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Edexcel IGCSE Business
6.1 The Exam Papers
Big idea: Paper 1 tests everything you know about small businesses through four case-study questions that get harder as you go — starting with quick recall and multiple choice, and building up to full justified and evaluative arguments.
90 minutes
80 marks total
50% of qualification
Businesses up to 49 employees
0% revised
Summary
Paper 1 is called "Investigating Small Businesses" and draws on the entire specification — there's no way to "skip" a topic when revising for this paper.
It focuses specifically on small businesses with up to 49 employees that operate in a local or national (not global) market.
The paper is 90 minutes long and worth 80 marks, which is exactly 50% of your whole IGCSE Business grade.
It's split into four multipart questions, each built around its own short business case study, and you must answer all of them — there's no choice of questions.
Every question is worth 20 marks, and every question "builds in demand" — meaning it starts easy (recall) and ends hard (analysis/evaluation).
The question types mix multiple-choice, short "state" answers, calculations, explanations, analysis, justify, and evaluate questions.
Understanding the Paper's Structure
Think of Paper 1 like a staircase, not a flat corridor. Each of the four questions takes you from "can you remember the definition?" up to "can you make and defend a real business decision?" This matters hugely for revision, because it tells you exactly what kind of skill each mark is testing — and that's the difference between losing easy marks and scoring full marks.
The core structure to memorise
4 questions × 20 marks each = 80 marks total, in 90 minutes. Each case study is short and real-world in style, and each question climbs through: knowledge → application → analysis → evaluation.
Question 1
MCQ, short-answer, calculation and analysis. 20 marks.
Question 2
Short-answer, calculation, analysis and justify. 20 marks.
Question 3
Short-answer, calculation, analysis and justify. 20 marks.
Question 4
Short-answer/calculation, analysis and evaluate. 20 marks.
Why does this "building demand" pattern matter?
Examiners design it this way so that every student — whatever grade they're aiming for — can access some marks on every question. The early marks (MCQs, 'state' questions) are about recall and are genuinely quick wins if you know your definitions. The later marks (analysis, justify, evaluate) reward you for writing in full sentences, using the case study context, and building a chain of reasoning rather than just stating a fact. If you run out of time, always secure the early, easy marks on all four questions first — don't get stuck perfecting one 6-mark analysis answer while three 'state' questions on other pages sit unanswered.
1 Question 1: MCQ, Short-Answer, Calculation and Analysis
Question 1 is your "warm-up" question, but don't underestimate it — it's still worth a full 20 marks, the same as every other question on the paper. It's built around a real-world style case study, and it tests recall, basic application, simple calculations, brief explanations, and analysis.
Here's the thing that trips students up: because it starts with multiple choice, people assume the whole question is "easy." It isn't — it ends with a 6-mark analysis question that needs the same quality of reasoning as the analysis question on any other page. Question 1 is really a miniature version of the whole paper's difficulty climb, just compressed into one question.
Task type
Marks
What it actually wants from you
Multiple-choice ×6
1 each
Select the correct term, formula, or definition. No working needed — just recognition.
'State' question
1 mark
A brief, direct response — usually just naming a fact, term, or example. No explanation required.
Simple calculation
2 marks
Apply a formula correctly and show clear workings — the workings matter because you can pick up method marks even with a wrong final answer.
Short explanation
3 marks
State a valid knowledge point, then develop it — don't just drop a fact and move on, explain the "so what."
Analysis question
6 marks
Build a chain of reasoning that stays rooted in the context of the case study business — point, explain, apply, consequence.
Q: Question 1 of Paper 1 is worth how many marks in total, and how many of those marks come from the single analysis question at the end?
2 Questions 2 & 3: Short-Answer, Calculation, Analysis and Justify
Questions 2 and 3 are structurally identical to each other — same skills, same mark allocation, same format — they're just built around two different case studies. Think of them as "twin questions." If you understand how one works, you automatically understand the other.
The big new skill that appears here (and wasn't in Question 1) is the justify question. This is a genuinely different kind of thinking: instead of just analysing one idea in depth, you have to compare two or more options and then make — and defend — an actual contextual decision. This is where students often lose marks not because they don't know the content, but because they explain both options nicely and then forget to actually commit to a decision at the end. A justify question without a clear final decision is an unfinished answer, even if the reasoning inside it is excellent.
Task type
Marks
What it actually wants from you
'State' question
1 mark
A brief response — no development needed.
Simple calculation
2 marks
Clear workings + correct formula application.
Outline question
brief
Take one point and develop it, but rooted in the business's specific context.
Short explanation
3 marks
Knowledge point + development, same pattern as Question 1.
