Business Management subject report · May 2009

May 2009 extended essay reports Page 1 © International Baccalaureate Organization 2009 BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT Overall grade boundaries Grade: E D C B A Mark range: 0 - 7 8 - 15 16 - 22 23 - 28 29 - 36 The range and suitability of the work submitted The range and suitability varied considerably both between centres and within centr es. Some candidates produced very interesting, well researched pieces in terms o f sources and the use of critical thinking / evaluative skills combined with well substantiated conclusions and recommendations. While such a range is somewhat expected, there were some noticeable reasons for candidates not performing perhaps as well as they could have done. The most noticeable issue observed by many examiners was the fact that students in some centres based their research solely or mainly on primary sources. It was disappointing to see that in some centres the new emphasis was not followed despite a clear interest and knowledge of the students. Basing the essay solely on primary research affected studen ts’ performance to various extents in criteria C, D, and K . Some supervisors commented on how difficult as well as time consuming it was for their students to carry out their primary research. These difficulties could have been avoided had the students changed the focus of their research. The focus has been chang ed to ‘ Students should use as the basis of their extended essay secondary data supported, where appropriate , by primary research ’. The new focus was agreed by senior examiners in order to: distinguish the EE from the IA acknowledge the difficulty of students in various parts of the world in gaining access to real organisations. Hence, the expectation now is that the students produce a more academic research paper with the main focus on secondary data. Please not e that with the new focus, it is expected th at the candidates use a variety of secondary sources and do not solely or mainly use text books/ theoretical internet sites as their secondary sources. Some examples of possible sources are given in the new guide . In some centres, the research questions we re very similar and identical