VCE Vault

VCE Business Management past exams 2023–2025

Every question from the last three VCE Business Management exams, matched to the lesson that teaches it, with class averages from the examiners' reports and worked solutions. VCE Business Management (Year 12) lessons.

2025 Exam

  • A1a (2 marks, class average 85%): One difference between retirement and redundancy. Lesson: Termination Management — Entitlements and Transition
  • A1b (3 marks, class average 57%): One driving force behind the sale of a small pet supply business. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External
  • A1c (4 marks, class average 63%): One advantage and one disadvantage of high-risk strategies for overcoming resistance to change. Lesson: Low-Risk Change Strategies — Senge's Learning Organisation
  • A2a (3 marks, class average 47%): How a pilates studio manager with a persuasive style used decision-making. Lesson: Management Skills — Communication to Emotional Intelligence, Management Styles — From Autocratic to Laissez-faire
  • A2b (3 marks, class average 53%): One dispute resolution process the pilates studio could have used. Lesson: Workplace Relations — Awards, EBAs and Dispute Resolution
  • A2c (3 marks, class average 60%): Propose and justify a strategy to develop a positive culture at a pilates studio after a dispute. Lesson: Corporate Culture — Official vs Real
  • A2d (3 marks, class average 57%): Why corporate social responsibility matters when a business implements change. Lesson: Corporate Social Responsibility in Operations, Leadership in Change — Transformational Leadership
  • A3 (6 marks, class average 50%): Analyse why leadership matters in change management, using a contemporary case study. Lesson: Leadership in Change — Transformational Leadership
  • A4a (3 marks, class average 63%): Why a rising level of wastage worries a vegetarian meal manufacturer. Lesson: Key Performance Indicators — Financial and Non-Financial
  • A4b (4 marks, class average 40%): How Total Quality Management could reduce negative reviews at a vegetarian meal maker. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality
  • A4c (6 marks, class average 60%): Discuss performance-related pay as a way to motivate staff at a vegetarian meal maker. Lesson: Motivation Strategies — Pay, Career, Investment, Support
  • A5 (10 marks, class average 53%): Examine how global sourcing, overseas manufacture and global outsourcing can make businesses efficient and effective. Lesson: Global Operations — Outsourcing and Supply Chains
  • B1 (2 marks, class average 85%): Evidence the minigolf manager is taking a reactive approach to change. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External
  • B2 (3 marks, class average 43%): Distinguish manufacturing processes from the processes at a minigolf course. Lesson: Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • B3 (4 marks, class average 50%): Motivating the staff left at the minigolf course with Locke and Latham's theory. Lesson: Motivation Theories — Maslow, Locke & Latham, Lawrence & Nohria
  • B4 (4 marks, class average 50%): How Senge's Learning Organisation could support change at the minigolf course. Lesson: Low-Risk Change Strategies — Senge's Learning Organisation
  • B5 (6 marks, class average 57%): Evaluate a consultative management style for the tasks at the minigolf course. Lesson: Management Styles — From Autocratic to Laissez-faire
  • B6 (6 marks, class average 42%): How the manager could apply Lewin's Force Field Analysis before deciding on six new holes. Lesson: Lewin's Force-Field Analysis

