Dumbed Down Business Studies at OCR?

I’ve spent a couple of hours this evening looking through some materals we’ve had prepared to support centres entering students for the final OCR GCE A2 paper (Unit F297 - Strategic Management). I must admit, it is a somewhat depressing experience reading the pre-released case study issued by OCR for the 1 February 2010 sitting…

A year or two back, an OCR AS Bus case study (Hamster Hilton I think it was called) seemed to set a new standard in terms of a dumbed-down business example. But the F297 case study on “Candy Cabs” must be a strong contender for the most irrelevant test of strategic business understanding ever set in a UK exam hall at this level.

Two years of study (well - 18 months - since the course started in Sep 08) and OCR A2 students are presented with a “strategic” case study on a poxy taxi cab firm whose turnover is less than £1m. Its a shocker.

Part of the problem is that the case is wholly unrealistic. A professional, business angel claims that it is not worth a small business bothering with accounts - complete tosh as anyone who has ever dealt with a business angel knows full well. But its also the level the case is pitched at, and the language used, which is concerning. It reads like a GCSE paper, or perhaps like a more numerical version of an OCR applied business case. As a synoptic challenge for advanced A2 students? No chance.

Its interesting being able to compare the challenges being set for A2 students this year by AQA, Edexcel and OCR. The depth and stretch of the AQA & Edexcel synoptic units seems to be significantly greater than OCR.

For example, AQA students in Jan/Feb are pouring over the strategic issues faced by businesses trying to enter and compete effectively in emerging markets. Its a tough research task and there are many significant strategic issues raised. Add in some chunky topics on M&A activity and the leadership challenges of managing change in complex multinational businesses - and you have a recipe for a genuinely interesting and difficult synoptic unit. I have no doubt later challenges in BUSS4 will be similarly tough.

Giving A2 students a case study like Candy Cabs, by comparison, is almost an insult, in my view. Noddy & Big Ears Do Business Studies has finally found it into the A2 syllabus

I suppose one of the issues is that the F297 paper makes use of a made-up case study. Writing a fictitious case always increases the risk that the story is written to fit the spec rather than raise real-life, complex business issues.

Much better I think for A2 Examiners to use genuine businesses and provide students with a realistic strategic management challenge. Look around at what’s happening in the business press everyday - there is no shortage of fantastic strategic examples to use in an A2 synoptic paper. Businesses handling complex cultural and commercial change as a result of the downturn; businesses whose business models have been challenged by disruptive technologies; businesses that are growing through innovation and sheer persistence. A2 Business Students should expect to be examined on such firms as they demonstrate their end-of-course skills.

All of which makes the dumbed-down Candy Cabs such a disappointment.