TCE Business Studies past exams 2021–2025, by year and topic

The rest of the syllabus

Question-level mapping for these areas is still being verified. Every official paper covering them is in the year table above.

• Unit 1 — The Business Environment — Economic and social roles of business; the four business functions and their interdependence · Business goals and objectives; sectors, scale, geographical spread and legal structures · Sources of debt and equity finance and their implications for a chosen business structure · Internal influences and external PESTLE influences on business decisions · Stakeholder interests and their potential conflict with business goals · Entrepreneurship, innovation, opportunity, risk, leadership, ethics and corporate social responsibility
• Unit 2 — Operations Management — Inputs, transformation processes and outputs; efficiency, quality, productivity and competitive advantage · Operational and strategic decisions, technology, scheduling and purchasing · Inventory control, dispatch, maintenance and quality-control systems · Just-in-time, total quality management and related operations practices · Outsourcing, offshoring, deskilling, contracts and intellectual property; social, environmental, legal and ethical issues
• Unit 3 — Human Resource Management — Purpose of HRM: attracting, motivating, developing, training and retaining a workforce · Workforce change, resistance to change, diversity and cross-cultural awareness · Employment contracts, National Employment Standards, Fair Work, equal opportunity and WHS obligations · The employment cycle: staffing needs, job design, recruitment, selection, induction and training · Performance management, agreements, restructuring, closure and separation · Employee rights and the ethical tension between individual and business goals
• Unit 4 — Financial Management — Balance sheets and income statements; assets, liabilities, equity, sales, cost of goods sold and expenses · Profitability ratios: gross profit ratio, net profit ratio and return on owner's equity · Gearing, current ratio and debtor collection period · Cash budgets as a planning tool: receipts, payments, cash flow and financing · Fixed and variable costs, contribution margin and cost-volume-profit (break-even) analysis · Fraud, disclosure, financial-stakeholder rights and ethical financial management
• Unit 5 — Marketing Management — Marketing's role and planning process; SWOT analysis and marketing objectives · Target-market identification using demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioural factors · Primary and secondary market research · The marketing mix: product, price, promotion and place; segmentation, differentiation, positioning and branding · Pricing methods and strategies; promotion, distribution and web-based marketing · Financial and non-financial marketing KPIs; consumer law and ethical or environmental questions in marketing
• Unit 6 — Business Inquiry: Feasibility Study (course work requirement, not examined) — The inquiry cycle: plan and organise, define and question, research, analyse and evaluate, reflect and communicate · Assessing the reliability, relevance and limitations of primary and secondary information · Investigating a business start-up, purchase or opportunity and evaluating its feasibility and ethical implications