2024 Exam

  • A1a (2 marks, class average 60%): Describe one element of the operations system at a frozen food manufacturer. Lesson: Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • A1b (3 marks, class average 67%): One low-risk strategy to overcome staff resistance to new technology at a frozen food maker. Lesson: Low-Risk Change Strategies — Senge's Learning Organisation
  • A1c (6 marks, class average 65%): How a frozen food maker could minimise waste in production with reduce, reuse and recycle. Lesson: Corporate Social Responsibility in Operations, Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • A1d (4 marks, class average 55%): Discuss Porter's differentiation approach for a frozen food maker trying to sell more. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External, Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • A2a (2 marks, class average 70%): Define quality in operations management. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality
  • A2b (4 marks, class average 53%): Compare effectiveness and efficiency. Lesson: Operations Management — Four Key Elements, Business Types, Objectives and Stakeholders
  • A2c (3 marks, class average 63%): How AI or computer-aided design could make a surfwear manufacturer more efficient. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality
  • A2d (6 marks, class average 48%): How a surfwear business could apply two of Senge's principles to build a positive culture for change. Lesson: Low-Risk Change Strategies — Senge's Learning Organisation
  • A3a (3 marks, class average 43%): One way a formal wear hire business could improve CSR in its operations system. Lesson: Corporate Social Responsibility in Operations
  • A3b (4 marks, class average 60%): Two restraining forces slowing a formal wear business's move to online services. Lesson: Lewin's Force-Field Analysis
  • A3c (3 marks, class average 50%): Justify using Lewin's Three-step Change Model for a formal wear business's move online. Lesson: Lewin's Force-Field Analysis
  • A4 (10 marks, class average 40%): Analyse how managing employees affects whether business objectives are met, using a contemporary case study. Lesson: Motivation Strategies — Pay, Career, Investment, Support, Training — On-the-Job vs Off-the-Job, Performance Management — Appraisal, Self-Evaluation, 360°, Termination Management — Entitlements and Transition
  • B1 (2 marks, class average 60%): How the CEO could use planning to put one of her changes in place. Lesson: Management Skills — Communication to Emotional Intelligence
  • B2 (3 marks, class average 57%): Interpret the relationship between website hits and market share. Lesson: Key Performance Indicators — Financial and Non-Financial
  • B3 (4 marks, class average 50%): A conflict between two stakeholder groups as the climbing centre rebuilds its reputation. Lesson: Business Types, Objectives and Stakeholders
  • B4 (6 marks, class average 55%): Evaluate the CEO's management style as she brings in changes. Lesson: Management Styles — From Autocratic to Laissez-faire
  • B5 (4 marks, class average 53%): Why reviewing KPIs matters for judging whether the change has worked. Lesson: Key Performance Indicators — Financial and Non-Financial
  • B6 (6 marks, class average 58%): Discuss on-the-job training for the climbing centre's staff. Lesson: Training — On-the-Job vs Off-the-Job

2023 Exam

  • A1a (2 marks, class average 75%): Define corporate social responsibility. Lesson: Corporate Social Responsibility in Operations
  • A1b (4 marks, class average 60%): How two lean management principles could cut waste at a stadium seating manufacturer. Lesson: Operations Management — Four Key Elements, Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality
  • A1c (3 marks, class average 57%): One disadvantage of using agreements instead of awards to set wages. Lesson: Workplace Relations — Awards, EBAs and Dispute Resolution
  • A2a (4 marks, class average 48%): Justify a juice maker becoming a public listed company instead of staying a partnership. Lesson: Business Types, Objectives and Stakeholders
  • A2b (4 marks, class average 57%): How Porter's differentiation strategy could help a juice maker deliver what its shareholders expect. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External, Business Types, Objectives and Stakeholders
  • A3 (6 marks, class average 47%): Compare Maslow's hierarchy with one other motivation theory, using a quote about money as a motivator. Lesson: Motivation Theories — Maslow, Locke & Latham, Lawrence & Nohria
  • A4a (3 marks, class average 50%): One materials management strategy a bread manufacturer could use to make its inputs more efficient. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality, Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • A4b (4 marks, class average 55%): How an automated production line could make a bakery's processes both more efficient and more effective. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality, Operations Management — Four Key Elements
  • A4c (4 marks, class average 50%): Propose and justify a quality strategy to make a bakery's outputs more effective. Lesson: Operations Strategies — Technology, Materials, Quality
  • A5 (6 marks, class average 53%): Analyse proactive and reactive approaches to change, using a contemporary case study. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External
  • B1 (6 marks, class average 68%): Two management skills the airline's CEO has used, and how. Lesson: Management Skills — Communication to Emotional Intelligence
  • B2 (3 marks, class average 50%): One way to build the airline's corporate culture once the change is done. Lesson: Corporate Culture — Official vs Real
  • B3 (6 marks, class average 38%): Compare transition and entitlement considerations for staff leaving the airline. Lesson: Termination Management — Entitlements and Transition
  • B4 (10 marks, class average 37%): Analyse how KPIs and management strategies relate during the airline's change. Lesson: Key Performance Indicators — Financial and Non-Financial, Leadership in Change — Transformational Leadership
  • B5 (6 marks, class average 52%): Two driving forces (not profit) behind the airline's change. Lesson: Drivers of Change — Internal vs External
  • B6 (4 marks, class average 70%): How the airline's change affects two stakeholder groups. Lesson: Business Types, Objectives and Stakeholders, Corporate Social Responsibility in Operations