Business & Economics

At Key Stage 3 students develop their understanding of the business world through planned schemes across the curriculum and enterprise activities.

This exciting and challenging course will introduce you to the dynamic world of business. It covers a broad range of topics that are designed to provide you with the knowledge and understanding that underpin modern business. The course is divided into two themes:

Theme 1: Investigating small business (Paper code: 1BS0/01)

This is externally assessed through a 1 hour and 30 minutes written examination, consisting of calculations, multiple-choice, short-answer and extended-writing questions (50% of the qualification). This unit contains five topics:

• Enterprise and entrepreneurship; Spotting a business opportunity
• Putting a business idea into practice; Making the business effective
• Understanding external influences on business

Theme 2: Building a business (Paper code: 1BS0/02)

This is externally assessed through a 1 hour and 30 minutes written examination, consisting of calculations, multiple-choice, short-answer and extended-writing questions (50% of the qualification). This unit contains five topics:

• Growing the business; Making marketing decisions
• Making operational decisions; Making financial decisions
• Making human resource decisions

As well as providing a fascinating insight into the modern world of commerce and trade, Economics is a challenging as well as a very valuable A Level as it requires students to develop and demonstrate proficiency in a whole range of skills. A Level Economics requires students to have the ability to write essays, analyse information, manipulate numerical data, understand graphs and master basic algebra. It is thus a highly valued academic qualification. Economics combines well with virtually any subject, but especially Mathematics, Government & Politics and History.

Our approach to Economics is to apply economic theory to support analysis of current economic problems and issues, and encourage students to appreciate the interrelationships between microeconomics and macroeconomics.  Students develop the knowledge and skills needed to understand and analyse data, think critically about issues and make informed decisions. They will also build upon their quantitative skills and appreciate that, when evaluating arguments, both qualitative and quantitative evidence are important.

AS Level

Paper 1: The operation of markets and market failure, written exam (1hr 30mins) – 50%

• Section A: 20 multiple choice questions worth 20 marks
• Section B: data response questions requiring written answers, choice of one from two contexts worth 50 marks

Paper 2: The national economy in a global context, written exam (1he 30mins) – 50%

• Section A: 20 multiple choice questions worth 20 marks
• Section B: data response questions requiring written answers, choice of one from two contexts worth 50 marks

A Level

Paper 1: Markets and market failure, written exam (2hrs) – 33.3%

• Section A: data response questions requiring written answers, choice of one from two contexts worth 40 marks
• Section B: essay questions requiring written answers, choice of one from three worth 40 marks

Paper 2: National and international economy, written exam (2hrs) – 33.3%

• Section A: data response questions requiring written answers, choice of one from two contexts worth 40 marks
• Section B: essay questions requiring written answers, choice of one from three worth 40 marks

Paper 3: Economic principles and issues, written exam (2hrs) – 33.3%

• Section A: multiple choice questions worth 30 marks
• Section B: case study questions requiring written answers, worth 50 marks