Business

This video looks at how the general assessment principles are applied to GCSE Business. It considers the importance of assessment objectives and how they are used in questions and the role of different question types in the exam. The video considers quantitative skills in the development of Business assessments and provides insights into how items are created.

Transcript

Welcome to this AQA training video exploring assessment for GCSE Business. My name is Vicky Donnelly, and I am the Lead Examiner for GCSE Business Paper 2. As Lead Examiner I get to see hundreds of student responses to questions. This gives me invaluable knowledge of the principles behind good assessment and what works for our students. I am delighted to be able to share some of this knowledge with you in this training session.

Hopefully, you will have already watched the AQA introductory video on the general principles of assessment and will be familiar with some of these principles. In this presentation, I'm going to look at how those principles are applied to GCSE Business and contribute to the development of high-quality assessments. In particular, I'm going to explain the importance of Assessment Objectives and quantitative skills in the development of valid GCSE Business assessments which are comparable from one year to the next.  I will then move onto the role of the item or source, the distinct types of question and the development of question stems. Here we will look at how to avoid construct irrelevance and construct under-representation and ensure differentiation in assessments. During the session you will have the opportunity to complete several tasks to apply the principles yourself.

When developing assessments in GCSE Business, the aim is to ensure that these assessments conform to the fundamental principles of assessment. Academic assessments aim to measure a student’s knowledge, understanding, and skills. Firstly, assessments should be valid. In other words, they must measure what they're supposed to measure. They should be consistent, and different assessments and different examiners should provide the same student with the same result. This is vital in GCSE Business where two papers are produced by different lead assessment writers. Assessments should be comparable. This means that exam papers from different years, or where different content is assessed within a paper, should ensure that standards are maintained across and within assessments. As paper 1 and paper 2 assess different areas of the GCSE Business specification the level of demand must be scrutinised to check for equality across both papers.

Construct irrelevance refers to including the assessment of unintended constructs within the assessment itself, that could get in the way of understanding the task. This could include high level language in the question. In GCSE Business, there is a lot of subject-specific terminology to learn, and often it’s the understanding of this that is being assessed in the question. So, there is a need for some language that would look difficult to those who’ve not studied the course, as it’s in the specification. But question writers need to ensure the general language of the question doesn’t create an extra level of challenge for students.

In GCSE Business, underrepresentation of certain areas could occur. For example, if all analysis questions focused on methods of advertising, missing out all the other methods of promotion. Lead assessment writers therefore need to ensure there is a more varied spread so that a fuller picture of a student’s learning can be gained.

Assessment Objectives.

To begin with, let’s look at how Assessment Objectives have been designed to reflect the nature of business and ensure GCSE assessments are therefore valid.   Any subject content from the specification may be assessed by any of the Assessment Objectives. This helps to mitigate against predictability and ensure the appropriate coverage of specification content over time. As you will know, high mark tariff questions that require extended writing are targeted at more than one assessment objective and these questions are marked using a Levels of Response mark scheme.

AO1 questions account for 35% of a GCSE Business paper. AO1 is divided into two elements, and both must be balanced within each paper. AO1a requires students to demonstrate knowledge of business concepts and issues. This is often referred to as ‘knowledge in isolation’. Marks that reward demonstrating knowledge in isolation include any mark awarded solely for recalling facts or other knowledge. This does not include marks awarded for selecting appropriate knowledge (for example, to evidence an argument), or for applying knowledge to a particular context.

Element AO1b requires students to demonstrate some understanding of business concepts and issues. Most low tariff questions, such as those worth 2 marks and the 4-mark question in Section A, will award both AO1a and AO1b marks. An example of this type of question can be seen here. If we look at the mark scheme, we can see that 1 mark is awarded for knowledge of an objective, for example, market share or customer satisfaction, and the second mark is awarded for demonstrating understanding. It is typical that in order to demonstrate understanding of AO1b, students must first provide AO1a knowledge, and should be rewarded for this knowledge.

