Taking up business as an extra subject (Help welcome)

DA7800

Hi all,

I'll be going into 6th year in September and will be sitting the leaving in 2016. After getting my results back from the 5th year Summer tests I decided that I wanted to take up business as an extra subject outside of school. I don't necessarily need it for points, but I feel it would give me some security and peace of mind and it would also he relevant to what I want to study at 3rd level (BIS in UCC).

I had a conversation with my economics teacher about it briefly before school finished, and she thought I would be well able for it.

Just posting on here, not so much to see what people think, but to ask for some help regarding anything I need to know regarding the paper or the syllabus before I start.

If somebody could talk me through the course a little bit or talk me through the paper, that would be a start. The book I have is "It's the Business" and I would be hoping to have about three quarters of the course cover by September.

Thanks in advance!

draiochtanois

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RedemptionZ

I took it up in 6th year. The course is fairly simple to cover and there isn't really anything difficult to understand. The exam is normally pretty predictable because you know what units the ABQ will be from and can take a pretty good guess what the long questions will be from too.

It's really just a matter of learning keywords and familiarising yourself with the questions and ideas you come across, not that much rote learning imo.

However what I will say is while its easy to do well in there are a lot of very laborious parts to the course.

DA7800

draiochtanois wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

I appreciate the advice, but I would have to disagree with the idea that I would be spreading myself too thin. I manage just fine at the moment with the work rate that I have, and I'm giving myself ample time to cover a majority of the course in a relatively stress-free 10 week block.

What I look to gain by learning this subject is not a better chance at getting more points, but at actually absorbing information that may be relevant to my future. The fact that I can sit an exam testing me on said information and potentially benefit from doing so is a convenience.

Thanks anyway.

DiarmAFC

Hi, I received an A2 in business last year and achieved 79/80 in ABQ.

It is definitely achievable to take it up in one year. From a personal experience, many people do good in business but rarely achieve B1 or higher.

My advice for the subject would be learn the marking scheme inside and out. Attempt all short questions. Don't write essay style answers. Give examples in everything. Also don't do the long question 1, although this seems like a relatively easy question the majority of ireland does this question and so you will be marked against a lot more people.

Good luck in business and I'm sure you'll do fine!

Benm123

I've just come out of my business leaving cert exam and I'm pretty disappointed. I'm usually an A student in other exams but my teacher was no good this year for business so I had no motivation or interest in the subject.

Because of my lack of interest, I did barely any preparation towards the insane amount of learning that's involved in the course. Business is arguably the most theoretical subject there is on the LC, that meaning that it's basically just know the book inside out. I'm very good at business in practise and in applying the concepts and making sense of them, but I absolutely hated rote learning and thought I could get away with not covering most chapters and just by using my aptitude for business.

Sadly, this is not what they're looking for in the exam. The exam is more or less 80% theory (lending that 20% to the ABQ as you somewhat have to do some actually applying and critical thinking here).

If you are very focused in your studying, and don't mind rote learning for the most part of the course, then taking business won't be too bad.

Having said that, taking it for the sake of maybe getting ahead or being up to date with a BiS course (I'm doing BiS next year too actually) is not necessary at all. This is gonna sound somewhat contradictive to the rest of this piece, but most of business is common sense and you'll pick it up in a matter of days in college. The difference being that you will be applying the skills and concepts and not just rote learning tons of information (I'm guessing, haven't actually started yet).

I'm just going by my friends and relatives who are either practising business successfully now having never studied it whatsoever, or who are studying it in college atm having never studied it in school.

Sorry for rambling, this is just my opinion, hopefully if you do decide to take it, you learn from my mistake and actually put the head down! Good luck with whatever you choose

CyrilH_

I do Business at the moment and I've taken it at higher level for the past 2 years. It's a very long, drawn-out course in sections and requires a lot of laboring over it but if you can get down and gritty with it, it's a relatively easy honour. I finished the course (we left out Unit 7) in great detail before Christmas.

To do it in a year wouldn't be impossible but I would recommend doing it over the summer a bit to familiarize yourself and to catch up. The book I found was the best was "21st Century Business" revised edition for Leaving Cert; by William Murphy and published by CjFallon. It's very detailed but also relatable to real-life scenarios along with the text and theory. With a revisewise and the book you could write up your own notes, look at exam papers for the answering structures and you'll fly it!

As said previously, the course is fairly predictable. The short questions are usually very straightforward terminology/definitions, and the ABQ is a set question based on 3 units of the course. The long questions then are almost 1 for each unit spread across the board. I found it a very interesting subject that was easy to understand and study. It does get a bit tedious over time but it's not that bad. Just make sure you've everything covered in detail for June and who knows, you might end up using it for points :P.