Table of Contents
Analysis of Potential B203 Exam Topics 2015
I've got copies of all of the previous past papers for B203, and also some specimen papers too.
I've read through the papers and tabulated the broad areas of theory that have come up in the last four years. I didn't go any further back because the course director changed in 2011-12 and the 2012 exams have a slightly different format from the previous ones. Also I could see a difference in the types of questions asked.
The entries below are ordered by the number of times that they've come up, with Part B questions prioritised over the Part A questions (because each question is 25 marks in Part B and only 10 in Part A). Obviously there could be something completely new appear in 2015, so don't restrict yourself to just these topics.
Operations
- Lean & TQM (2013 & 2014 Part B questions)
- Location decisions
- quality control
- new product design
- Capacity planning
- performance
- planning & control
Finance & Accounting
- cash flow / balance sheet / income statement
- optimisation / break-even
- Sources of finance
- types of costs (direct-indirect; full; job)
- financial vs management accounting
- use of models in capital investment decisions
- budgeting
Information Management
- technology components of information systems
- Information & Process
- Porter's Five Forces
- Data, Capta, Information & Knowledge
- Information systems strategies
- IM as a function
- decision support systems
Marketing
- Customer decision process
- Marketing communications programme
- Market segmentation & targetting
- Marketing Mix (and use to differentiate)
- Macro-environmental analysis
- Marketing strategy
Human Resources
- recruitment & selection
- strategic total reward systems
- theoretical perspectives on HR Management
- resource based view
- psychological contract
- performance & development
- employee relationship
