A Level Business

Course summary

This course runs for two years. There is no coursework. You will sit an A/S level exam at the end of year 12, but this will not count towards your final A level grade. The AS exam consists of 2 papers covering parts of the topics below. There will be a combination of multiple choice questions, short answer questions and longer answer data response and case study questions. The A level exam consists of 3 papers covering all of the topics below. The type of questions will be the same as for AS level. Year 12 An introduction to key business areas: marketing, operations, finance and human resource management. This includes a special focus on decision making – particularly how decisions made in one area can affect the rest of the business. Topic 1 – What is business? Topic 2 – Managers, leadership and decision making Topic 3 – Decision making to improve marketing performance Topic 4 – Decision making to improve operational performance Topic 5 – Decision making to improve financial performance Topic 6 – Decision making to improve human resource performance Year 13 An investigation of the strategic decisions that all businesses have to make. Topic 7 – Analysing the strategic position of a business Topic 8 – Choosing the strategic direction Topic 9 – Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies Topic 10 – Managing strategic change Future opportunities A wide variety of areas include:  banking  retail  commerce  teaching  administration  self-employment