AO2 is a single element and covers 35% of each GCSE Business paper. The emphasis with AO2 is on students applying their knowledge and understanding in or to a given context. If validity is classified as assessing the right thing, in the right way, to provide accurate and useful assessment results, then the application of concepts to a realistic business scenario is a vital part of this qualification. AO2 also includes all questions assessing quantitative skills. We will examine quantitative questions in more detail later in the session.

AO3 accounts for 30% of each GCSE Business paper. Like AO1, AO3 also has two elements. AO3a requires students to analyse business information and issues in order to demonstrate understanding. AO3b asks students to evaluate, make judgements and draw conclusions. Business information is defined as qualitative or quantitative information that relates to a business, either directly or indirectly. A direct link would specifically refer to the business, whereas an indirect link could be data from a competitor. It could include, but is not limited to, financial data, marketing data or market data or any other internal or external information that may have a bearing on business activity. Issues, in the context of this assessment objective, means any external or internal event which will impinge on an organisation. Students may be asked to explain the causes and consequences of an internal or external change, problems, and/or opportunities.

It is worth knowing that across the papers AO3a, analysis, is weighted higher than AO3b, evaluation. Eighteen marks on each paper are for analysis, whereas only 9 marks are for evaluation. This is inevitable as there are some shorter response questions that require students to demonstrate analytical skills only and not evaluate and draw conclusions, for example the 6-mark questions. Evaluation is not possible without analysis. Therefore, analysis will be more prominent than evaluation.  All 9 and 12-mark responses have an even split of AO3a and AO3b requiring students, as per the command words, to analyse and evaluate.

Quantitative skills.

The quantitative, or calculation questions are an important part of the GCSE Business papers. At least 10% of marks on each paper must be allocated to the use of quantitative skills. There are more quantitative skills in paper 2 as the finance topic lends itself to testing quantitative skills more than paper 1. Some topics in the specification lend themselves more to contexts in which quantitative skills may be assessed. However, there are no topic areas in which quantitative skills cannot be assessed and so any area of the specification content may be assessed through questions targeting quantitative skills.

Calculation questions have many different formats. For example, a straightforward percentage calculation using given figures, or the interpretation of a graph or chart. On Paper 2, a section of a financial document such as a cash flow forecast, or statement of financial income could be provided, and the student asked to complete a missing section. When asked to interpret financial data it’s important for students to carefully consider all the information presented. Students will also use some information in the case study in their decision making as this replicates real life business decision making and makes assessment valid.

To add challenge to quantitative question, a range of information may be presented to the student which replicates what students would encounter in real life. Part of the demand in the questions is therefore students using their skills to select the right information for the necessary calculation from that provided. A good example of this can be seen here, when students were provided with a table of selected financial information for Skate4U and asked to use the information in the table to calculate the change in the net profit margin from 2019 to 2020. In this question the non-current assets in the table were not part of this calculation.

Multiple choice questions.

Now we will examine the role of some of the question types in the assessment of GCSE Business, starting with multiple choice questions. Section A is made up of multiple choice and short answer questions and we have already discussed how AO1 is assessed. Not only does this section provide an accessible entry into the paper, but it also ensures full coverage of the specification over time and avoid construct under-representation as several different topics can be covered across different Multiple-Choice Questions.

Section A begins with 6 multiple choice questions. These are designed to test students’ knowledge without requiring them to compose written responses. Multiple choice questions have several guiding principles that must be followed when they are being constructed to ensure validity between papers. Let’s look at a few of these that are important for GCSE Business. Firstly, all distractors, or incorrect answers, must be plausible. A useful guide is that a distractor is plausible if someone with no subject specific knowledge cannot eliminate it. This can be challenging with GCSE Business, as the nature of the subject means that it is likely to coincide with everyday knowledge and experience. For example, a question asking which form of business ownership can sell shares on the stock exchange could be answered correctly by students that have never studied Business if they have an interest in the stock market.

