Exam technique - Students should ‘Ajudge’ for high evaluation marks

A few Upper Sixth students have just left my classroom after a revision session ahead of BUSS3 and BUSS4 AQA exams. We came up with this useful mnemonic for the must do’s of evaluation, as we took a look through the examiners report from last summer’s BUSS3 paper.

Students should AJUDGE:

A - answer the question. It may seem obvious but look carefully at what the examiner is asking. Identify a particular point? Discuss the issues that will effect a particular course of action? Discuss the pros and cons of the course of action? Make sure you understand and answer the question set.

J - justify your answer, by giving reasons to back up your point of view. This can take the form of the use of relevant business theory, but should also be grounded in relevant information from the case study, which leads on nicely to U.

U - use the data provided to support you in making your points. A common criticism from examiners for BUSS3 seems to be the lack of use of information from the case study, which includes the Appendices contaning tables, graphs and charts. Interpret these and make use of them where relevant. OK, so we decided that the three above are absolutely compulsory. What else is in this mnemonic?

D - data. Is there any missing data that you would like to have had to help you make a more reasoned decision? If so, don’t be afraid to point this out to qualify your answer, but don’t use this as an excuse to avoid answering the question.

G - Give a third way. Sometimes (but not always) when the question asks whether or not you agree with a certain course of action, it may be possible to identify a third alternative that perhaps provides all the advantages but fewer or none of the disadvantages of one of the options available. If you can spot such an option then you can introduce this idea in to your answer.

E - Eliminate the downsides. Any course of action you recommend will have it’s downsides. For example, setting up a new operation in a new market segment with differentiated and high levels of service is pretty tricky when you are known for low cost, no-frills service by the public. The way around it might be to set up the new operation under a completely different brand name (though this of course comes at a financial cost). When you discuss the arguments against a course of action which you are nevertheless recommending, give ideas on how to overcome these issues.

I think that any student who can add two of three from the ‘DGE’ section to the three ‘givens’ in ‘AJU’ is going to score pretty highly in the evaluation department. Try it and see!