Analysis question
6 marks
A full chain of reasoning in context.
Justify question
varies
Compare two or more options, then make and defend an appropriate, contextual decision.
Students often write a beautifully balanced answer — strong points for Option A, strong points for Option B — and then simply run out of space or forget to say which one they'd actually recommend. Examiners cannot infer your decision from a balanced discussion; you must explicitly state your choice and give a reason tied to the case study business's specific circumstances (its size, its finances, its market, its goals). No stated decision = marks left on the table, no matter how good the analysis was.
Practice Question
Q: What is the one skill that appears in Questions 2 and 3 but does NOT appear in Question 1, and what's the single most common way students lose marks on it?
4 Question 4: Short-Answer or Calculation, Analysis and Evaluate
Question 4 is the final climb — and it introduces the evaluation question, which is the single hardest skill tested anywhere on Paper 1. Notice the subtle wording difference from Question 1: here it's "short explanations OR calculations," meaning the exact mix can vary slightly, but the total for the question stays at 20 marks either way.
So what's the actual difference between a justify question (Q2/Q3) and an evaluate question (Q4)? A justify question usually asks you to choose between two clearly defined options. An evaluate question is broader — it asks you to make a judgement about a business concept (for example: "should this business expand?" or "is this pricing strategy the right one?") within the full context of everything you know about that business. Evaluation expects you to weigh up multiple factors, consider both short-term and long-term effects, and reach a supported, balanced conclusion — not just pick between two neat boxes.
Task type
Marks
What it actually wants from you
Simple calculation
2 marks
Clear workings + correct formula application.
Short explanation
3 marks
Knowledge point + development.
Analysis question
6 marks
A chain of reasoning in context.
Evaluation question
largest share
A justified decision about a business concept, weighed within the full context of the business.
Evaluation isn't just "analysis but longer." Analysis asks you to follow one line of reasoning as deeply as possible. Evaluation asks you to hold multiple lines of reasoning in your head at once, weigh them against each other, and then form a judgement about which matters more for this specific business, right now. That's why evaluation questions carry the most marks on Question 4 — they're testing the highest-order thinking skill on the whole paper.
Practice Question
Q: Explain, in your own words, the key difference between what a "justify" question (found in Q2/Q3) is asking you to do compared to an "evaluate" question (found in Q4).
What to Memorise
1
Paper name & focus
"Investigating Small Businesses" — businesses with up to 49 employees, local or national market only.
2
Timing & weighting
90 minutes, 80 marks total, 50% of the whole IGCSE Business qualification.
3
Overall shape
4 questions × 20 marks each. Every question builds from knowledge → application → analysis → evaluation. Answer ALL questions.
4
Question 1's unique feature
The only question with 6 multiple-choice questions (1 mark each) at the start.
5
Questions 2 & 3's unique feature
Both include a "justify" task — compare options, then make and defend a contextual decision.
6
Question 4's unique feature
The only question ending in an "evaluate" task — a justified decision about a business concept, weighed in full context.
7
The recurring mark pattern
'State' = 1 mark, brief response. Calculation = 2 marks, needs clear workings. Short explanation = 3 marks, knowledge point + development. Analysis = 6 marks, chain of reasoning in context.
Concepts Checklist
Exam Tips
Timing strategy
With 80 marks in 90 minutes, that's roughly 1 mark per minute — but the marks aren't evenly spread in difficulty. Don't spend 20 minutes perfecting a 6-mark analysis answer while a 1-mark 'state' question elsewhere sits blank. Secure every quick-win mark across all four questions before you go back to polish longer answers.
Always show your workings
On every calculation question, write out your formula and each step — even if you're confident in your mental maths. Examiners award method marks for correct workings even if your final number is wrong. A correct answer with no workings shown can actually lose you marks under some mark schemes if the final figure is slightly off.
Stay rooted in the case study
For every analysis, justify, and evaluate question, examiners are explicitly looking for answers that reference the specific business in the case study — its size, its industry, its finances, its goals. A generic, textbook-style answer that could apply to any business will score far lower than one that clearly applies the theory to the context you were given.
Don't leave justify/evaluate answers "hanging"
The single biggest mark-scheme trap: writing great analysis of multiple sides of an argument, then never actually stating your final decision or judgement. Always end justify and evaluate answers with an explicit, one-sentence decision — "Overall, Business X should..." — backed by your strongest reason from the case study.
Remember: this paper is comprehensive
Because Paper 1 draws on the entire specification, you can't "question-spot" or skip revising a topic hoping it won't come up. Any topic from the whole course could appear inside any of the four case studies.