Sixth Form: Business

Subject Overview

A Level Business is a study of business organisations, their objectives, their functions and their decision making processes. Students will investigate how businesses are run. They will learn about Marketing, Finance and Management and will develop skills of analysis together with the ability to apply theories they have been taught to business problem solving situations.

Entry Requirements

  • At least a 4 is required in Maths

Syllabus (Course Outline and Structure)

We are following the AQA specification.

Students study the following topic areas:

  1. What is business?
  2. Managers, leadership and decision making
  3. Decision making to improve marketing performance
  4. Decision making to improve operational performance
  5. Decision making to improve financial performance
  6. Decision making to improve human resource performance
  7. Analysing the strategic position of a business
  8. Choosing strategic direction
  9. Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies
  10. Managing strategic change

Students are examined via three external exams:

Component 1:

Business 1

Written Paper

 33.3% ·    2 hours

·    100 marks – 15 multiple choice questions worth 1 mark each, short answer questions worth 35 marks, 2 extended answer questions (each out of a choice of 2) worth 25 marks each
Component 2:

Business 2

Written Paper

 33.3% ·    2 hours

·    100 marks – 3 data response questions each worth approximately 33 marks
Component 3:

Business 3

Written Paper

 33.3% ·     2 hours

·     100 marks – one case study consisting of 6 questions

Activities and Trips

Students will have the opportunity to visit local business organisations and to take part in business challenges, competitions and Gifted and Talented events.

Complementary Subject Combinations and Enrichment Activities

Business combines well with most subjects and particularly well with Humanities based subjects, the Social Sciences and Information Technology.

Subject Resources

There are useful resources on the AQA website:-

http://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/business-subjects

Past Papers

Past papers link

Other Information

For more information please see Miss L Ferguson