the exam although feeling like I messed up I managed to achieve the 7, whilst in term 1 I was barely scraping a 4. (Also due to the teacher I had, which was later replaced)
2. As you do textbook questions send them to your teacher and ask him to grade them and give you advice on how to improve your answers:  When I was first presented with this new teacher he was quite demanding but immensely helpful, he told me I had to better the structure of my answers in order to achieve top marks. Every day for the course of 6 weeks I would send him two textbook questions for him to grade (I would type them up on my laptop and email it to him) It was additional work but I cannot begin to express how much it helped, firstly because of how much I improved but also because I feel like it helped my exam structure immensely. Now, I know not all teachers are as commited to correcting work done by students and therefore if this is not the case I would suggest you search for a friend or even someone on this forum (i.e. me) who would not mind to correct your responses to your business questions. 
3. Focus on your IA: Just like IB`ez stressed I cannot begin to express how important your IA is in terms of your grade. Look up a sample level 7 IA and try to follow the structure, which was used. This will help you to achieve top marks, and once again ask your teacher for feedback as you go along, this is imperative. 
4. Get the Paul Hoang Revision Guide: I cannot begin to express how much this revision guide helped me on the day prior to my Business Paper 1, it was imperative in achieving the grade I did because it sums up everything with examples. If you do past papers, and then go over the revision guide (Assuming you're willing to purchase it, or ask your school to purchase it) it will help you immensely. Furthermore, it is also important to practice CUEGIS questions, and make a table with the six CUEGIS concepts and then make bullet points for your business as well as answer as many sample questions as you can. (I answered three in preparation for my exam and when I got to the exam I just emulated what I had done in previous past papers, now although this depends on the question you will get on the exam it is important to note that practice is the most fundamental aspect of Business and Management and perhaps all courses to be honest) 

 

I have quite some Business and Management files, which can help you. If you need feel free to PM me. If you need any type of help hit me up whenever. I've been in a similar situation to yours at the beginning of my IB journey thus I can relate. 

 

Best Regards, and Best of Luck. 

 

 

Edited July 21, 2016 by Djsporting

[Albert.M]

@Djsporting Thank you so much!! your advice really does help me!!! I actually feel a lot better knowing that there was someone like me who suffered at the beginning but has now achieved  a 7!!! Well done and you are well deserved - congratulations!! Also I definitely agree with your saying that practice is the fundamental aspect of everything. That is really true. I'm more than ready to go through all the past papers as well as the revision guide book though those will make my life tough haha  I'm definitely going to purchase the Paul Hoang's revision guide book as I have the textbook written by him already. But I wonder where I could get those past papers you have mentioned. I've searched up for some but they were all requiring for payments so...  Anyways I'm still amazed by how you managed to get a 7 in the actual test and I really feel hopeful-congratulations again!!! Every part of your advice really gives me hope and is really helpful. Thank you so much and again THANK YOU!!         + I even copied your advice down on my word document haha

I will definitely PM you for some resources  

Cheers 

Edited July 21, 2016 by Albert.M

[Sandwich]

On 7/19/2016 at 4:59 AM, IB`ez said:

@Sandwich Would it have killed to even give at least a single advice related to the topic, given OP's apparent panic and direness, rather than just stating why IBS files aren't available to everyone (granted he was asking, but your comment came off (to me) as cold and unhelpful to someone else that's in great need of help)

I responded to the OP's question in my capacity as a staff member to explain the reasons behind why the site operates like it does, because I think it is important that people realise it's for a reason (to sustain the site) and not just some kind of arbitrary evil on the behalf of IBSurvival. In other words, it's not intended to be 'unfair' as the OP stated, or to stop people from still being able to gain help with the IB and I hope I explained that. I pointed out that they can still get help in the form of people responding to their forum topics so it's not the end of the world, even if they don't necessarily have access to the files - which yourself and others have clearly demonstrated on this thread by sharing some useful ideas!

I know very little about B&M as a subject, so quite honestly I have no advice to share. However I don't feel that not knowing about B&M should stop me from replying to answer the bits I am competent to shed light on, particularly when as a staff member it is pretty much my role to do so! I guess it 'wouldn't have killed me' to make something up, you are right on that front... but that's not really my style to bull**** people(!!) so I didn't! There are plenty of people on IBS who have taken B&M or who have it offered at their school and know something about it who will be much more competent to give suggestions of textbooks and so on than I am - so in recognition of their superior knowledge on that front, I shall leave it to them!

[rhapsodysiscaa]

I don't have anything to add as Djsporting gave you a really good advice. Nevertheless, I have some BM resources that I can share it to you. I don't really use it anymore since I'm done with IB. Feel free to PM me if you're interested