options and business studies :/

I personally enjoy business studies because I run my own business on the side and I am very interested in marketing, which is studied a lot in the syllabus. Quite a few people at my school don't enjoy business studies really but I actually look forward to business studies lessons. It helps if the teacher you have isn't a nut job though, I'm in the only class with a teacher that knows what they're doing (cough, head of department, cough).

No idea if you want to be a doctor though. Just make sure you focus really hard on getting top marks in your Triple Science.

As with all languages the coursework and vocabulary are hard work. I take a language as an extra (one after school lessons every week) because my school wanted me to get the EBacc. History gets interesting the more modern it gets, but for some people exam technique and memorising dates can be hard.

Most of the people I've spoken to regret Geography. But if you like it, go for it.

Reply 3

themancunian

15

I do Separate Sciences, French, History (For my options); Separate Sciences is good 8 extra hours of science in either Chemistry, Biology or Physics (Interchange every few weeks). French is okay, I find it easy as I find it more fun/'flamboyant' than Spanish (I would of loved to choose German, but my school does not have any permanent German teachers). History is also okay, currently learning about medicine and public health over the ages (First test for history coming up in June); after that I will be learning about the American Revolution and I forgot the last topic for history.

For your subjects: German: Good, Germany is becoming a leading economic country along with the likes of China, Geog: Can't comment did not choose, History: Learning about past medicines and public health could be use to you and Business: I personally think not really useful for becoming a Doctor.

I would recommend you choose Sep. Science if you want a job in the field of doctoring. Gives you a wide job variety and some knowledge.

Reply 4

breenm

9

Just a quick note. Their is a different History course available from OCR called OCR GCSE - History B. If you do this one, there are loads of different options of what you can study.
Here's a link to the OCR PDF for it.

http://www.ocr.org.uk/download/kd/ocr_9976_kd_gcse_spec.pdf

Reply 5

Original post by themancunian

I do Separate Sciences, French, History (For my options); Separate Sciences is good 8 extra hours of science in either Chemistry, Biology or Physics (Interchange every few weeks). French is okay, I find it easy as I find it more fun/'flamboyant' than Spanish (I would of loved to choose German, but my school does not have any permanent German teachers). History is also okay, currently learning about medicine and public health over the ages (First test for history coming up in June); after that I will be learning about the American Revolution and I forgot the last topic for history.

For your subjects: German: Good, Germany is becoming a leading economic country along with the likes of China, Geog: Can't comment did not choose, History: Learning about past medicines and public health could be use to you and Business: I personally think not really useful for becoming a Doctor.

I would recommend you choose Sep. Science if you want a job in the field of doctoring. Gives you a wide job variety and some knowledge.

Be careful, it depends what the GCSE course is for History. Our course covers Weimar Germany (1918) Nazi Germany, World War 2, Cold War and Vietnam. We don't study the American revolution or any other older things. You'll need to check which course you are studying.

Separate Science = Triple Science?

Reply 6

themancunian

15

Original post by AboveTheLine

Be careful, it depends what the GCSE course is for History. Our course covers Weimar Germany (1918) Nazi Germany, World War 2, Cold War and Vietnam. We don't study the American revolution or any other older things. You'll need to check which course you are studying.

Separate Science = Triple Science?

Yup for triple science, I am probably doing a different course as my History consists of Medicine and Public Health throughout time (Up to the 21st Century), the American Revolution/West and Hitler's Germany.

Reply 7

username826246

I do German which I absolutely adore (going to take for A-level next year :love:

)

And I do Business Studies too so I can give you my two cents on that :rolleyes:

Personally, I find Business really easy, but it's still a pretty interesting subject. Your first year will be more learning about how to set up a business, so doing market research, entrepreneurial skills, cash flow, business planning, legal issues and taxes (which personally I found pretty boring :tongue:

) and then at the end a bit about the economy and how that affects the business

Then in the second year, you study more about how to run a business, how to communicate within the business, ethics in a business, the economy, finances, marketing (which was probably my favourite!).. I can't think of much more, but you get the idea :tongue:

On Edexcel you do a multiple choice paper on all the stuff you learnt in the first year, which is 25% of your final grade (it's actually quite easy :tongue:

) then in Year 11 a controlled assessment (I'm in the process of doing mine now) where you choose a task to do out of a few options they give you, and do some research and then write up your findings in a report (for example, I'm investigating promotion methods used by local riding stables - it's pretty interesting) The controlled assessment in worth another 25%. Then the remaining 50% of your grade is on a longer written exam which has a load of questions on the stuff you learnt it Year 11

Business isn't really much writing at all, although in the longer paper you have to answer a few mini-essays that are 8 to 12 marks :smile:

I'm on Edexcel, it might be slightly different for you if it's a different exam board though?

Hope this has helped! Your options look good, as long as you think you'll enjoy the subjects, feel free to PM or quote me on this thread if you have any question about Business or German :biggrin:

Reply 8

OP

Thanks for all your replys.

Forgot to mention that my school don't offer seperate science as an option. They only let people who are in top set science by year 10 christmas take it. I am in top set atm and I am in year 9 so if i carry on working hard I should stay in too set and therefor be offered triple science. :smile:

Instead of Business I was going to take Spanish.

