Blog
AQA BUSS4 - ‘with reference to *** plc and your own research ....’
13th May 2012
As you have doubtless been told numerous times, success in BUSS4 depends on having carried out your own research - this year, with a particular focus on mergers and acquisitions. Did you realise you cannot get a good grade in the first part WITHOUT explicitly using your research in your response?
We have just set a mock paper on the forthcoming BUSS4 module for our students based on the acquisition of Cadbury by Kraft. Although there are no past papers available for the June 2012 research theme on mergers and acquisitions, we can be certain that whatever the case study covers, the two questions in the first part will each require students to demonstrate explicit use of their own relevant research.
In fact, there are 14 marks (from a total of 40) for evaluation. You cannot get more than 5 for evaluation if there is not clear evidence of your own research. That means in practice that you cannot get over 77% for this question if you do not use your own research. In fact it is highly unlikely that you will reach L5 (good application and analysis) without your own research anyway, probably leaving you on course for a C grade at best.
The second section offers a choice of one from three essay questions. These questions offer only one or two sentences by way of background to the example given. Although it is not essential to offer other examples to get the marks here, you are taking a big risk if you are gambling on one of the questions being on a case study you already know inside out. For a balanced discussion, you really need to have other examples at your fingertips.
Over the last few weeks of revision before the BUSS4 paper, students need to take stock of their research examples. Your teachers will have provided you with case studies, there are plenty more on tutor2U and there is time to find more. We will be working with our students to help them compile their own table of a summary of the key facts about a range of takeovers and mergers - and about other key topics in the specification - so that they will be able to recall other case studies to support their answers in BUSS4.