BUSS1 - Lessons from June 2013

Examiners reports are full of exam gold and with the move to linear it essential that this gold is 'mined' effectively by students to ensure that they get it right first time next year.

The BUSS1 examiners report for the June 2013 sitting makes interesting reading along with some excellent advice on how students can maximise their chances of success in the BUSS1 exam. In summary, the key themes from the examiners report are as follows:

A noticeable improvement in analysis with many students providing some well developed arguments in the longer mark questions
A tendency for students to provide analysis which is superficial with students not discriminating in their choice of ideas to present

The above point is crucial. It is essential that students choose which arguments they are going to write about and ensure that the arguments that they do present are well developed. Far better to present two well developed arguments than four poorly developed ones. This leads on nicely to the next piece of advice from the examiners report:

(candidates should) read the questions carefully and plan their answers, to make sure that they keep focused. 

This is brilliant advice as the examiners report said that there was a distinct increase in the number of irrelevant answers in comparison to previous series.

In question 1, most students earned some credit for the definitions in questions 1a and 1b but many definitions lacked precision and were poorly expressed limiting the number of students earning maximum marks. Clear use of terminology is essential for these definitions
The breakeven calculation in the exam proved more challenging than expected with many students using total contribution as the denominator along with other incorrect formulas
Evidence of students not actually answering the question set
Common for students to provide detailed analysis but then to draw evaluative conclusions (in questions requiring evaluation)

Over the coming weeks and months I will be blogging some techniques and strategies which students can use to help address some of these key weaknesses and to help ensure they get it right first time.