Is Business studies worth doing? (1 Viewer)

[Simorgh]

The subjects I have currently chosen for year 11 are Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Economics, Modern History and Advanced English.

I think doing two sciences is going to be a little too time consuming and tough for me. I thought why not change Physics or Chemistry for Business Studies.

I heard a lot of people say they regretted choosing Business studies and they really hated the subject for reasons like rote learning.

How well does Business studies scale compared to other subjects? Are there too many essays? Is it overall an easy subject?

Is it a waste of time and not worth doing?

Btw I am really keen on doing a Commerce degree at UNSW. So business studies will help I guess.

 

[Flop21]

BUSINESS STUDIES IS A NIGHTMARE.

I've realised that I like all my other subjects, they're fun to study, then business just sucks the life out of me. I sit down, preparing myself to attempt to memorise the whole syllabus, then the content, then examples for each dot point, then case studies. It's taking up all my time, an absolute nightmare. The subject is nothing but rote learning, with a bit of how you write extended responses applying that info.

Economics seems like enough, but maybe someone else can say if you need business or not.

I suggest taking a look at the HSC syllabus for it, look at it, that's what you'll need to know... literally.

 

[astroman]

Business is fucking rote, nothing else, no enjoyable aspect to it, content dump the syllabus and your guaranteed atleast a 90%.

 

[DatAtarLyfe]

just..dont even go there.
I cri evrytim...

 

[astroman]

just..dont even go there.
I cri evrytim...

can confirm.

 

[skysailing123]

dude....its okai
*pats back*

 

[sourmilk]

Business Studies is boring and consists of a shit-load of ROTE learning, but it's pretty easy if that's your form of learning. A lot of the answers to business are common-sense or regurgitating the syllabus.

 

[Sien]

just..dont even go there.
I cri evrytim...

^can also confirm
business is so dry, your eyeballs just starts to shrivel up

 

[BLIT2014]

I personally didn't mind it, but quite a few of my classmates look like they were really suffering from severe boredom

 

[crowley926]

It's alright. A lot of people find it boring but it's really easy to do well in because the content is 80% common sense. It scales shit because of this though but again it's quite easy to do well in. There aren't a lot of essays. In the HSC you only have to do two extended responses and they can both be in business report format (separated with headings, sub-headings etc) and you don't even have to use really sophisticated language like in English so they're not that big of a deal.

I honestly don't think business will help with a commerce degree... I mean I can't really say since I'm not interested in Commerce but the content is seriously so basic and I think Economics is the most useful subject you could do.

As for it being a waste of time it really depends on your interest - maybe try it out for a week or two and see how it goes? Oh and there's lot of content and it's 100% rote-learning so keep that in mind since you already do Modern (which is also content-heavy) and a science (which is pretty content-heavy too) and maybe Economics (?) but idk cos I don't do Eco.

 

[FlameLash]

It's alright. A lot of people find it boring but it's really easy to do well in because the content is 80% common sense. It scales shit because of this though but again it's quite easy to do well in. There aren't a lot of essays. In the HSC you only have to do two extended responses and they can both be in business report format (separated with headings, sub-headings etc) and you don't even have to use really sophisticated language like in English so they're not that big of a deal.

I honestly don't think business will help with a commerce degree... I mean I can't really say since I'm not interested in Commerce but the content is seriously so basic and I think Economics is the most useful subject you could do.

As for it being a waste of time it really depends on your interest - maybe try it out for a week or two and see how it goes? Oh and there's lot of content and it's 100% rote-learning so keep that in mind since you already do Modern (which is also content-heavy) and a science (which is pretty content-heavy too) and maybe Economics (?) but idk cos I don't do Eco.

Why on earth are people under the impression that business scales shit? It's average at the worst.

 

[Traxoom73]

It's true. If you just take some time to think about each concept in business studies, it will seem like common sense (maybe that's why it's so dry). Doesn't scale too well either, I think a low 80s raw cutoff = a band 6. Compare that to something like Chemistry or the Extension maths subjects and it's pretty shit. All I did (and a lot of other people) was remember every dot point until I could recall all 4 syllabuses without any help (didn't even learn the concepts, lmao) and still ended up with a band 6. Pretty big joke of a subject, if you ask me and a lot of other people.

 

[Flop21]

It's true. If you just take some time to think about each concept in business studies, it will seem like common sense (maybe that's why it's so dry). Doesn't scale too well either, I think a low 80s raw cutoff = a band 6. Compare that to something like Chemistry or the Extension maths subjects and it's pretty shit. All I did (and a lot of other people) was remember every dot point until I could recall all 4 syllabuses without any help (didn't even learn the concepts, lmao) and still ended up with a band 6. Pretty big joke of a subject, if you ask me and a lot of other people.

