[bluelezah]

Hi!
I just finished year 11 and i'm thinking of what a levels to take next school year. I want to go to university and take a course in the field of business or economics. Currently, I'm thinking to take:

Maths
Biology
English lit.

I'm confused if i would choose RS or Business for a level.

What subject would be better for me to take???

Thank you!


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[CXDK]

What do you mean by RS?

I did AS business but dropping it as my A2 subjects as u only do 3 A levels and one AS. It is a very good subject I found, but i also found it varies greatly with which teacher you have.

It would certainly help with business in uni.

- Jack

[bluelezah]

It means Religious Studies


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[bluelezah]

😥


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[purplefrog]

Is economics an option for you? If it is, I would take that, followed by RS, followed by business.

Economics will be the most relevant as it will cover a lot of terminology, concepts and you get examined via short essays, short answer questions, graph interpretations and on some boards MCQs, making you develop your skills in a lot of areas.

RS will help you critically analyse a lot of information and write persuasively and logically.

I've heard Business has a fair amount of coursework in it and doesn't cover as much theoretical ground as Economics does (albeit focusing more on micro-economics) so you may want to take that into account as to whether you want coursework or not during A-levels.

[bluelezah]

They only offer AS Economics so i don't want to take it.

In RS, i'm quite interested on the philosophy side of it and i think i would do good in it. Also, it would link to biology( evolution) and english lit. because of the writing side of it. That's why i considered doing it.

For business, i did it for GCSE but it was not in depth and i want to learn more and i want to study business or economics in university. However it is considered as a "soft" a level compared to RS which makes it so confusing.


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[The Polymath]

(Original post by bluelezah)
Hi!
I just finished year 11 and i'm thinking of what a levels to take next school year. I want to go to university and take a course in the field of business or economics. Currently, I'm thinking to take:

Maths
Biology
English lit.

I'm confused if i would choose RS or Business for a level.

What subject would be better for me to take???

Thank you!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

There's nothing wrong with only taking AS Economics - you can make it very clear to universities that you wanted to at least study some economics, and your school was unable to help you any further. Your school will also say this in your reference - I say DO ECON Seriously, it helps so much - without it you will struggle to get that general understanding of economics, but it's far from impossible I suppose.

As for RS or Business.. RS without a shadow of a doubt It's in Cambridge's (and most other unis') top-tier A-level list, whereas Business is not. Also, it's just better Business isn't really related to Economics as much as people think, and you'd be much better focusing on the Philosophy aspect of your RS course to look at people like J.S. Mill and focus on the philosophical side of economics in your application.

[bluelezah]

(Original post by Junaid96)
There's nothing wrong with only taking AS Economics - you can make it very clear to universities that you wanted to at least study some economics, and your school was unable to help you any further. Your school will also say this in your reference - I say DO ECON Seriously, it helps so much - without it you will struggle to get that general understanding of economics, but it's far from impossible I suppose.

As for RS or Business.. RS without a shadow of a doubt It's in Cambridge's (and most other unis') top-tier A-level list, whereas Business is not. Also, it's just better Business isn't really related to Economics as much as people think, and you'd be much better focusing on the Philosophy aspect of your RS course to look at people like J.S. Mill and focus on the philosophical side of economics in your application.

Thanks!!!
But i think the course isn't gonna run this year as no one applied or chose it which is a shame because i knew i should've but i didn't

One of the teachers told me that i don't need business studies a level to get into a business related course in university and they would also teach the basics at the start of the course.

Will RS be helpful in university or on real life???


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[The Polymath]

(Original post by bluelezah)
Thanks!!!
But i think the course isn't gonna run this year as no one applied or chose it which is a shame because i knew i should've but i didn't

One of the teachers told me that i don't need business studies a level to get into a business related course in university and they would also teach the basics at the start of the course.

Will RS be helpful in university or on real life???

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Of course, RS will be very useful, whether it be in Economics, Business or real life A working knowledge of religion and philosophy is vital in today's world.

[bluelezah]

So should i take RS instead of Business???


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[bluelezah]

😊


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[PatrickD]

I would personally take Religious Studies (although I'm biased as I did take it). As you say, it's slightly more well respected than Business Studies, you will be good at it and you can still do a business-related degree without Business Studies A-level.

[Jackkkkk]

RS all the way ! Love it - it covers so much and I expected it to be boring but it's so engaging and you are able to basically look into areas your intreated in and your extra reading will actually help you in exams ( which is unusual for most subjects)


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[bluelezah]

Thank you!


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[ZerofeX]

(Original post by purplefrog)
Is economics an option for you? If it is, I would take that, followed by RS, followed by business.

Economics will be the most relevant as it will cover a lot of terminology, concepts and you get examined via short essays, short answer questions, graph interpretations and on some boards MCQs, making you develop your skills in a lot of areas.

RS will help you critically analyse a lot of information and write persuasively and logically.

I've heard Business has a fair amount of coursework in it and doesn't cover as much theoretical ground as Economics does (albeit focusing more on micro-economics) so you may want to take that into account as to whether you want coursework or not during A-levels.

Just so you know BS has no coursework at all, atleast not in my board. It overlap minimally with econ, like maybe 3 pages out of 600 pages at the most but thats about it. At the end of the day both RS and BS are seen as weak subjects so there's really no difference in which one you choose.

Most of the people here who've said take RS have already admitted that they themself chose it. You dont expect them to be fully objective, do you? People delude themself into thinking that some subjects give certain skills when people would be just as fine without them or taking another subject for that matter.

