The Student Room Group

is Business and management hard?

I want to go into a career in business, so think the course would be a good fit. I have just started my A levels, so am looking around at courses. I achieved 4A*s 4A'S and 2B's at GCSE and am taking A-levels in history, politics, economics, and geography. I am slightly concerned as I am finding economics quite challenging and am considering dropping it, will this mean I will struggle? Also, i am not very good at maths, and got a B at GCSE, will this mean I will further find it difficult? But I have heard that for example Exeter only has 10 taught hours a week, so you have a lot of time to review, is this the same for most unis?

thanks.
Original post by bigspeller
I want to go into a career in business, so think the course would be a good fit. I have just started my A levels, so am looking around at courses. I achieved 4A*s 4A'S and 2B's at GCSE and am taking A-levels in history, politics, economics, and geography. I am slightly concerned as I am finding economics quite challenging and am considering dropping it, will this mean I will struggle? Also, i am not very good at maths, and got a B at GCSE, will this mean I will further find it difficult? But I have heard that for example Exeter only has 10 taught hours a week, so you have a lot of time to review, is this the same for most unis?

thanks.


Hi @bigspeller

Great to hear that you are interested in Business and Management. I currently study Business Management and Marketing at NTU.

From personal experience of my course, the first year in particular is used as a way to get everyone up to speed. As most universities won't require you to have done Business as A-Level, it is a useful year to bring everyone up to the same level, so I wouldn't worry about struggling at Economics. Again, your B in GCSE Maths should be fine as again they won't specifically ask you for a Maths A-level and therefore you won't be expected to have an extensive knowledge of Maths.

In my first and second year we had around 12-15 hours of contact time - but this will vary at different universities so I would contact the one's you are interested in for any specific information :smile:

I am currently on a placement year - something that I am finding really helpful and something that I am really glad that I chose to do. My advice would be to try and look for courses that do offer work experience/placement opportunities.

If I can help you any further - give me a shout :smile:

Chris - NTU Rep
Reply 2
The most challenging modules you'll study are the Accounting/Finance/Stats etc.
Original post by bigspeller
I want to go into a career in business, so think the course would be a good fit. I have just started my A levels, so am looking around at courses. I achieved 4A*s 4A'S and 2B's at GCSE and am taking A-levels in history, politics, economics, and geography. I am slightly concerned as I am finding economics quite challenging and am considering dropping it, will this mean I will struggle? Also, i am not very good at maths, and got a B at GCSE, will this mean I will further find it difficult? But I have heard that for example Exeter only has 10 taught hours a week, so you have a lot of time to review, is this the same for most unis?

thanks.



Hey!

I am a second year studying Management at Bath and thought I would offer another perspective!

When I started at Bath, I was completely new to economics and I hadn’t studied business at A-Level so I was really worried I’d be behind. But, as Chris mentioned, first year is all about getting everyone familiar with the basics so no need to worry!

I think you will find it useful having even a basic understanding of economics as it can be relevant to a lot of areas of business and it has cropped up in several of my modules.

I did have to work a bit harder on subjects like accounting, finance and economics as some of the concepts can be tricky to get your head around, but normally everyone feels exactly the same and I have always found lecturers willing to help!

Also, I found that subjects like finance also contain quite a bit of theory behind the maths so it’s not all calculations. I would say is that it is useful to have an essay and numerical based background for a broad subject like Business, and looking at what you’re studying, I think you’ll be more than fine!

Lectures take up a relatively small amount of your study time, and I know at Bath, about 50% of our first-year grade is made up of coursework which I found took up a lot of my time. I would definitely look at the types of assessment when comparing courses, depending on whether you prefer coursework or exams.

One last thing! I would say the placement year is definitely something worth considering and it is one of the reasons I chose Bath - pretty much everyone does one so you can all help each other out and we get lots of support with cover letters and interviews!

Hope this helps, feel free to ask if you have any more questions!

Alice
I know this is a weird question but if you fail in GCSE and try again would it effect in the future and also I’m interested in business but in my big test I got a grade 3 instead of grade 4 will I still be able to go to college?
You failed in GCSE, If you did good, like atleast got 6s in other subjects I think you will be fine, but if you got 5a in your other subjects then u may have a problem, I know someone with all 5s and no college is accepting him, also how did u do that bad, I mean, i got a 3 in my mock but she marks very harshly. But this was ure GCSE?