Preparing for the pre-seen case study: N-Pharma
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The first of two blogs on teaching and learning strategies for the pre-seen case study 2010…
The Paper 1 Examination
Paper 1 is ‘difficult’ in that it seeks extensive analytical and critical thinking skills. The N-Pharma case study paper will assess a student’s skills of problem identification, data handling and analysis, critical thinking, judgemental ability, logical reasoning and justified decision making.
The guidelines here should enable students to be better prepared to tackle the Paper 1 questions in the exam. It is by no means an exhaustive set of guidelines and alternative or additional approaches can be used, as suggested by your teachers.
What to do with the N-Pharma Case Study
1. Make a copy of the case study - one as an original reference and one to write notes on. You may want to photocopy this on A3 paper so that there is more space for you to make notes at the sides. Key theories, decisions, constraints, opportunities or problems can be written in the margins for future reference.
2. Read through the N-Pharma case study carefully to get an overall feeling and idea about the business, the people involved and the problems the business faces. Do this twice!
3. Make sure that you understand all the issues arising from the case study. Use a dictionary to look up key terms or words that you do not understand.
4. Use one copy of the case study to highlight all possible key terms. Make sure that you can define each and every one of these terms in the context of the N-Pharma case study. Definition questions will appear in the examination.
5. Try answering some of the Practise Questions from past exam papers (in the context of the N-Pharma case study). Your teachers can download some sample ‘mock’ exam papers for N-Pharma on the OCC resources section.
Whilst answering P1 questions, it is important to remember the following:
• Avoid copying large chunks of the N-Pharma case study, even if these are in quotation marks, as this wastes time and does not really reveal a candidate’s level of understanding.
• Information and quantitative data presented in the case study should be used to support written answers.
• Refer to the mark allocations for each question when writing your answers.
Source: adapted from Business and Management – for use with the IB Diploma Programme, by Paul Hoang, IBID Press, ISBN: 978-1-876659-63-9
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