Try these eight original questions in order and write your working before opening each answer. They practise the four lessons in SPM subjects and learning resources. For timed practice, use the timed original practice session builder.
Questions
1. A fictional enterprise repairs bicycles for primary school children. Name the customer and one problem for a need statement.
Answer
Customer: parents of primary school children who cycle to school. Problem: a broken chain or flat tyre leaves the child unable to cycle, and the nearest shop is far. A reason: the parent loses time taking the bicycle elsewhere.
2. Is “people will like our cakes” a need, an idea or an assumption?
Answer
An assumption. It is a belief about customers with no number, test or named problem.
3. Rewrite as a measurable objective: “We want to sell a lot of cakes soon.”
Answer
“Sell 40 cakes a week by the end of month 2.” It has a number and a time, so it can be checked.
4. A fictional cake stall sold 18 cakes on one trial day and 22 on another. Find the average and say whether it supports an objective of 40 a week, if the stall opens six days a week.
Answer
Average = (18 + 22) ÷ 2 = 20 cakes a day. In six days that is 20 × 6 = 120 cakes, so 40 a week is comfortably possible, provided trial days are typical.
5. A questionnaire of 30 people found that 18 would pay RM5 for a cake. A trial sale at RM5 found that 10 of 30 people bought. Which is stronger evidence and why?
Answer
The trial sale, because people actually paid. The gap is 18 − 10 = 8 people who said yes but did not buy.
6. A stall opens a month with RM1 200. It receives RM2 100 and pays RM1 850. Find the closing balance.
Answer
1 200 + 2 100 − 1 850 = RM1 450.
7. In the next month, sales are RM2 500, but RM900 is on credit and unpaid. Cash paid is RM1 600. Show that cash received and sales tell different stories.
Answer
Cash received = 2 500 − 900 = RM1 600. Cash received minus cash paid = 1 600 − 1 600 = RM0, so cash does not change. Sales minus cash paid = 2 500 − 1 600 = RM900, which looks like a gain but has not arrived as cash.
8. Label each claim as assumption or tested observation: (a) “Office workers prefer lunch boxes.” (b) “We sold 27 lunch boxes at an office on Friday.” (c) “Ingredients per box cost RM4.50 from receipts.”
Answer
(a) Assumption, because it is a belief with no count. (b) Tested observation, since it has a number, a place and a day. (c) Tested observation, taken from receipts.
If you got these wrong
- Questions 1 and 2: reread explaining the need behind an enterprise idea.
- Questions 3 and 4: reread linking an objective to supporting evidence.
- Questions 6 and 7: reread reading a fictional cash-flow example.
- Questions 5 and 8: reread distinguishing an assumption from a tested observation.
If you want a teacher to set fresh examples and read your explanations, see online one-to-one Entrepreneurship tuition.