A2 Evaluation - Read the Question!

Along with ‘show your working’, I vividly remember my own teachers writing ‘RTQ’ or ‘Read the question!’ on my work in red ink.

This simple and important advice is often overlooked of course. It is more important than ever in A2 essay questions in Economics and in Business Studies.

The actual wording of A2 essay questions tends to be very brief, with just a little context given followed by a one or two sentence question, for example, from Business Studies (AQA BUSS4 Jan 2012):

Over the past few years, Nokia has been losing market share to more innovative smartphones, such as the Apple iPhone. Some analysts argue Nokia has been too cautious in its approach. To what extent will a ‘cautious’ business inevitably experience further falls in its market share? Justify your answer with reference to Nokia and/or other businesses that you know.

And, from Economics (AQA ECON4 Jan 2012)

The global economic slowdown in recent years saw UK unemployment, as measured by the claimant count, rise from 870,000 in 2004 to 1.5 million in 2009.

To what extent would a significant fall in the exchange rate of the pound sterling achieve a sustained reduction in unemployment in the UK? (25 marks)

In the first example, the key word is ‘inevitably’ whereas in the second, there are two: ‘significant’ and ‘sustained’. These words are the springboard for good evaluation. Building on good knowledge, application and analysis, you should be in a position to evaluate based on these words.

Your conclusion could read something like this:

... so, whilst a cautious business could in some cases lose out to another business that was able to build market share quickly through capitalising first mover advantage, in other cases, the greater degree of market testing undertaken by a more cautious business could reduce the chance of failure and therefore enable it to maintain or grow its market share. It is therefore far from inevitable that a more cautious business will experience further falls in market share.

In the second part of the ECON4 essay question, your conclusion could look like:

.. a significant fall in the exchange rate would, ceteris paribus, make UK goods and services more competitive in export markets and would therefore have a positive effect on jobs in industries that are significant exporters. Whether or not this effect would be sustained will depend on other factors as discussed earlier, such as the economic conditions in our export markets and the ability of UK firms to maintain their competitiveness; indeed, if our exporters seek greater efficiencies through becoming more capital intensive, the effect on unemployment could eventually become adverse.

In both these cases, I have skipped the essential building blocks of ‘chunky paragraphs’ containing knowledge, application and analysis in order to make the point about focussed evaluation.

It’s worth thinking about the conclusion that you are going to be leading to BEFORE you build your case. As teachers have been telling you for years, the key is in reading the question.