IB Business Management HLTopic 7 — Exam Skills and AssessmentPaper 3 (HL only)Exam skill~10 min read
Scoring Full Marks on 17-Mark Questions
The 17-mark question is the biggest single answer in the whole course, and the only one marked against four separate criteria. That is good news: you can see exactly where the marks are, and three of them are handed to anyone who puts their ideas in a sensible order.
📘 What you need to know
The command is recommend: weigh up a range of options and propose a plan of action for a stated objective.
Your answer needs at least three actions, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Each action should use a different business model or theory and evidence from the resources.
The actions must be organised into a plan, with the order justified.
It is marked on four criteria: A resources [4], B tools and theories [4], C evaluation [6], D sequencing [3].
Criterion C is the biggest, and the top band needs trade-offs between areas of the business to be considered.
Where the 17 marks sit
Most students write about the actions and forget that evaluation alone is worth more than the resources and the theories put together. Look at the split before you plan your answer.
Criterion C is the one that decides your grade, and it rewards trade-offs — what your plan costs the business elsewhere.
The six-part structure
🧩 Building the answer
Introduction. Summarise the enterprise’s situation in three or four lines and name the three actions you will recommend.
Action 1. Recommend it, support it with resource evidence, develop it with a theory, and add an evaluative comment on how effective it is likely to be.
Action 2. A different piece of evidence, a different theory, and a comment on the risk involved.
Action 3. Again new evidence and a new theory, plus a comment on how the risk could be reduced.
The plan. Say which action comes first, second and third, and why that order works.
Conclusion. Justify the plan overall, admit what might need adjusting, use an “it depends on” sentence, and point back at the objective in the question.
Sequencing is about dependency. The action that makes the others possible goes first. If the enterprise cannot deliver at scale, expanding marketing before fixing supply just creates disappointed customers.
A worked plan of action
WORKED EXAMPLE
Using the resources, recommend a plan of action for Bright Loom to double the number of weavers it supports over the next five years. Justify your recommendation. [17]
Bright Loom is a social enterprise that buys handwoven cloth from 240 rural weavers at above-market prices and sells finished homeware online. Resource 1 says demand grew 30% last year but 18% of orders arrived late. Resource 2 shows a surplus of $210,000 and no long-term debt. Resource 3 is an email from the operations manager warning that the single workshop is at capacity. Resource 4 reports that two rivals now sell similar cloth at lower prices.
Introduction — the situation and the plan
Bright Loom has demand it cannot serve. It should fix capacity, then recruit weavers, then protect its position with branding.
Action 1: open a second workshopThe operations manager says the workshop is at capacity (Resource 3) and 18% of orders are late (Resource 1). Capacity is the bottleneck.Using cost-benefit analysis, the $210,000 surplus (Resource 2) covers a second site without debt, though it uses most of the reserve.Action 2: recruit and train new weavers in a second regionDoubling to 480 weavers is the stated objective, and new regions widen the social impact rather than crowding existing suppliers.Applying Herzberg, fair pay alone will not retain them; training and recognition are the motivators that keep quality consistent.Action 3: build the brand around fair pay and craftTwo rivals undercut on price (Resource 4), so competing on cost would force down weaver pay and break the social mission.A differentiation strategy trades volume for margin, protecting the above-market prices that define Bright Loom.The plan — and why this orderWorkshop first, because more weavers with no capacity makes lateness worse. Recruitment second, once there is somewhere for the cloth to go. Branding third, in years three to five, funded by the higher sales the first two create.Conclusion — judgement, trade-offs and limitsThe plan reaches the objective but spends nearly all the surplus, so cash flow becomes tight in years one and two. It depends on demand holding at 30% growth; if it slows, the second workshop should be rented rather than bought. The resources give no rent figures and no weaver retention data, so the cost side is uncertain.Three actions, four resources, three theories, ordered and judgedEvery criterion is visible: resources cited, theories named, trade-offs weighed, order justified.
Read the whole resource pack before you write — give it ten minutes. It is the first time you see it in full, and the contradictions between an optimistic overview and a worried internal email are exactly what evaluation feeds on.
How the criteria are banded
Criterion
Weak
Strong
A — Resources
Two or three used, or used superficially
All resources referred to and used to support the plan
B — Tools and theories
Named but applied superficially
Appropriate theories applied effectively to the plan
C — Evaluation
Largely descriptive, little judgement
Impact evaluated and trade-offs between areas considered
D — Sequencing
Ideas present but not clearly ordered
A clear, coherent plan of action in a justified order
💡 Exam tip
Plan for five minutes before writing. Three actions, one theory each, and the order — that is the whole plan.
Cite resources by number. “(Resource 4)” is proof of Criterion A and costs three words.
Use a different theory per action. Repeating the same model gives the examiner nothing new to credit.
Evaluate inside each action, not only at the end. Criterion C is worth six marks and cannot be earned in one sentence.
Name the trade-off. Every plan costs something elsewhere — cash, focus, staff, or the social mission.
Always write the sequencing paragraph. Three marks, one paragraph, no research needed.
⚠ Common mix-up
Recommending one big action. The question wants a plan, which means at least three linked actions.
Listing actions with no order. That is Criterion D thrown away.
Using only the financial resource. The email and the industry report carry just as many marks.
Describing the enterprise instead of recommending what it should do next.
Forgetting the social mission. A profitable plan that damages it needs that cost stated openly.
Leaving no time. This question is 17 of the 25 marks in Paper 3, so it deserves most of the paper.
Up next: go back to What Paper 1 Asks For and re-plan your timing for all three papers now that you know exactly what each question type is asking of you.
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