If it was you would you take, spanish or business studies baring in mind my other options.

Also do you have to be naturally good at business studies and how hard is it to achieve an A*.

Thanks for the help!

:smile:

Reply 9

username826246

Original post by parmarsc11

Thanks for all your replys.

Instead of Business I was going to take Spanish.

If it was you would you take, spanish or business studies baring in mind my other options.

Also do you have to be naturally good at business studies and how hard is it to achieve an A*.

Thanks for the help!

:smile:

Well IMO, Business isn't very difficult to get a good grade in, however it's not really a very useful subject in any way, whereas Spanish would be a lot more beneficial for you. However, you already have a language, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if you took the 'softer' subject, Business.

Take whichever you prefer as you already have a strong set of subjects, but personally I'm leaning more towards Spanish for you, purely because languages are awesome :tongue:

Reply 10

I hear nothing but complaints coming from my classmates that take languages. I imagine doing more than one is a huge stress considering the coursework.

Our school worked in a similar way for Triple Science, after the Year 9 exams people in the top set had some slight adjustments (a few people moved up/down) and then the top set only could do Triple starting Year 10. I suppose it was necessary to do this quickly as we already had our first set of exams (1a multiple choice) in November.

Some people didn't do very well in the re-take of our Unit 1 business exam (results 8th March) and I don't know why. Some of those people I would consider to be good students easily capable of achieving at least a B grade. I got an A* though, so can't complain.

Again exam board related, as thatgirlbecky said Edexcel have a multiple choice test, well at our school we do AQA and there's no multiple choice, Unit 1 exam worth 35% with 2 - 9 mark questions, a controlled assessment worth 25% and Unit 2 worth 40%.

Reply 11

username826246

Original post by AboveTheLine

I hear nothing but complaints coming from my classmates that take languages. I imagine doing more than one is a huge stress considering the coursework.

I do German and French and find it fine, and I have a friend doing 3 languages at A-level, so I guess it depends on the person :rolleyes:

Reply 12

jammyjams

" German
Geography
History
Business Studies. "

I'm in Year 10 and do:
French (MFL like you)
Graphics
History
Business Studies

At the moment I'm probably finding French tricky to get my head around at times and History is a very writing based subject so that can be difficult too.

To be honest, I don't think at GCSE level it matters too much to unis. You should defiantly do the EnglishBacc but doing Business won't hurt - it's what you get in your GCSEs that matters.

But yeah, aslong as you're happy with you're choices

Reply 13

OP

Thanks for the advice.

I probably will end up taking Business Studies over Spanish as i already have german.

Just quickly asking though, for the english Bacc once i have chosen geography and german can i choose any 2 other subjects or does it have to be another from humantiies and another from languages?

Still cant get my head around it. If someone could explain what I have to do to achieve the EBacc i'd be most grateful.

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 14

Leelad

I do Business Studies and Spanish :colondollar:

Spanish is stressful. But worthwhile. We do the WJEC exam board which requires us to do 4 controlled assessments over the 2 years (2 speaking & 2 writing) and they are an absolute pain in the neck. The good thing is that if you get an A*/ high A in all of them the you're walking in to the exam in Year 11 with a C pretty much guaranteed.
Spanish is also really useful in life for when you go abroad and such.

I do the OCR spec for Business. We did a 6 hour controlled assessment in Year 10 which, if you have a good teacher and do your prep well, should be a piece of cake. Me and my friends all got full UMS points and have 25% banked. There are then 2 exams; a fairly straightforward one about general business and a much harder one about a case study.
Business is interesting. But if you're dead set on becoming a doctor I honestly don't think it'll help you much. Should be an easy grade though.

Reply 15

Original post by parmarsc11

Thanks for the advice.

I probably will end up taking Business Studies over Spanish as i already have german.

Just quickly asking though, for the english Bacc once i have chosen geography and german can i choose any 2 other subjects or does it have to be another from humantiies and another from languages?

Still cant get my head around it. If someone could explain what I have to do to achieve the EBacc i'd be most grateful.

Thanks again :smile:

Hey,

My school wanted me to do the EBacc because I wasn't 'qualified' by default. I was told you need to do at least English, Maths and Double or better Science along with 1x Humanities and 1x Language. So these are what I study:

Double Maths
Triple Science
Double English

And then

History (the humanities subject)
Graphics
Business Studies
ICT
French (the language, I have a lesson after school every week and sometimes go off-timetable for a full day of coursework preparation.)

So as long as you have one language and one humanities subject, along with English, Maths and at least Double Science, you should get the EBacc.

Reply 16

OP

OK that's great.

Thankyou for explaining it to me! :smile:

Thanks for all the comments and replies, you've all helped me make my final decision.

:biggrin:

Reply 17

username445084

13

What you take at GCSE will literally have zero impact on your application, its what you get that matters. I'd say take Business studies because it is so bloody easy at GCSE, which means its a potential subject to get a valuable A* from. Also, if it makes you feel better my cousin took it at GCSE and now is doing Medicine at Imperial, which he rejected Oxford for...

Reply 18

OP