OCR J204
OCR J204 GCSE Business Complete Revision Checklist 2026
A complete topic-by-topic checklist for OCR J204 GCSE Business, covering every topic on Paper 01 and Paper 02. Tick off each topic as you revise it so you know exactly what you have covered — and what still needs work.
About OCR J204
OCR J204 GCSE Business is assessed by two papers: Paper 01 (Business Activity, Marketing and People) and Paper 02 (Operations, Finance and Influences on Business). Each paper is worth 50% of the total marks and lasts 1 hour 30 minutes.
Paper 01 — Business Activity, Marketing and People
Theme 1: Business Activity
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 Enterprise & Entrepreneurship | Characteristics of entrepreneurs, risk and reward, opportunity cost, added value | ☐ |
| 1.2 Business Planning | Purpose of a business plan, cash flow forecasts, SMART objectives | ☐ |
| 1.3 Business Ownership | Sole trader, partnership, Ltd, Plc — advantages, disadvantages, limited vs unlimited liability | ☐ |
| 1.4 Business Aims & Objectives | Types of objectives, how they change at different stages, profit vs growth vs survival | ☐ |
| 1.5 Stakeholders | Internal vs external stakeholders, what each wants, stakeholder conflicts | ☐ |
| 1.6 Business Growth | Organic vs external growth, horizontal/vertical/conglomerate integration, Plc conversion | ☐ |
Theme 2: Marketing
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 The Role of Marketing | Purpose of marketing, mass vs niche markets, market orientation vs product orientation | ☐ |
| 2.2 Market Research | Primary vs secondary, qualitative vs quantitative, market mapping, segmentation | ☐ |
| 2.3 Market Segmentation | Demographic, geographic, psychographic, behavioural segmentation — why businesses segment | ☐ |
| 2.4 The Marketing Mix | 4Ps, pricing strategies, product life cycle, Boston Matrix, promotion methods, distribution channels | ☐ |
Theme 3: People
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 HR Function | Role of HR, workforce planning, labour turnover calculation | ☐ |
| 3.2 Organisational Structures | Hierarchy, span of control, delegation, flat vs tall structures, centralised vs decentralised | ☐ |
| 3.3 Communication | Internal vs external, formal vs informal, barriers to communication, digital communication | ☐ |
| 3.4 Recruitment & Selection | Internal vs external recruitment, job descriptions, person specifications, selection methods | ☐ |
| 3.5 Motivation & Retention | Taylor, Maslow, Herzberg — financial and non-financial motivation methods | ☐ |
| 3.6 Training & Development | Induction, on-the-job, off-the-job training — costs and benefits | ☐ |
| 3.7 Employment Law | Equality Act, Health and Safety at Work Act, National Minimum Wage, Working Time Regulations | ☐ |
Paper 02 — Operations, Finance and Influences
Theme 4: Operations
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 4.1 Production Methods | Job, batch, flow production — advantages, disadvantages, examples | ☐ |
| 4.2 Quality Management | Quality control vs quality assurance, TQM, lean production, JIT, Kaizen | ☐ |
| 4.3 Customer Service | E-commerce, omnichannel retailing, after-sales service, USP | ☐ |
| 4.4 Consumer Law | Consumer Rights Act 2015, Trading Standards, refunds and replacements | ☐ |
| 4.5 Business Location | Factors affecting location decisions, e-commerce impact on location | ☐ |
| 4.6 Supply Chain | Suppliers, procurement, JIT, trade credit, lead time, buffer stock | ☐ |
Theme 5: Finance
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 5.1 The Role of Finance | Finance function, budgets, variance analysis (adverse vs favourable) | ☐ |
| 5.2 Sources of Finance | Internal vs external, bank loans, overdrafts, crowdfunding, venture capital, retained profit | ☐ |
| 5.4 Break-Even Analysis | Fixed costs, variable costs, contribution, break-even output, margin of safety, break-even charts | ☐ |
| 5.5 Cash Flow | Cash flow vs profit, cash flow forecasts, causes of problems, methods of improvement | ☐ |
Theme 6: Influences
| Topic | Key things to revise | ✓ |
|---|---|---|
| 6.1 Ethics & Environment | CSR, ethical sourcing, sustainability, fair trade, environmental impact | ☐ |
| 6.2 Economic Climate | Interest rates, inflation, unemployment, exchange rates — impact on business | ☐ |
| 6.3 Globalisation | MNCs, imports, exports, tariffs, offshoring, free trade, benefits and drawbacks | ☐ |
High-priority topics — exam evidence
Based on past OCR J204 papers, these topics appear most frequently in the extended writing questions:
- 1.3 Business Ownership — converting to Ltd or Plc is a perennial evaluate question
- 1.6 Business Growth — organic vs external growth evaluate appears almost every year
- 2.4 Marketing Mix — integrated marketing mix questions at 6 or 9 marks
- 3.5 Motivation — Herzberg and Maslow application questions
- 4.2 Quality/Lean — JIT evaluate is a regular feature of Paper 02
- 5.4 Break-Even — calculation AND evaluation of limitations
- 6.2 Economic Climate — interest rate or exchange rate chain of reasoning
✓ Revision tip: Don't just tick topics off as "done" after reading. A topic is truly revised when you can write a 6-mark answer on it from memory. Use Studora's AI tutor to test yourself topic by topic.
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