International GCSE Business assessment support page

Past question papers, mark schemes and examiners' reports are available on the qualification page.

These are kept locked for the first 9 months after an examination series and you will require an Edexcel Online username and password to be able to gain access.

Onscreen mocks are now available for International GCSE Business

Onscreen exams rollout

International GCSE Business will have the first onscreen assessment available from 2024.

Make sure you’re signed up for the latest onscreen assessment news to find out how to register your school.

The Pearson onscreen sandbox (test environment) gives students all the practice they need to explore the platform’s functionality and build their confidence before they sit their exams onscreen.

It’s easy to register for an account: just click on Register for an account and enter your email address as your user ID.

The materials are digitised in the same platform as the mock and high-stakes onscreen exams and are a good opportunity for teachers and students to get to know the platform and functionality available.

Whilst the user experience mirrors what can be expected from the mocks and high-stakes assessments, please note that any solutions submitted through the sandbox environment by candidates will not be saved.

These booklets of exemplar answers from the May 2019 papers show how examiners have applied the mark scheme to candidate responses:

State questions assess AO2.

Candidates should give an answer, no longer than a sentence, referring to a piece of contextual information from which they must select the answer.  One piece of context is sufficient.

Answers to 'state' questions must have context in the response otherwise they will not gain the mark.

All 'State' questions require candidates to include context to their response – encourage candidates to check if their response is generic and can be applied to any business or have they included phrases that link it directly to the given scenario?

On this type of question candidates should be encouraged to ensure that it is related to the scenario of the paper, to enable them to gain the mark available.  If the question refers to a specific business then context must be included in the answer – even for a one mark question.

Centres should be aware that examiners are advised to take the answer provided by candidates on the final answer line therefore if the final answer is not to 2 decimal places the candidates will not gain access to the full marks even if the answer to 2 decimal places is in the working out. The answer provided by a candidate on the answer line is viewed as their final response to the question so that is what is marked.

'Outline' questions are AO2 (Application) questions.  

An 'Outline' question is similar to a 'State' question where candidates have to put their response in the context of the business.

'Outline' questions require a point to score 1 mark. To score two marks, there has to be development of the method and the existence of application somewhere within the response.

To provide application - think about the market the business operates in, or the products that it sells, or simply just use a word or phrase from the case study.

An ‘explain’ question does not need to be in context as there are no AO2 marks available.

Candidates gain a mark for identifying one factor. Centres are encouraged to teach candidates that for 'Explain' questions they only need to explain one as opposed to listing many.

Candidates should then add some development to their answer to gain two or three marks.

Candidates should not repeat the question at the start of their answer. It wastes time.

Questions that ask to explain an advantage or disadvantage need a different technique to those that ask candidates to explain a method or way.

'Analyse' questions are testing two of the Assessment Objectives, or AOs: AO2, which is 'Application'; and AO3, which is 'Analysis'. Thus, to be successful, candidates need to demonstrate both of these skills within their answer. There are no AO1 marks.

Examiners will look at the response 'holistically', to see if candidates have applied their knowledge to the scenario and if they have analysed the information. Examiners will then make a decision as to where the response 'best fits' into the Levels.

Application (AO2)
Centres should encourage candidates to include context in 'analyse' questions to ensure they can reach the top levels of this levels-based question.

There are no AO1 marks for this question, there are AO2 marks for this level-based question and candidates who provide an extended answer but do not apply this answer to the context are not allowing themselves to move into the top of level 2. Unless responses for 'analyse' questions are in the context of the given business scenario candidates will find it difficult to access to higher marks.

Unless responses for 'analyse' questions are in the context of the given business scenario candidates will find it difficult to access to higher marks.

Examples of candidate answers scoring full marks can be found in the following examiners' reports:

The 'Justify' questions are marked in the same way as the 'Analyse' questions, but candidates now have to include 'Evaluative' (Assessment Objective 4) comments. It is marked to Levels the same as 'Analyse' questions.

Some learners show clear knowledge of the two options but are unaware there are no AO1 marks available for these questions.  Candidates who  simply show knowledge of one or both options with no application, analysis or evaluation would gain no marks.

Candidates can access level 3 by considering their chosen option in context and how this would impact on the business in the case study, linking their points together and concluding their answer with balance and justification.

Candidates do not have to consider both options in their response. Candidates can achieve the full marks only considering the one option.

Candidates need to make a clear choice out of the two options and be able to balance out their response as to why the business should or should not choose that option. Candidates are then expected to provide a clear overall judgement to evaluate their decision.

Candidates should be encouraged to write effective conclusions when answering a 'justify' question. It allows them to gain the AO4 marks available.  Candidates in general are failing to ‘ Make a judgement, providing a clear justification based on a thorough evaluation of business information and issues relevant to the choice made’ which is AO4 in the specification and mark scheme. Centres should take time with students to practise writing a detailed judgment based on the points discussed.

Examples of candidate answers scoring full marks can be found in the following examiners' reports:

The May 2024 Paper 1 and Paper 1R Examiners' Reports include two full mark candidate answers.  One has achieved full marks by considering both options, and the other has achieved full marks by considering just one option.

Candidates can take either route to respond to a 'justify' question.

There is no requirement for candidates to discuss both options. Often when they do this they are not able to justify each option in depth in the time allocated for the question.

Centres are reminded that this is the only level-based question in the paper which is equally weighted across all four assessment objectives.

The question is marked in exactly the same way as the 'Justify' questions. Although it is worth pointing out to candidates that this question does carry the most marks and they should allow sufficient time to answer it with all four of the Assessment Objectives being covered. AO1 – knowlege, AO2 – Application, AO3 – Analysis and AO4 – Evaluation.

A Level 3 answer has good context throughout the response as well as a balanced argument with a clear evaluation.

Those who perform less well than expected on this question do so for one of two reasons.

Firstly, candidates provide a generic answer with no application to the case study.

Secondly, candidates do not provide a thorough judgment relating back to any issues that may occur for the business in the case study or they do not balance their conclusion therefore limiting their evaluation.

Some candidates are using bullet points or numbered format, this will not allow them to gain the higher-level marks because they may not have analysed or evaluated the points made.

Examples of candidate answers scoring full marks can be found in the following examiners' reports:

Context is crucial to gain the top marks. The extracts provide evidence that candidates can utilise to support their answers. Any question which refers to a specific business should give answers that are in the context of that business. This should be remembered when answering the one mark ‘state’ questions where answers need to be specifically applied to the business referred to in the exam paper.  The name of the business does not provide context.

Candidates can choose to name the products/ services the business offers, they could choose to name competitors in the same industry or they could state the industry the business operates in to provide a contextualised response.

Candidates should make sure that a 'state' or 'outline' question is in context.

The high tariff questions ('analyse', 'justify' and 'evaluate') also require context.

For the justify and evaluate questions students are required to ‘Make a judgement, providing a clear justification based on a thorough evaluation of business information and issues relevant to the choice made. (AO4)’

Students must always provide a balanced assessment. Failing to provide developed counterbalance means it is extremely unlikely the candidate can reach the top level in the mark scheme. The counterbalance should be as equally developed as the points of analysis.

It is advised that centres give guidance to candidates on how to write a justification for their answers. Two few students are satisfying AO4 criteria in the longer questions.