Business Studies - A good A level?

Business and management exam discussion - share revision tips in preparation for GCSE, A Level and other business and management exams and discuss how they went afterwards.

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  1. B786's Avatar
    • Junior Member
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    Business Studies - A good A level?
    Im planning on taking Business Studies A level is it a good A level? is it liked by Universities and do a lot of people get high grades or is it an underperforming subject.
  2. Kerny's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    Do Economics instead
  3. B786's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    is not offered at my college wt do you think of business A level
  4. loki276's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    crap, considered soft subject
  5. B786's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    so what should i do instead im taking sociology, history with it and did really well at GCSE so dont want talen to go waste
  6. thetopnotch's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by B786)
    so what should i do instead im taking sociology, history with it and did really well at GCSE so dont want talen to go waste
    What other subjects offered by your school interests you?

    I did Business Studies and Economics at A Level and found both interesting. At my school a lot of people got A grades in the subject. However as others have mentioned some universities consider it a soft subject (I'm not entirely sure if this goes for all Universities. Maybe someone who knows better can correct ).
  7. Adamn's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    I take Business Studies, and I was given offers from Warwick, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds. Hardly crap unis :P.

    Just make sure you have a nice variety, including subjects considered 'stronger'. It's especially useful if you're looking at going on to do a Business degree.
    It is NOT a "crap" subject, as the ignorant boy said.
  8. B786's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    Adamn what A levels did you take and what results did u get?
  9. Adamn's Avatar
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    • Location: Worcestershire
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    I'm taking Business, German, English Lit and Theatre Studies I'm in my A2 year at the moment, but for AS I got ABBB in those subjects. I'm predicted AABB.
  10. samiz20891's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    That is also because you are not doing a degree such as economics or something in that area where some university prefer economics to business studies. OP what about maths it would be a sensible A level and help you be all rounded.
  11. dogie's Avatar
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    • Location: Manchester
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    Everyone says its a 'soft' subject, I also do maths fmaths and physics, and all but 1 of my 4 offers I can use it in place of fmaths. Its a great backup.
  12. B786's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    i wish to do business, sociology and history would that be okay?
  13. Blue_Smudge's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by B786)
    i wish to do business, sociology and history would that be okay?
    People usually do four subjects at AS and then three at A2.
  14. llys's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by thetopnotch)
    What other subjects offered by your school interests you?

    I did Business Studies and Economics at A Level and found both interesting. At my school a lot of people got A grades in the subject. However as others have mentioned some universities consider it a soft subject (I'm not entirely sure if this goes for all Universities. Maybe someone who knows better can correct ).
    Could you describe in simple words what the difference is between Economics and Business Studies A-Levels?

    People say Business is "soft" and then often add one should take Economics instead, but tbh looking at the specifications it seems to me that they cover mostly different topics.. so are NOT interchangeable... My impression is that Business Studies is more applied / hands-on, maybe more 'relevant' for someone who would actually want to start or run a small business. Would you say that's true?
  15. asiansentinel's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by llys)
    Could you describe in simple words what the difference is between Economics and Business Studies A-Levels?

    People say Business is "soft" and then often add one should take Economics instead, but tbh looking at the specifications it seems to me that they cover mostly different topics.. so are NOT interchangeable... My impression is that Business Studies is more applied / hands-on, maybe more 'relevant' for someone who would actually want to start or run a small business. Would you say that's true?
    The fact of the matter is, economics is actually more 'relevant'. In the sense of business, a knowledge of micro economics would do you well instead of knowing about how a business is run and etc. It depends on what you want to study at university to be honest though. If you want to study business I'd recommend taking math as that is more relevant to the course in top universities. Good luck though OP.
  16. thetopnotch's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by llys)
    Could you describe in simple words what the difference is between Economics and Business Studies A-Levels?

    People say Business is "soft" and then often add one should take Economics instead, but tbh looking at the specifications it seems to me that they cover mostly different topics.. so are NOT interchangeable... My impression is that Business Studies is more applied / hands-on, maybe more 'relevant' for someone who would actually want to start or run a small business. Would you say that's true?
    Yeah they're not really that interchangeable. For instance in Business studies there's topics like marketing, business accounting and other topics. There's some economics that gets covered in Business studies like some macroeconomic stuff that are covered in terms of how they are external influences on the business. These are topics like Business cycle, unemployment, interest rates and a few other things. But every topic in business studies is related to how the business will be run or set up, basically anything to do with the business.

    Economics is different. You can split it into Macroeconomics and Microeconomics for instance. Microeconomics looks at consumers, households and firms and the decisions they make. Macroeconomics looks at the overall economy. So in Microeconomics you would look at how consumers would choose how much to consume (I promise it's a lot more interesting that it sounds :p:) and in Macroeconomics you would look at how changes in taxation might affect the overall demand in the economy for instance.

    So your impression of Business Studies is very true. I think people generally say that you should take economics instead because it's considered stronger and a person is interested in Business studies then they'll probably be interested in Economics too. But this obviously isn't always the case. What are you interested in? Feel free to quote and ask more question
  17. B786's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    well english based subjects but not english itself well im going to do sociology definatelly and perhaps business studies were thinking about History but thats extremelly difficult i have heard and very very hard to pass well people at the same ability of mine who have taken the course say that so what else A level could i take
  18. IanLim93's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    depending on your interest? what subject do you enjoy? if you're going to end up dropping the 4th one maybe do something you think you will enjoy? media studies? psychology? maybe even english?

    I understand how people might feel economics is a stronger subject compared to business studies. I take both currently in AS. I struggle at the start whereas business i felt was more of a revision of gcse. However those who did take economics as a gcse says the same thing. Comparing the two is usually irrelevant only makes a difference if you're going for a specific course in uni.
  19. bruce_t89's Avatar
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    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    (Original post by Adamn)
    I take Business Studies, and I was given offers from Warwick, Manchester, Lancaster and Leeds. Hardly crap unis :P.

    Just make sure you have a nice variety, including subjects considered 'stronger'. It's especially useful if you're looking at going on to do a Business degree.
    It is NOT a "crap" subject, as the ignorant boy said.
    Totally agree, the A-level is a lot more respectable than what most people think. I have a friend who took it up and he's now studying Computer Science at UCL. OP, these examples prove that it's not a crap A-level.
    Last edited by bruce_t89; 01-04-2010 at 09:11.
  20. tich_9's Avatar
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    • Posts: 6
    Re: Business Studies - A good A level?
    i am a bit concerned because i am thinking about doing business studies a-level but some people say it is "soft" does this mean that universitys are less likely to consider you ? i am also thinking about doing economics, maths and polotics so i think business goes well with these subjects. any advice, is business considered by universities less than other subjects eg. history.
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