AQA A-Level Business Active Recall Guide (7132)
AQA · A-Level
AQA A-Level Business Active Recall Guide
A question-and-answer revision guide for AQA A-Level Business, built to be worked in three passes rather than read.
- AQA
- A-Level
- Specification 7132
- 11 topics
The 3-step active recall method
Re-reading notes is a futile process when your aim is to remember the information and successfully apply it in exam settings. Active recall is the method you use to ensure the information sticks for a long period of time. But even active recall can be futile unless you have a structured way of implementing it. This is where the 3-step active recall method comes in, a structured method that is signature to the Levo Learning guides.
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Step 1
Answer up to 10 questions cold, closed book, even if you are unsure on the topic.
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Step 2
Answer the same questions again, but open book. Write the correct answer down even if it seems pointless.
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Step 3
Repeat as step 1 and answer the questions closed book again.
Worked across the AQA A-Level Business specification, one subtopic at a time.
The subject, and what is assessed
AQA A-Level Business (specification 7132) is assessed by three written papers taken at the end of the two-year course, each lasting 2 hours and carrying 100 marks. All three papers can draw on any part of the specification. Paper 1 combines multiple choice questions with short answers and two essays. Paper 2 is built on three data-response case studies. Paper 3 is a single case study followed by extended responses. Quantitative skills carry at least a tenth of the marks.
| Paper | Covers | Length | Marks | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Paper 1 | Business 1 | 2 hours | 100 marks | 33.3% |
| Paper 2 | Business 2 | 2 hours | 100 marks | 33.3% |
| Paper 3 | Business 3 | 2 hours | 100 marks | 33.3% |
Memorisation, then application
Marks are given for applying content to the question that has been set, which cannot happen while the content is still being looked up. Step 1 shows what is actually held. Step 2 puts the correct wording in front of you while the gap is still fresh. Step 3 repeats the cold test, and the difference between the first and third attempt is the part that has moved.
Every question in the guide is paired with its answer in the same document, so step 2 is done from the guide itself rather than from a separate set of notes.
What is inside the guide
Questions are grouped by topic and then by subtopic, following the AQA specification. Open a topic to see its subtopics.
What Is Business?8 subtopics
What is business? opens the course and can be examined on any of the three papers. It covers what a business is for, the forms it can take and who bears the risk, and the external conditions every business has to trade within.
- Why businesses exist and their objectives14
- Revenue, costs and profit15
- Calculating and presenting business data9
- Business forms, sectors and liability17
- Share capital, market capitalisation and dividends11
- What moves a share price, and how ownership shapes objectives8
- Competition, market conditions and incomes8
- Interest rates, demographics and environmental issues13
Managers, Leadership and Decision Making9 subtopics
Managers, leadership and decision making can be examined on any of the three papers. It covers the styles a manager can adopt, the tools used to make a decision under risk, and the stakeholders who have to be weighed in it.
- Management, leadership and the four leadership styles18
- The Tannenbaum Schmidt continuum11
- Choosing a leadership style and its limitations13
- Scientific and intuitive decision making, and expected value12
- Reading a decision tree10
- Risk, uncertainty and opportunity cost12
- What influences a management decision8
- Stakeholders and stakeholder mapping9
- Stakeholder needs and managing the relationship11
Marketing Management13 subtopics
Marketing management can be examined on any of the three papers. It runs from setting a marketing objective through the research used to understand a market, to segmentation and the marketing mix that reaches the customer.
- Why businesses set marketing objectives11
- Brand loyalty and calculating the marketing measures9
- Primary and secondary market research11
- Sampling methods10
- Correlation, confidence intervals and extrapolation13
- Price and income elasticity of demand14
- Calculating market share, market growth and sales growth9
- Segmentation and the bases for it10
- Niche and mass marketing, targeting and market mapping19
- The elements of the marketing mix14
- Product portfolio analysis and the Boston Matrix9
- The product life cycle and extension strategies9
- Pricing, branding, place and the influences on the mix16
Operational Management17 subtopics
Operational management can be examined on any of the three papers. It covers the objectives operations are set, the measures used to judge them, and the decisions taken to improve efficiency, quality and the supply chain.
