Application skills: a few simple ideas

A few simple ideas to build this important examination skill

Up and down the country, I know many other Business Studies teachers are excitedly preparing for the arrival of their new students. Just like me, they are dusting off files, frantically photocopying and tidying out that bottom drawer that only gets emptied once a year. Perhaps the most difficult skill for these students to grasp if they are new to the subject is that of application, ensuring that their points are related to the case study in the examination. I therefore thought I would share some of the tasks and activities I have used in the past to build this skill with my AS groups.

1. Challenge the Statement
I find that sometimes new students can’t appreciate that all businesses are different and therefore giving them some statements to challenge can get them thinking about the differences between businesses, and therefore the importance of application….such as:
-Advertising and promotions will increase sales
Always? Would we queue all night to buy some more blu tack if we saw a really good advert for it? Would you buy two copies of a newspaper if it was buy one get one free?
-It is always best to locate a business away from competitors
So why are mobile phone shops and takeaways often on the same street?

This is a good way to introduce the idea of application as the students will often start to see that all businesses and markets are different

2. Student Examiner
This is an activity I will be doing in the first few weeks with my students to show the impact of application on their grades. They will be given a past paper (in this case BUSS1 from summer 2011) and two different responses to the same question:

Explain how the findings of Kate’s qualitative market research might have benefited her business (6 marks)

Candidate X
Qualitative market research means collecting information from customers that details their opinions and feelings. This may have benefited Kate’s business because by obtaining detailed information about customers feelings, Kate’s Catering have been able to better understand the needs of their customers. This should make it easier for Kate to start her business and make sure she is meeting the needs of her customers. She can therefore make changes to her business idea and hopefully be more successful.

Candidate Y
Kate conducted qualitative market research, which means she collected in-depth market information based upon customers’ opinions rather than statistical data. By speaking to businesses in Manford Kate discovered that many of them would prefer vegetarian options and that prompt delivery and friendly staff were more important than quality of the food. This meant she could focus her menu and service on the preferences of the businesses in Manford, which may make it easier for Kate’s catering to achieve their profit target of £20,000 per annum.

As experienced teachers, we can clearly see that candidate X has not applied their answer at all (just a bit of name dropping) whereas candidate Y’s response is well rooted in the case study. The students are given a copy of the mark scheme for the question and asked to grade each answer. Where most will recognise Y as the better answer, they are often surprised to see that candidate X is likely to achieve the low end of Level 2 (3/6 50%) where candidate Y’s response is likely to be a full mark answer. I have found this activity very powerful with new groups and helps to avoid the ‘name dropping’ type of application in future assessments.

3. The Tesco test
I have used this method for a long time, and I cant quite remember who I got it from. If you are reading this then I owe you a diet coke!! This is a very simple activity which works well with the previous one. Often a few vocal students believe candidate X has applied as they have used the names from the case study and the business name. The Tesco test is simple, students cross out the business name in candidate X’s answer (or one of their own answers) and replace it with Tesco. If it still makes sense, then it is unlikely they have applied their answer. They can then try it with candidate Y to see!

Hope these help and all the best for your new academic year and new students!