AQA A-Level Business is changing: what the new course means

Short answer: AQA has a new A-Level Business course, code 7138. Students who started Year 12 in September 2026 study it and sit their first A-Level exams in summer 2028 [1][2]. Students already in Year 13 stay on the current course, code 7132, and sit their final exams in June 2027 [5]. The new exams use case studies and shorter questions instead of multiple choice and 25-mark essays [3][4].

Which course is your child on?

The course is called a "specification", or "spec" for short. It is the exam board's official list of what is taught and how it is examined. Each one has a code number, which is printed on textbooks and past papers.

Year 12 and Year 13 are the two years of sixth form, the final two years of school in England, usually from age 16 to 18. Ofqual, the exams regulator in England, has accredited (approved) the new course [1].

How the exams change

Both courses have three papers of 2 hours, and each paper is worth one third of the A-Level. The format inside each paper is different.

Sources: AQA for the current course [5]; Save My Exams and Cognito for the new course [3][4].

The new course also fixes the marks for each command word, the instruction that starts a question. Analyse questions are worth 6 marks, Assess questions 9 marks and Evaluate questions 15 marks [3][4]. That makes the exam more predictable. A student knows from the first word how much to write.

What is new in the content

The new course is organised into three units, and each paper tests one of them [4]:

• Paper 1 (Unit 3.1): the nature of business, marketing and finance.
• Paper 2 (Unit 3.2): managing people, operations and business culture.
• Paper 3 (Unit 3.3): business and society, the external environment, strategy and change. It includes one 15-mark question that draws on the whole course.

AQA says the new course covers the impact of digital technology across business, including disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) [2]. Save My Exams also lists ESG (environmental, social and governance reporting), sustainability and cybersecurity risk among the new areas of emphasis [3].

What this means for your child

If your child is in Year 13: nothing changes. They sit the current course in June 2027, including the 25-mark essays. Our guide to writing a 25-mark Business essay is written for them.

If your child is in Year 12: they are on the new course. Past papers for the current course still help with knowledge, but their format is different. Practise short, timed answers to Analyse, Assess and Evaluate questions on case studies.

What you can do as a parent

• Check the spec code on any textbook or revision guide. For Year 12, it should say 7138 or "for first teaching from 2026".
• Be careful with second-hand textbooks. Books for the current course do not match the new exam format.
• Ask the school which past papers and practice papers it is using, and how it will mark them.

Year 12 topic guides for the new course

We are writing a guide for every topic that is new to 7138. Each one explains the idea, gives a real UK example and ends with an exam-style practice question.

• Co-operatives: worker, consumer and producer (3.1.2)
• Digital marketing and AI: SEO, PPC, cookies and CRM (3.1.3)
• Zero-based budgeting (3.1.4)
• Hackman's model of team effectiveness (3.2.1)
• ESG, greenwashing and bluewashing (3.3.1)
• Transformational leadership and leadership styles (3.2.1)
• EDIB, the gender pay gap and CEO pay ratios (3.2.1)
• Glocalisation (3.3.3)
• Cybersecurity risk and types of business risk (3.3.4)
• Agile business and scenario planning (3.3.4)

Some topics carried over from the old course but are now worded differently. These guides cover them:

• Marketing objectives, and B2B, B2C and C2C markets (3.1.3)
• The promotional mix: influencers, sponsorship and own-label (3.1.3)
• Employee wellbeing and employee voice (3.2.1)
• Zero-hours contracts and flexible employment (3.2.1)
• Operations objectives, KPIs and environmental impact (3.2.2)