IGCSE Business paper 1 A* hack

In this video, I'm going to be showing you how to get an A star in paper one without explaining a thing.

In the example I will be showing you, we will be specifically focusing on knowledge and application marks. And for this to work, I cannot stress more that knowledge is what matters the most. As without knowledge, you will not score any of your application marks. This is a paper from May-June 2025, paper one.

Question A is to define a business partnership, and question B is to identify two ways a government can support business startups. And each question is worth two knowledge marks. Question C is our outline question, which there are two marks for knowledge and two marks for application. This question does not require you to explain anything. It just simply needs to make sense when you're putting the application in. In my example, outline two ways an economic boom might affect Brendan's business. Way one, high demand, which is the knowledge point, for his flowers, which is the application point. And for way two, increased competition, which is the knowledge point, for his startup business, which is the application point. Although the answer is brief, it makes sense. Now, for question D and E, this is when things get slightly different compared to my guide for paper one, link in the description below. For this question, it says explain two ways Brendan should increase added value for his business. The strategy for this question is to mimic the question C. And this is how I'm going to answer it. Way one, set higher prices for his flowers. Higher prices is the knowledge mark, and flowers is the application mark. And same for way two. Lower input costs, which is the knowledge mark, for the new business, which is the application mark. Now, if you have a look at the mark scheme here, it says points might include set higher prices, which gives me the knowledge mark. And because I mentioned flowers, I get the application mark. Same for way two, lower input costs, the knowledge mark, and new business, the application mark. So, for the D question, I'm able to get four out of six in 13 words. Moving on to question E. Explain two pricing methods a new business might use. Which is likely to be the best method to use? Justify your answer. For this question, we cannot use the same strategy for question C and D as there are no application marks. In turn, we'll just have to settle for two knowledge marks. You can see in this question, it is asking for two pricing methods. So, I have identified cost-plus pricing and competitive pricing, which gives me two knowledge marks.

Question two. Identify one way each of the following changes in country X's exchange rate might affect businesses which import raw materials. Depreciation, import expensive. Appreciation, import cheaper. One mark for each point. Question B. Identify two reasons why consumer spending patterns might change. Reason one, price of product. Reason two, higher incomes. Again, two knowledge points. For question C and D, we need to make sure that there is application. Outline two reasons why maintaining quality is important for NSL. Reason one, strong brand image for its food. And reason two, less waste at the factory. Two knowledge points and two application points. Remember, it only needs to make sense. You don't need to explain it. For question D, it is exactly the same as question C. Explain two benefits to NSL of using lean production. Fewer mistakes, which is our knowledge point, making food, which is our application point. Benefit two, less time wasted, which is our knowledge point, at the factory, which is our application point. And as you can see on the mark scheme, it is abundantly clear that you can get marks just for writing these keywords. And for question E, if you are going to use this method, I would highly recommend you blank out the rest of the question. You can see here that it wants you to explain two methods of market research. And since that we only want the knowledge points, let's identify them. And in this case, I put questionnaire and interviews.

Question three. Again, our first two questions, which is our knowledge questions. In this case, a defined question and a calculate question. For question C, the command term in this case is identify, which is four knowledge points, hence why there are four reasons here. For question D, we skip the analysis again and we identify the two advantages of LFK training its employees. Motivate the 135 employees and to reduce mistakes at the mines. And for question E, the way they ask it is do you think the advantages of external recruitment for the business are greater than the disadvantages? So, what it's looking for is one advantage and one disadvantage. So, let's identify them. Bringing new skills is our advantage and higher recruitment cost, which is our disadvantage. Two knowledge points. And the last question.

And again, question A and B are identify questions and question C is an outline question, which we need to make sure we apply properly. Question D, we answer it the exact same way as we do for question C. And for question E, we need to make sure we know exactly what they are looking for. Here it says, do you think the advantages of using retained profits to fund business expansion are greater than its disadvantages? So, if we are going to reword that for ourselves, that is identify the advantages and disadvantages of using retained profits. And now, two knowledge points is no need to pay back and may not have sufficient funds. For those of you who are doubting

this strategy, even Cambridge's own example candidate response proves that it works. Specifically for question D, the first knowledge mark was awarded when they said to share profits. And then the application mark was awarded when they wrote her house cleaning services. And in the first section of this example candidate response, there was no analysis awarded due to its unsupported assumption. So, this is a very important takeaway, that it is possible to get the knowledge and application marks in absence of the analysis mark. In this specific answer, the candidate could have easily just have written to share her profits made on her house cleaning services.

Clearly, that looked very easy because we knew the knowledge points. If you do not have a basic understanding of the business theory, you will not be able to repeat what I just showed you. But if you are, then this is what you'll be able to get following my strategy. On the entire paper one, there are a total of four questions. Each question has got 10 knowledge marks and four application marks. And with the assumption that you are able to get all of these marks, you'll be getting 56 out of 80, which is a staggering 70%. And 70% is an A* for paper one. I hope that helped. I hope you guys have a good day. Bye-bye.