I am currently teaching AS Business Studies.
I have been looking through the AQA Specimen Units and
Mark Schemes.
I am confused and now becoming more concerned that I
have been teaching my pupils incorrectly.
If anyone has a copy of the mark Schemes would you be
kind enough to turn to page 15?
The question is:
'To what extent might the 'Buy One Get One Free'
marketing disaster have been a result of poor market
research?'
Part of the marking guidelines says:
'Not a total disaster/not all restaurants were
affected and it gave plenty of publicity to the
company'
To me that seems totally irrelevant to the question.
If a pupil wrote that and I had not seen the marking
guidelines then I most definitely would have marked it
as incorrect.
Thus if there is a question:
"To what extent was the disastrous sales performance
as a result of Fred's decision to raise price?" (for
example) should I now advise pupils to query whether
it was indeed a disaster - even though that is not
relevant?
Equally on page 16 the question says:
Explain what is meant by:
'Overheads'
The answer given is:
"Costs which do not vary with output. Examples include
maintenance....."
This simply is not true as electricity can vary with
output and would be treated as a semi-variable. There
are such things as Variable Overheads and also Fixed
Overheads.
Another question says:
'Scunpool United is not a profitable business. Examine
the circumstances in which any business can survive
without profits'
(page 18)
Answer:
"The objectives of the directors of the business are
very important"
This semes to me to be irrelevant. If the question had
been "....in which a business may wish to survive
without profits..." then yes, but it was not.
Another question says:
'What is meant by 'Ltd'
(page 41)
the answer states:
Candidate could concentrate on either the 'Private' of
the 'Limited' elements.
Again the 'private' may be broadly relevant but
certainly not to be concentrated on.
The thing that really concerns me is that had I not
had a copy of the Specimen marking schemes I would
have marked the answers given above as 'wrong' and
thus would apparently be misleading my pupils. IF I am
correct (i.e. that these answers given are
incorrect)then by teaching my pupils 'the correct way'
I will have penalised/hindered their likely
examination performance.
This worries me and I would welcome comments from all
especially those teaching AQA.
DH
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