How the AS90845 paper works
The format, which has not changed
- One booklet, one task in four parts, (a) to (d). Attempt all of them.
- The paper gives you:
- Background information about a hypothetical large business — what it does, where, and what has recently changed
- Resources A to D — news extracts, market information, internal proposals, and definitions (often of Māori business concepts)
- You answer on that business. Unlike AS90843 and AS90844, you do not bring in a business you have studied.
The repeating shape of the four parts
| Part | What it asks | What it is testing |
|---|---|---|
| (a)(i) | Why a stated change is a threat to the business | Causes and effects |
| (a)(ii) | How the same change could be an opportunity, or how the threat affects sales and profitability | Both sides of one fact |
| (b)(i) | Identify and explain TWO solutions the business could implement | A range of possible solutions |
| (b)(ii) | How each solution would address the problem | Fully explaining how each works |
| (b)(iii) | Justify, with TWO reasons, which solution would be more successful | A fully justified recommendation |
| (c) | A second critical problem, from a different resource | Causes and effects again |
| (d) | Two more solutions, and a second justification | Recommendation again |
- So the paper is really two problems, each with two solutions and one recommendation. Once you know that, you can plan the whole booklet in the reading time.
How to use the reading time
- Read all the resources before writing anything. The paper says so, and part (c) usually depends on a resource introduced after part (a).
- Name the two critical problems in the margin — one for (a)–(b), one for (c)–(d).
- For each, jot the chain: cause → effect → why it threatens continuation.
- For each, jot two solutions that are genuinely different — not two versions of "advertise more".
- Decide which solution you will recommend and why, before you start writing (b)(i), so that everything you write about the solutions builds towards it.
Two solutions must be genuinely different
- The marks in (b) and (d) depend on the solutions being distinct approaches, because you have to argue that one is better than the other.
- A reliable way to get two different solutions is to take them from different parts of the business:
- a product solution (change what is sold)
- a marketing solution (change how it is sold or to whom)
- an operations solution (change how it is made or delivered)
- a people solution (change who does it, or how they are led and paid)
- a financial solution (change pricing, costs, or how the business is funded)
- Pick two from different rows and they cannot collapse into each other.
Timing
- Four parts, roughly equal weight. Do not spend half the time on part (a).
- Parts (b)(iii) and (d)(iii) are where Excellence is earned. Leave enough time to write two developed reasons in each — an unfinished justification is the most expensive thing you can leave on the page.