Exams
External assessments
The external assessment will account for 70% of the weighting for SL students, and 80% for HL students. This means the Internal Assessment (IA) for SL students carries 30% weighting, and 20% for HL students. The most noticeable change to the external assessment is the addition of a new Paper 3 exam.
The information below comes from the January 2021 publication "DP Business management - Curriculum review: Final summary report to teachers" (pages 2 - 3), which is available from My IB. The aim of Paper 1 and Paper 2 is to assess students’ knowledge of the IB Business Management syllabus.
The final schedule for the May 2025 exams can be downloaded from the IB using the link here.
Paper 1 (common paper for SL and HL) and Paper 3 (HL only) take place on Wednesday 30th April 2025 in the afternoon
Paper 2 (separate SL and HL papers) takes place on Friday 2nd May 2025 in the morning.
Summary of asssessments in IB Business Management
Component | Time (SL) | Weight (SL) | Time (HL) | Weight (HL) |
Paper 1 | 1 hour and 30 minutes | 35% | 1 hour and 30 minutes | 25% |
Paper 2 | 1 hour and 30 minutes | 35% | 1 hour and 45 minutes | 30% |
Paper 3 | - | - | 1 hour and 15 minutes | 25% |
Internal assessment | 20 hours | 30% | 20 hours | 20% |
Summary of external assessments
Paper 1 | Paper 2 | Paper 3 (HL only) |
Based on pre-released statement of around 200 words | Unseen stimulus material with quantitative focus | Unseen stimulus material about a social enterprise |
Common paper for both SL and HL, with qualitative focus | Separate paper for SL and HL | Requires explanation of human needs and organizational challenges |
Covers Units 1 to 5 of the syllabus, excluding HL extension and HL only topics | Covers Units 1 to 5 of the syllabus, including HL extension and HL only topics | Covers Units 1 to 5 of the syllabus, including HL extension and HL only topics |
Recommended 5 hours of research time | Application of the Business Management Toolkit (BMT) | Includes an extended response question, worth 17-marks based on a “plan of action” |
No HL content assessed | Section A has a quantitative focus (compulsory questions) | Candidates answer all three questions |
Total = 30 marks (SL & HL) | Total = 40 marks (SL) | Total = 25 marks |
A 4-function calculator is permitted for this examination paper | A 4-function calculator is required for this exam paper | A 4-function calculator is permitted for this examination paper |
No formula sheet | Formula sheet required | No formula sheet |
Answers are to be written on separate answer sheets* | Answers go in the answer booklet, provided as part of the exam paper# | Answers are to be written on separate answer sheets* |
*The rationale for this is that the response formats for the new Paper 1 and Paper 3 are mostly short questions and long response (essay) questions, so it makes sense to use the IB answer sheets.
#Paper 2 will require graphs and/or other accounting formats that would make it more convenient to write within the spaces provided in the question paper itself. Students must write their answers on the broken dotted lines within the boxed rectangular area on the question paper. However, additional answer sheets can be used if student need more space (perhaps due to an error made or because they need more space to write their extended response answer).
Please note that the Subject Area Manager has confirmed that calculators are permitted in all three examination papers (December 2022), despite this instruction not appearing in the May 2022 version of the guide.
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