- Operational objectives: cost and quality15
- Speed, flexibility and environmental objectives13
- Added value and the trade-offs between objectives11
- Labour productivity and unit costs16
- Capacity and capacity utilisation11
- Improving capacity utilisation9
- Raising labour productivity, and the obstacles14
- Lean production and Just in Time15
- Labour-intensive and capital-intensive production8
- Technology in operations13
- Quality control and quality assurance10
- The benefits and costs of improving quality15
- Matching supply to demand9
- The inventory control chart13
- Influences on inventory and choosing a supplier11
- Supply chain management10
- Outsourcing: benefits and drawbacks9
Financial Management14 subtopics
Financial management can be examined on any of the three papers, and carries most of the calculation in the course. It covers financial objectives, the analysis used to judge performance, where a business gets its money, and how it improves cash flow and profit.
- Financial objectives and return on investment14
- Gross profit, operating profit and profit for the year12
- Budgets and variance analysis13
- Break-even, contribution and the margin of safety18
- Break-even charts and how they shift17
- The uses and limits of break-even analysis11
- Profit margins, payables and receivables18
- Internal sources of finance8
- Short-term external finance9
- Share capital, loans, venture capital and crowd funding18
- Choosing a source of finance13
- Methods of improving cash flow9
- Methods of improving profits8
- The difficulties and trade-offs in improving cash flow and profit13
Human Resource Management17 subtopics
Human resource management can be examined on any of the three papers. It covers what a business wants from its workforce, the data used to judge it, how the organisation is designed, and the theory and practice of motivating people.
- Human resource objectives and their value9
- Hard and soft human resource management16
- Calculating labour turnover and labour productivity12
- Employee costs as a percentage of turnover, and labour cost per unit16
- Using and interpreting human resource data18
- Types of organisational structure8
- Span of control, hierarchy and delegation19
- Human resource flow8
- The value of a motivated workforce, and Taylor9
- Maslow's hierarchy of needs18
- Herzberg's two-factor theory9
- Financial methods of motivation11
- Non-financial methods of motivation11
- Choosing and assessing methods of motivation9
- Employee involvement and the influences on it10
- Trade unions, works councils and communication channels12
- The value of good employer-employee relations8
Analysing the Strategic Position of a Business27 subtopics
Analysing the strategic position of a business is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3, and is the largest topic in the course. It covers the hierarchy of objectives, the internal analysis of financial and non-financial performance, the external analysis of the political, economic, social and competitive environment, and the appraisal of an investment.
- Influences on the mission and corporate objectives19
- Mission, objectives, strategy and tactics9
- Functional objectives and their influences8
- SWOT analysis and its limitations14
- Return on capital employed and the current ratio12
- Gearing and the ratios of working capital18
- Financial statements and the categories of ratio13
- Using ratio analysis, and its limits14
- Non-financial measures of performance14
- Benchmarking and core competences10
- The Triple Bottom Line8
- Competition law and labour market legislation14
- Environmental legislation and government support10
- Regulators, infrastructure and environmental incentives12
- Trade policy and responding to political change18
- GDP, taxation and exchange rates11
- Inflation, fiscal policy and monetary policy9
- Trade, protectionism and responding to economic change19
- and 9 more subtopics in this topic
Choosing Strategic Direction6 subtopics
Choosing strategic direction is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3. It covers the two decisions at the heart of strategy: which markets to compete in and what to offer, then how to compete once you are there.
- The Ansoff matrix: penetration and market development14
- New product development and diversification9
- Influences on the choice of strategic direction18
- Porter's generic strategies8
- Choosing a positioning strategy15
- Competitive advantage and the threats to it11
Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies13 subtopics
Strategic methods is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3. It covers the four routes a business can take to pursue a strategy: changing its scale, innovating, going international, and adopting digital technology.