The people who say RS will help you analyze and stuff is complete **** since BS also tests evaluation,analysis etc. Keep in mind even top unis accept BS as an alternate to Econ. They just dont want them togeather to avoid any overlap, however minimal it might be.

[Jackkkkk]

(Original post by ZerofeX)
Just so you know BS has no coursework at all, atleast not in my board. It overlap minimally with econ, like maybe 3 pages out of 600 pages at the most but thats about it. At the end of the day both RS and BS are seen as weak subjects so there's really no difference in which one you choose.

Most of the people here who've said take RS have already admitted that they themself chose it. You dont expect them to say they made the wrong choice and they're going down a bad path, do you? People delude themself into thinking that some subjects give certain skills when people would be just as fine without them or taking another subject for that matter.

The people who say RS will help you analyze and stuff is complete **** since BS also tests evaluation,analysis etc. Keep in mind even top unis accept BS as an alternate to Econ. They just dont want them togeather to avoid any overlap, however minimal it might be.

RS is in Cambridge's most suitable list and BS is in their limited suitability list.
Actually I would with RS it depends on the modules you take, they span far beyond contemporary philosophy and ethics. Religion and Contemporary society, philosophy of Science and the standard philosophy and ethics courses arguably have far more analysis and interpretation needed that BS. This Cambridge see it as a more appropriate A level ( regardless of content, it shows more skill ) having had experience of all these at A Level !
Top universities most certainly do not see BS as a replacement of Economics - that is extremely ill informed !


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[ZerofeX]

(Original post by Jackkkkk)
RS is in Cambridge's most suitable list and BS is in their limited suitability list.
Actually I would with RS it depends on the modules you take, they span far beyond contemporary philosophy and ethics. Religion and Contemporary society, philosophy of Science and the standard philosophy and ethics courses arguably have far more analysis and interpretation needed that BS. This Cambridge see it as a more appropriate A level ( regardless of content, it shows more skill ) having had experience of all these at A Level !
Top universities most certainly do not see BS as a replacement of Economics - that is extremely ill informed !


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I never said they see it as a replacement. I said they see it as an alternate to econ if it isnt available which is true. Either way I simply said that if he wants to choose business its not the end of the world like people here claim it to be. Every year people get into LSE,Cambridge etc with the subject.

[purplefrog]

(Original post by ZerofeX)
Just so you know BS has no coursework at all, atleast not in my board. It overlap minimally with econ, like maybe 3 pages out of 600 pages at the most but thats about it.

Okay, apologies for the misinformation. There must have been a change to the syllabi between when my peers and I were doing our AS levels and now, as there was internally assessed work at least 3 years ago for BS.

At the end of the day both RS and BS are seen as weak subjects so there's really no difference in which one you choose.

There actually quite a difference between how BS and RS are regarded. I've yet to find one faculty that does not deem RS to be a strong subject. On the other hand, BS has been listed by a few universities to be of limited suitability for higher learning and is on the LSE's 'non-preferred' subject list. Yes, they still accept it, but would rather applicants offered another subject instead - but won't be discriminated against unless they offer another subject from the same list.

Most of the people here who've said take RS have already admitted that they themself chose it. You dont expect them to be fully objective, do you? People delude themself into thinking that some subjects give certain skills when people would be just as fine without them or taking another subject for that matter.

Indeed, that may be true for this thread in particular, though if you browse on TSR, there are definitely other threads where students have posted trying to dissuade others from choosing RS and saying students could better spend their time studying other subjects. And on your note of people "deluding themselves" into perceiving skills being gained - I can partially agree with you there, but that is not to say those skills aren't honed at all and that there is some net development by the course studied. Obviously, like with any academic subject, the skills developed are not exclusive to the subject and can be developed by other subjects too. But the means via which they're developed, differs from subject to subject and are also developed to differing degrees.

The people who say RS will help you analyze and stuff is complete **** since BS also tests evaluation,analysis etc. Keep in mind even top unis accept BS as an alternate to Econ. They just dont want them togeather to avoid any overlap, however minimal it might be.

Just because BS also develops analytical skills doesn't mean the statement that RS does too is negated. In extension to my point above, I never said RS would exclusively do so. Nor in my prior post did I say that BS is less valued to Economics A-Level.
However, I must stress my above point about the means and extent to which skills are developed. Yes, BS does develop analytical skills, however I would argue it does it to a lesser extent than RS for the following reason:
BS hones such skills via an applied manner whereas the argumentative and discursive skills in RS are more dependent on the fundamental logic and cohesiveness of arguments. In RS, while the content learned is important, the analytical skills take precedence at higher levels, whereas for business - while the skills are still present, majority of the marks and merit for the subject come via the testing of content. This means there is a more limited scope nurturing pure analytical skills in BS compared to RS.

And such skills do pay off. If you do look at some of the top unis (Oxbridge, UCL) which use the TSA for their econ/socio-political courses, you'll find that a lot of the TSA rests upon critically analysing arguments and isolating their fundamental components (premise, conclusions, assumptions etc.) and for such skills, RS will provide a better grasp at tackling such problems compared to BS.

Hope that's clarified by basis for what I said in my previous point and not misconstrued things further.

[M4LLY]

Business

[123maz]

I am choosing my alevels too but I would take religious studies rather than Business. Business is seen as a [QUOTE]soft subject[/QUOTE

does your spec of RS cover philosophy or ultimate questions or something like that. That is very interesting I am alos taking RS as well as French, English land/lit and psychology.