← Applying business knowledge to a complex global problem
Reading the notation
This standard has no formulas, but it does have a fixed vocabulary — the words the question uses decide which measure and which structure your answer needs.📖 Terms used in this standard
6 termsCover the right column and check you can say what each one means.
- Cause
- A specific fact from the resources that explains WHY the problem is happening — never a guess, always pointed at with a resource reference.
- Mechanism
- The chain of reasoning connecting a cause to its effect — HOW the cause actually produces the outcome, step by step.
- Effect on profit
- Revenue minus costs. Trace whether revenue or costs move, in which direction, and note that fixed costs continue regardless of volume — which is usually why profit moves by a LARGER percentage than revenue.
- Effect on market share
- The business's sales as a proportion of the TOTAL market — it can fall even while the business's own sales rise, if competitors or the market grow faster. Market share and profit are different measures; answering about one when the question names the other scores nothing.
- Recommendation
- A clear decision between two named options, backed by resource figures, the strongest point against it acknowledged, and new information that settles the choice.
- New information
- A consideration not already used earlier in the answer — a cost you calculated yourself, a risk, a timeframe, or a condition — used to settle the recommendation.