Student misconceptions can be a useful source when creating distractors so that the item can effectively discriminate those who understand the topic from those who do not. For example, students often confuse the terms stakeholder and shareholder and so this could be incorporated into a question such as, ‘What is the correct term for the group of people that invest in a business?’ Other common misconceptions include the difference between cash and profit, marketing mix and promotional mix and that break-even is expressed in units of production and not revenue. It is worth noting that these are not used to trick students out of marks, but rather to test common areas of misunderstanding.

The final principle is that for GCSE Business MCQs, the question stem should be written positively. For example, question writers must not ask, ‘Which of the following is not a method of advertising’, or ‘Which method of advertising is least likely to be used by a small business’ as this reduces the chance of students selecting the wrong answer because they have misread the question. Let’s look at some multiple-choice questions that follow the principles I’ve explained. Example A demonstrates the use of plausible distractors as each of the listed options appears on the statement of financial position. It is unlikely that a student who has never studied business, and therefore has no subject specific knowledge, would be able to eliminate all the distractors.

Example B highlights how misconceptions can be used as distractors to ensure distractors are plausible, therefore making sure MCQs are as valid as possible. Market share and market size are often confused with each other. Both examples on the screen avoid the use of negative terms. Example A asks students to select the section that would appear on the statement of financial position, and example B asks for the term that is correct.

Now it’s time for you to write a multiple-choice question that follows the principles I have just discussed. The area of the specification that your question needs to assess is 3.6.1 Sources of Finance. The specification content is on screen as a reference. Please pause the video and have a go at writing a multiple-choice question yourself.

Now that you have had a go, double check that your question follows the key principles including the use of plausible distractors such as common misconceptions and that your question is written with positive language. If so, then there's a high chance your question will be legitimate.

Extended response questions.

As we have already covered, Section A of a GCSE Business paper has multiple choice questions and short answer questions worth 20 marks.  We will now move on to looking at Sections B and C, both of which have one case study and where most questions require students to provide an extended answer.

For a 9-mark question, students are expected to consider two sides of one ‘aspect’ from the specification and make a judgement. The ‘recommend’ command word is used for 9-mark questions to encourage analysis of both options before making a final judgement. It is also worth noting that there are two different 9-mark Levels of Response grids, one is where financial or numeric data is to be used as part of the candidate's response.

You can view this Levels of Response grid here.

The interpretation of the financial data appears as the final bullet point in the grid when this is required. Students of all abilities must be able to access this strand at each level, so interpretation of the financial data may be in the form of a commentary on the given figures, a basic calculation to show increases or decreases, or a comparison of the final cost of two options. All interpretations are valid and have the scope to achieve marks within this grid.

The 12-mark question is always the final question on the paper. In both GCSE Business papers, there is one 12 mark extended response question which will require students to draw together knowledge, skills and understanding from at least two separate areas of the full course of study. For this reason, the two options provided in the question must be from different sections of the spec - for example, the question could not give two finance options, or two marketing options.

Evaluate is the command word for the 12-mark question and this is not explicitly used in any other questions on the paper. It is made clear to students in the question, through the use of two separate bullet points and the final sentence in the question, which areas they are expected to draw together before making a judgement. This is different to the 9-mark questions where students can choose to discuss both options presented, or simply evaluate the option in the question. This difference can be seen on the slide.

When designing these questions both options presented must be relevant and reasonable for the business in the case study considering the situation that has been presented, therefore contributing to the validity of the assessment. The possible arguments for and against each option must be well balanced to prevent one option appearing more favourable than the other. This increases the likelihood of analysis and the achievement of AO4 criteria.

The use of items.

The items, or sources, such as the one on screen from the 2022 summer series, are a key part of the GCSE Business exam papers. Business is an applied subject. Although it has a well-established body of knowledge, it is also applied to what's going on in the real world. For most of the questions in sections B and C, students are expected to refer to information provided in the item that precedes them. This is known as application and is a substantial proportion of the marks for extended response questions.

When creating an item, it is usually the case that the questions and potential answers are devised roughly first. This reverse engineering approach ensures that the Item is constructed with the sole purpose of providing context for the students to use in their responses, thereby all information supplied is relevant and as concise as possible.