- Organic growth, external growth and retrenchment17
- Economies and diseconomies of scale, synergy and overtrading15
- Methods of external growth10
- The advantages and disadvantages of organic and external growth18
- Product and process innovation and its drivers14
- Kaizen, research and development, and intellectual property17
- The causes of globalisation and its opportunities14
- Methods of entering international markets8
- Choosing a country to trade with or invest in12
- Off-shoring, re-shoring and multinationals11
- Global, multi-domestic and transnational strategies11
- Digital technology and the pressure to adopt it9
- The value and the limits of digital technology13
Managing Strategic Change10 subtopics
Managing strategic change is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3. It covers the kinds of change a business faces, the resistance it meets, the culture it has to work with, and the project planning used to implement a strategy.
- Types of change and Lewin's force field analysis13
- Flexible organisations, restructuring and delayering14
- Overcoming resistance: education, participation and support21
- Overcoming resistance: negotiation, manipulation and coercion16
- Organisational culture and Handy's four types20
- Recognising cultures and what shapes them12
- Changing organisational culture and the difficulties13
- Leadership, communication and structure in implementation12
- Network analysis and reading a network diagram10
- Float, the critical path and the value of network analysis13
Problems with Strategy and Why Strategies Fail8 subtopics
Problems with strategy is examined on Papers 1, 2 and 3, and closes the course. It asks why strategies fail: the biases and constraints behind a bad decision, the gap between the plan and what emerges, and the difficulty of judging whether a strategy worked at all.
- Uncertainty and cognitive bias in strategic decisions13
- Resource and organisational barriers to implementation12
- Planned and emergent strategy18
- Reasons for strategic drift16
- Financial and non-financial measures of strategic performance10
- The balanced scorecard, KPIs and the limits of evaluation20
- The value of strategic planning20
- Contingency planning and crisis management14
Sample questions
Taken from the AQA A-Level Business guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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What Is Business?
What is meant by growth as a business objective?
Show the answer
Growth is the expansion of a business in terms of sales, market share, or scale of operations. -
Managers, Leadership and Decision Making
What does management focus on in terms of achieving objectives?
Show the answer
Planning, organising, coordinating and controlling resources. -
Marketing Management
Why do businesses set marketing objectives in terms of providing direction?
Show the answer
Marketing objectives provide direction and focus for marketing activities, enabling coordinated decision-making across the marketing function. -
Operational Management
How do operational objectives provide direction for the operations department?
Show the answer
They enable managers and employees to understand priorities, giving clear focus to day-to-day activities. -
Financial Management
Why do businesses set financial objectives?
Show the answer
Financial objectives provide measurable targets that guide decision-making, enable performance evaluation, and help coordinate activities across different business functions towards common financial goals. -
Human Resource Management
What are human resource objectives?
Show the answer
Specific goals set by an organisation relating to the management and development of its workforce. -
Analysing the Strategic Position of a Business
How do the values and beliefs of founders or senior leaders influence a business mission?
Show the answer
They shape the fundamental purpose and direction of the business, as the mission often reflects what the founders or leaders believe is important and worth pursuing. -
Choosing Strategic Direction
What two key decisions does strategic direction involve for a business?
Show the answer
Deciding which markets the business will compete in and what products it will offer to those markets.
Questions about this guide
How do you use active recall for AQA A-Level Business?
Answer up to 10 questions cold and closed book. Answer the same questions again open book, writing the correct answer down. Then answer them closed book one more time. The difference between the first and third attempt is what has moved into recall.
How is AQA A-Level Business assessed?
AQA A-Level Business is assessed by 3 components: Paper 1, business 1 (2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3%); Paper 2, business 2 (2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3%); Paper 3, business 3 (2 hours, 100 marks, 33.3%).
What topics does the AQA A-Level Business active recall guide cover?
It covers What Is Business?, Managers, Leadership and Decision Making, Marketing Management, Operational Management, Financial Management, Human Resource Management, Analysing the Strategic Position of a Business, Choosing Strategic Direction, Strategic Methods: How to Pursue Strategies, Managing Strategic Change and Problems with Strategy and Why Strategies Fail.
Is the AQA A-Level Business guide a PDF?
Yes. It is a digital PDF sent to the email address on your order after purchase. Check the address is correct at checkout, and check junk or spam if it has not arrived.
Does the guide include the answers?
Yes. Every question has its answer in the same document, grouped by topic, so step 2 of the method is done from the guide.
AQA A-Level Business Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by topic, ready to work in three passes.