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OCR Economics Examining - Yet More Concerns
11th October 2012
We continue to receive communications from schools who are deeply concerned about the accuracy, consistency and quality of marking in AS and A2 economics papers. The focus today falls on OCR (once more!). Many schools with limited budgets simply cannot afford the expense of asking for express remarks, indeed one HoD told us that doing so threatened to blow the entire annual budget for books and other resources. And thousands of students cannot come close to affording the £100 fee for seeing if the exam board has made an error. Exam boards are happy to charge high prices for online exam seminars - I logged into the recent one offered by Edexcel - there were twenty one of us there and I fell asleep after the first hour, apparently the second hour was even worse!Here is another example of poor marking / assessment from the OCR. This school was confident that a number of their best students would achieve an A grade in their AS micro paper, the results were well below expectations and scrutiny of the returned scripts reveals poor marking and in some cases evidence that the examiner has not even read chunks of script. We are prepared to put onto the blog examples of poor marking when they are sent into us, not out of spite for the exam board industry but because students who have worked hard in a new subject deserve better. Incidentally the HMC has recently published a damming report on the state of examining in the UK, I recommend it to you and your colleagues. Here is the link for a download.
|
Candidate number and question part |
Mark scheme |
Candidate response – not credited |
|
Q1 |
Site for a fast food outlet |
Land on which to build restaurants |
|
Q2b |
Marks from the diagram labelled……’addition to consumer surplus’ |
Student labelled the correct area of diagram ‘increased consumer surplus’ NB another student was given credit for the words ‘extra consumer surplus’ on an identical diagram Another student WAS credited for the term ‘increased consumer surplus’ |
|
Q3a |
|
No credit given for identification of income factor |
|
Q4a |
YED is elastic in Japan/Demand in Japan is income-elastic (2) |
The income elasticity for fast food in Japan was 2, this means that it is income elastic |
|
Q5a |
a good which is over-consumed |
A good which is often over consumed |
|
Q2b |
Marks from the diagram labelled……’addition to consumer surplus’ |
Student labelled the correct area of diagram ‘increased consumer surplus’ NB another student was given credit for the words ‘extra consumer surplus’ on an identical diagram. Another student WAS credited for the term ‘increased consumer surplus’ |
|
Q5a |
a good whose consumption is more harmful than consumers actually realise |
A good that the consumers do not realise the true harmful effects of , it is worse for them than they realise |
|
Essay Q |
|
No marks on a continuation sheet to show the examiner had seen it, this sheet contained the alternative solutions ( level 4a) and the candidate was awarded 4b - a lower mark |
|
Q1 |
ingredients for fast-food |
Potatoes for chips |
|
Q3a |
Fast-food has become more socially acceptable (1 application |
Fast food becomes more fashionable – this term was written off the line - was it not read ? |
|
Q4b |
Fast-food is a normal /luxury/superior good in Japan (1) YED is elastic in Japan/Demand in Japan is income-elastic (2) |
In Japan the elasticity figure is 2, this shows that the good is a superior good and is elastic Only 1 mark given instead of 2 Concern : term in bold was in margin - examiner clearly did not read it |
|
Essay Q |
Mark scheme – ‘typical response in mark band 3…. For 11 / 12 marks Explanation of why demand falls, e.g. consumers made aware of harmful effects of consuming fast-food |
Candidate was awarded 10 marks, thus marking them ineligible for award of level 4 - 13 + marks . Their evaluation was therefore not credited by the examiner. However during their analysis the following para appears which SHOULD have moved the mark up to 11, thus triggering credit of evaluation and a move upward from 13 marks: ‘ if consumers are aware of the calorie content of the fast food they are consuming then some are likely to reduce their consumption or stop consuming altogether |
Geoff Riley
Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.