It is vital that Items are accessible for students of all backgrounds and abilities. Question writers have worked hard throughout each exam series to minimise the complexity of the Items by reducing sentence length and removing vocabulary that could make it difficult for some students to access the information. When selecting a business to use as a case study writers aim to consider the typical life experiences a 15–16-year-old GCSE student has had so far. In the example on screen, to avoid construct irrelevance, a definition of a chauffeur service was added to ensure this did not act as a barrier for students who had not heard of this type of business.

Let’s look at how an Item is constructed to provide the opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and understanding to respond to a question. In this example, the area of the specification to examine is ownership, and particularly the disadvantages of Plc status. Using the reverse engineering approach, question writers would start by considering the main disadvantages of Plc ownership, particularly any that would be familiar to students. For example, that shareholders receive a share of the profits in return for their investment. Next, writers would take each disadvantage and apply it to the business in the Item. In this case, an airline has been chosen. Although the question only requires one disadvantage to be analysed, writers aim to provide at least 2 or 3 so that students have some choice and can select the information they are able to analyse more thoroughly.

Now it's your turn. Look at the question and think about how you could write a section for this item, which would provide information about Skyline that students could use to answer this specific question on the topic of the disadvantages of plc ownership. Remember that writers usually provide 2 or 3 options, to give students some choice for their analysis. You should pause the video at this point to have a go at the task.

Okay, let’s look at the actual item that was constructed. On the left, you can see the list of disadvantages that were thought appropriate to include. These cover key information about plcs, so it is likely you will have included some or all of these in your own item, or you may have incorporated some other information on the topic. On the right is the final Item that was constructed. The colours show how each generic disadvantage is now applied to the airline, meaning students have three distinct points they can choose from to discuss.

Question stem.

The stem is the information provided just before a question is asked. There are two reasons for the increased use of the stem. Firstly, it allows writers to reduce the amount of information presented in the main Items, as key information relating to the question can be removed and included as part of the relevant question instead.

Secondly, it helps to focus the attention of the student on an important aspect of the case study, which means they are much more likely to use this within their response, therefore achieving marks for application.

When the specimen papers were written back in 2016 stems were included with 9-mark questions, but not 6-mark questions. The papers have now evolved to include stems with all 6-mark questions. This development is shown in the examples on screen. Previously students would have had to refer to the Item for all the application points. If we look at question 2.2 from June 2023, we can see that students are given some information about Debbie’s previous job. This should immediately get students thinking of the flexibility Debbie now has as a sole trader in comparison to working from 10am to 6pm in a supermarket. Students should be instructed to read the question stem carefully and integrate it within their responses.

Implementation.

To finish the session, here are some of the key learning points that you could use to inform your teaching.

• Make sure that students understand the difference between knowledge and understanding. Every series many students do not achieve the second AO1 mark on a 2-mark question because they only demonstrate knowledge and do not go on to show understanding by clearly explaining the point they have made.
• Ensure students realise that for extended answer questions, the expectation is that the analysis will form most of the answer as they consider alternative scenarios or options for the business. A paragraph describing several reasons for or against an option will show basic evaluation, but it is the analysis that enables the student to move higher in the marking grids.
• Quantitative skills can be assessed across all topic areas, not just the obvious ones such as cost of advertising methods or choice of suppliers.
• Typical misconceptions may be addressed within the exam so make sure these areas are identified and routinely discussed with students.
• There are no marks for AO1 knowledge and understanding within the extended response questions, therefore students should be discouraged from simply writing definitions.
• Finally, the question stem should always be carefully read and integrated within the response.

I hope this session has given you an insight into the assessment design process at AQA and if you have any further questions then please do email business-studies@aqa.org.uk. Thank you for your time.

Questions you may want to think about

• How can you use these insights to prepare your learners for exams?
• Do your internal assessments reflect the approach of the exam? To what extent do you want them to?
• What’s the most important or surprising thing that you’ve learned? How might it influence your teaching?