Went into trials knowing literally nothing, read through my notes once before the exam, attempted to remember syllabus off by heart, remembered just the main syllabus points of operations and marketing, got 84% raw in my trials lol.

It's nice to know you just knew the syllabus and pulled a B6, because that's what I'm focusing on now (memorising it till I can recall flawlessly), and it's taking ages.

 

[Traxoom73]

Went into trials knowing literally nothing, read through my notes once before the exam, attempted to remember syllabus off by heart, remembered just the main syllabus points of operations and marketing, got 84% raw in my trials lol.

It's nice to know you just knew the syllabus and pulled a B6, because that's what I'm focusing on now (memorising it till I can recall flawlessly), and it's taking ages.

That's the way m8, haha :^)

 

[medicinestudent]

imo sciences are A LOT less time consuming than those humanitarian subjects with bad scaling. i wish i did physics

but if ur determined to do a commerce course... doing business studies will help u decide whether you're going to like that field of study

 

[Katsumi]

How goods your memory?

 

[matchalolz]

Honestly, if you're going to have a negative attitude (e.g. it's boring, it's all rote, it's useful), it's just going to make the subject worse (and this is coming from a person who's not too fond of the subject).

I know for a fact that it doesn't suit my learning style as it requires lots of memorisation, but I find the reports kind of nice because I have a clear and concise way of writing. I also find that with the SAME amount of effort, I can still do better in business vs eco (high 90s vs low 90s), simply because:
- the multiple choice section is less trippy (eco sometimes has really hard Qs)
- eco short answers require more extensive answers, higher order thinking, and really tests your understanding sometimes
- case studies (e.g. Qantas does this, Qantas does that) are easier to remember than statistics (e.g. in 20XX the current account deficit as a % of GDP was X%, Australias/US exchange rate was Xcents/Ycents). Only the finance section requires numerous numbers (you can kind of get away with not memorising anything for the other topics, I got 20/20 on my case study report in trials with only 30 minutes of reading through my case study, which means only 7.5 minutes per topic. yes, the case study essay is only on one topic at a time although you get a choice between 2)

However, another thing to consider is the greater likelihoood of fucking up in business vs fucking up in economics. Because business it easier, my brain tends to zone off and I get thrashed by all the other rote-learning classmates out there, vs eco where my brain is actively trying to process everything.

I made all these comparisons because you chose economics too. I don't think it's super useful (coming from someone who does a lot of commerce based subjects) but it could be useful in a cadetship/coop interview, e.g. I'm very interested in X program of yours, and Y industry, as demonstrated through my subject selections of X, Y, and Z. Although it won't necessarily increase your likelihood of getting in (as people select based on potential, not experience at such an early stage), you could you the knowledge you gained in the subject to apply it to daily news items (which is an impressive skill). Since I only took commerce for 1 year in junior school, business no matter how bs it is gave me a really broad understanding of everything.

CONSIDER THIS: business studies may be a useless subject but some subjects would be even more useless for your situation, you feel?

 

[SirLaptop]

Sorry to bump a dead thread but here's 2c for anybody reading:

How well you will go in business is dependent on this question:

Do you have a good memory?

If you answered yes, then a band 5 in business is guaranteed for you.

Beware if you don't like ROTE learning you won't like business. There is lots and lots of rote learning in business, especially finance, and it can get annoying.

In comparison to other social science subjects, business is not very intellectually demanding. Eg, while short answers in eco requires high order thinking and analysing government policies and how they affect the economy, business short answers simply require you to regurgitate stuff from the syllabus and your notes in response to the verb and you get the marks.

If your workload is heavily social science focused as mine, then you will find it quite boring and very easy, and if you did commerce elective in year 9/10, you will find business quite easy. That comes at the cost of poor scaling though.

 

[Roy G Biv]

protip- no such thing as a "good memory". at least not for the vast majority of students. it's simply hard work over long period of time.

the question is more: are you going to try to cram absolutely everything the night before the exam? If so, don't do business. It's the equivalent of trying to learn how to solve the entire maths syllabus the night before the hsc exam... it's not going to happen.

I don't see why it's fine to do Maths every night and "memorise" how to do all the questions is deemed NOT to be memorisation - it is - yet the concept of nightly/weekly learning of business studies throughout the year isn't even considered a viable option.

Treat business like you treat maths, and it's an easy subject to do well in. take notes throughout the year, memorise notes and the syllabus throughout the year, and it's easy.

 

[phat_tar]

I got a great mark in business, but at times it was excruciating. More because the syllabus isn't logical/doesn't translate into real life than anything.