Developing Exam Skills: BUSS2: Lessons Learnt from January

As BUSS2 approaches fast, what can we learn from Januarys exam?

Well, a quick look at the examiners reports provides some fascinating insights and advice.

It appears that a common weakness with the January paper was analysis and that many students were failing to direct their arguments back to the question itself and failing to fully explore their points. It is essential that students link all of their points to the actual question. Answering the question you are asked is most certainly the way to do this.

However, what I find most interesting is what I’ve been telling students both in the class room and at the recent revision conferences. Too many students are attempting to offer too many separate lines of reasoning rather than being selective and offering fewer but more developed points.

It stands to reason that in order to achieve good analysis, students must develop their points more fully. The way to achieve this is to write chunky paragraphs that are rich in connectives and then directed back to the actual question.

One of my trusted conference speaker colleagues told me this last week which sums up the above perfectly. He said students need to be the sniper. They need to be selective and make sure they pick and hit their target as opposed to using a machine gun and spraying several points that are a bit hit and miss. I think this is a wonderful way to explain the above points from the examiner’s report to students.

Again, examiners reports prove their worth and best of the all, they are free…………….