BUSS4 in June 2012: An Examiner’s Perspective

Many teaching collagues who read the Business Studies Blog prepared their students for the AQA BUSS4 exam in June 2012. We’ve been sent this perspective from a BUSS4 examiner who has kindly agreed to pass on feedback about his/her experience of marking BUSS4 this summer. For obvious reasons, the examiner has asked to remain anonymous.

MARKING BUSS4 IN JUNE 2012

Like many A2 teachers, at lunchtime on Thursday 21st June I breathed a huge sigh of relief. BUSS4 was over, the students thought the questions were fair and accessible and I agreed. I had sent them into the exam with mental suitcases filled with relevant and clever examples. BUSS4 was over for another year….

The next day I got a call from reception to tell me that some parcels had arrived for me and like a child at Christmas I more or less skipped off to reception to collect what I was sure was next year’s stationery order. Instead I was faced with 250 BUSS4 scripts that it had seemed such a good idea to agree to at the time. And so it began.

I have marked for AQA before at AS and having never marked BUSS4 before I was interested to see the common mistakes that pupils make which I felt could only improve my teaching. I was so surprised at the experience that I felt the need to write about it in order to help both teachers and students in future years.

I’m not sure if it was just a coincidence or a reflection of the country as a whole that the papers I marked were a fairly low standard.

Here are some reflections on the papers I marked:

1. It is not Jackanory (or Bedtime Hour on CBeebies)

After two weeks of marking BUSS4, I had read at least forty essays that were a story of a merger or takeover (usually Kraft and Cadbury) that had been learnt exceptionally well. Pointless details such as the time the deal was agreed or the colour pen the deal was signed with should NEVER feature in an essay but both surprisingly did!

I know I am guilty of stressing the importance of having examples to my students but some seem to have taken this to extremes. Clever application will merely be used to illustrate a point especially if it can be used to show contrast (e.g. Daimler and Chrysler struggled due to culture issues but Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s used culture as a way to improve both businesses).

2. Analysis

Whilst most, but certainly not all, candidates moved up into reasonable application, far fewer were able to match that in terms of analysis and this links to my first point of storytelling.

Explaining what happened is not analysis. I almost felt some candidates needed to forget they had even used an example and go back to analysing their original point ie. What COULD happen as a consequence not what DID happen in the case of Company X or Y (however this can of course be added in to the argument to gain more application marks).

3. Evaluation

Four out of the five questions contained the word “you”. The examiner wants to know your opinion. This is not an essay that should be based solely on fact. “What are the advantages and disadvantages of…….?” is a very different question to “To what extent do you believe that…….is the best way”.

Yet I only marked one essay which reached level 3 for evaluation. Some students had obviously been taught to use “it depends on” which enabled them to move into mark band 2 but others ended their essays with brief statements that questioned the use of key words such as “inevitable” however some chose to say “yes takeovers and mergers do inevitably improve performance” after giving three or four examples of those that had failed.

Good evaluation cannot be repeated parrot fashion, it needs to be thought through in the exam and tailored to the question.

4. Hooks

Teachers tell students to read the questions carefully but many candidates simply did not answer the question that was being asked.

For example, Question 4 asked “To what extent is targeting emerging markets for sales the best way for businesses to achieve a major growth in their profits?” and many students simply read emerging markets and wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of targeting emerging markets.

Candidates need to consider the key words - the essay hooks. “The best way” implies that there are other ways to be considered and this is what the examiner wants you to explore in your example.

5. Choose the RIGHT question

I have to say the majority of the candidates I marked from Section B had chosen to answer Question 3, which to me was the worst question of the three and I breathed a sigh of relief when only 3 of my own students said they had answered that one.

I believe that the majority of students chose to answer it because it was familiar territory (Acer and the tablet market) and indeed lots of the answers focused on this example. To get Reasonable Application there has to be evidence of research and many of the answers I marked were applied well to Acer but did not use other businesses.

Consider the questions fully before you start them. Plan your answers all the way through to the end – you need examples for both sides of your argument in addition to the one you have been given.

To finish, candidates need to remember to use the time and the space. BUSS4 is a great exam to discuss and share your ideas. Your opinion can’t be wrong because it is just that, your opinion. The only way you’ll suffer is if you don’t express an opinion or sit on the fence!