IB Business Management HLTopic 7 — Exam Skills and AssessmentPaper 2Exam skill~8 min read
What Paper 2 Asks For
Paper 2 is the numbers paper. Nothing is released in advance, the case studies are short, and most questions hang off a table of figures. It is the biggest paper of the three, and the one where careful working earns marks even when the final answer goes wrong.
📘 What you need to know
Paper 2 has two sections, lasts 1 hour 45 minutes and is worth 50 marks.
It is 30% of your final grade — the largest single chunk.
Questions come from any part of the HL syllabus, so HL-only tools can and do appear.
All case studies are unseen and have a quantitative focus.
Section A is 30 marks: three sets of structured questions, all compulsory. Expect define, state, calculate and explain.
Section B is 20 marks: two sets of questions, you answer one. It ends with a discuss question worth 10 marks.
How the paper is built
Section A is a set of short, sharp questions across three different mini case studies. You answer everything. Section B gives you a choice of two longer sets, and only one of them is marked — so the choice matters.
Two minutes a mark is a tight budget, which is why calculations must be quick and neat rather than beautiful.
Section A: three case studies, no choice
Each set starts with a short scenario and a table of financial or market data. The questions are worth 2 or 4 marks each and often follow a pattern: define a term, pull a figure out of the table, calculate something with it, then explain what the answer means for the business.
The table is not decoration. If a figure is printed in the case study, the examiner expects it to appear somewhere in your answers. Unused data is usually a sign you have missed a mark.
Calculations: where the easy marks live
A calculate question is normally worth 2 marks: one for the correct working and one for the correct final answer. That split is generous. Even if you slip on the arithmetic, laid-out working still earns you a mark. A bare number with no working can only ever earn one.
The order most Paper 2 calculations follow
total revenue − total costs = profit
WORKED EXAMPLE
Calculate the profit made by Northgate Bakery last year, showing all your working. [2]
Northgate Bakery sold 1,240 celebration cakes last year at a selling price of $18 each. Each cake had a variable cost of $7. Fixed costs for the year were $9,500.
Step 1: revenue1,240 × $18 = $22,320Step 2: total variable costs1,240 × $7 = $8,680Step 3: total costs$8,680 + $9,500 = $18,180Step 4: profit$22,320 − $18,180Profit = $4,140Label every line. The examiner is looking for the method, and a labelled line is a mark even if the number after it is wrong.
Write your units. A profit of “4,140” is not the same as “$4,140”, and in a paper built on money the currency sign is part of a correct answer.
Section B: one set, one big discuss
Section B gives you two sets of questions and you answer one. Each set is worth 20 marks, and half of that sits in a single discuss question worth 10. The short questions warm you up on the case; the discuss question is where the grade is won.
“Comment on” appears here too. It is worth 2 marks and asks for a point made in context that uses at least one piece of data — a percentage, a figure, or something about how the data was collected.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Comment on the results of Northgate Bakery’s customer survey. [2]
Northgate Bakery emailed a survey to its 900 registered customers. 216 replied. Of those, 68% said delivery was too slow and 41% said prices had risen too far.
Step 1: make a point in context
Delivery speed is the bakery’s biggest weakness, not price.
Step 2: back it with data from the source68% named delivery, against 41% for priceStep 3: add a comment on the data itselfOnly 216 of 900 replied, a response rate of 24%Point + data + a note on how reliable it isA comment that mentions how the data was gathered is worth as much as one that quotes it.
Timing
WORKED EXAMPLE
Plan how to spend the 105 minutes of Paper 2.
Step 1: time per mark105 minutes ÷ 50 marks = 2.1 minutes per markStep 2: split by sectionSection A: 30 marks × 2.1 = 63 minutesSection B: 20 marks × 2.1 = 42 minutesStep 3: protect the 10-mark discuss58 min Section A • 5 min reading Section B • 42 min Section BRoughly 20 minutes of that Section B time belongs to the discuss question alone.
💡 Exam tip
Read both Section B options before writing. Pick the one whose discuss question you can argue from both sides.
Set calculations out in lines, one step per line, each one labelled. Never do it all in your head.
Copy figures out of the table carefully. A transposed digit costs the answer mark on every question after it.
Round only at the end, and say what you have rounded to.
Answer the “so what”. After a calculation, an explain question usually follows — say what the number means for that business.
Keep an eye on the clock at the halfway point. If Section A is not nearly done at 55 minutes, move on.
⚠ Common mix-up
Confusing revenue with profit. Revenue is money in; profit is what survives the costs.
Confusing variable cost per unit with total variable cost. Multiply by output before adding fixed costs.
Giving only the answer. No working means the method mark is gone for good.
Treating “state” like “explain”. State needs no reasons, so writing them wastes minutes you need later.
Ignoring the units. Percentages, dollars, days and units are not interchangeable.
Starting Section B with the discuss question and running out of time for the short questions, which are the quickest marks in the section.
Up next: What Paper 3 Asks For — the HL-only paper, built around a social enterprise and one very large recommendation.
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