How to maximise your GCSE Edexcel Business grade

How to Maximise Your GCSE Edexcel Business Grade

There are two primary ways to maximise your GCSE Edexcel Business grade. The first is your exam technique: this means understanding what the examiner is looking for and therefore how to give it to them. This is the easiest way to improve your grade. 80% of the marks for the 6-mark, 9-mark, and 12-mark questions in Sections B and C of the exam papers (the sections that have extracts) come from your exam technique.

Secondly, there are parts of the curriculum that you need to learn, practise, and understand. They are not necessarily common sense, although much of the curriculum is once you understand it. These are sections that require targeted revision and earn the marks required for the higher grades.

Exam Technique

Timings

Each Edexcel paper has 80 marks available over a 105-minute period (for those who do not have extra time). In effect, this is a mark a minute, with 25 minutes for reading the extracts, checking your work, and finishing the 12-marker in Section C. When practising, use a mark a minute as your basis. You tend to do questions in isolation rather than whole papers, where fatigue builds up, or you can be distracted by a particularly tough question.

The time was extended from 90 minutes to 115 minutes in 2023 with no change to the exam structure, as a number of students were not finishing the exams in the allotted time. This means you are able to use papers from 2022 and earlier to practise and give yourself slightly more time.

The exams are designed to start slightly easier, with multiple-choice questions and 1-3-mark questions to help you settle in and ensure you are switched on to Business.

Understanding the Allocation of Marks

There are four elements to an examiner’s mark scheme, and each question is marked using one or more of these elements. The elements are Knowledge, Application, Analysis, and Evaluation.

Knowledge is demonstrating understanding of the curriculum relevant to the question.

Application is necessary in answers to questions in Sections B and C, where you have to show that your answer applies to the extract. This can be done by referring to the industry in which the company operates; the products and tools used in that industry; the names of the owners; and figures in the extract that refer to the company, such as the date it opened or the value of its profit or turnover. This is the easiest way to earn marks and go up a grade.

Analysis is described as chains of reasoning or linked strands. This is where you make a point and then develop it. For example: “By increasing advertising spending, turnover often increases. This will lead to increased market share, which will often lead to increased profit. The profit can then be reinvested in the company through training for employees.” The parts where I have written “This will lead to increased market share, which will often lead to increased profit. The profit can then be reinvested in the company through training for employees.” are all chains of reasoning. There are three additional chains or linked strands to the initial point that “By increasing advertising spending, turnover often increases.”

Evaluation marks are available in the 9- and 12-mark questions and require you to show the examiner that you have looked at both sides of the argument. To earn full Evaluation marks, you need to have a paragraph that looks at one side of the argument and another paragraph (often starting with “However, …”) looking at the other side. Your concluding paragraph needs a new, original idea that supports whichever side of the argument you are going to come down on, so that you are not just repeating yourself.

Specific Guidance for 6-Mark, 9-Mark and 12-Mark Questions

These longer-answer questions are often used to identify the students who are going to be awarded the higher grades.

6-mark questions in Section A should be treated as two separate 3-mark questions. You have two paragraphs. In the first, you make a point and develop it with two further points, and you repeat this with the second paragraph.

In effect, you have 2 marks for Knowledge and 4 marks for Analysis.

6-mark questions in Sections B and C require Application (which earns 3 marks) and Analysis (which earns 3 marks). The Knowledge has to be shown in order to earn the Analysis marks but, in effect, it does not earn any marks itself. Over the course of the answer, there need to be five linked strands (or chains of reasoning) in order to earn the full 3 marks available for Analysis.

For the 9-mark questions in Sections B and C, 3 marks are awarded for Application, 3 for Analysis, and 3 for Evaluation. Choose only one option; write one paragraph about its benefits and one paragraph about its downsides. Then write a concluding paragraph with a new, original idea supporting your recommendation on the way forward for the company. Doing this will help you access the 3 Evaluation marks. Across your advantages and disadvantages paragraphs, ensure that you have 5 linked strands in total in order to earn the 3 Analysis marks. Also try to include three bits of Application that are specific to the company or the industry in each paragraph, in order to earn the 3 Application marks.

The 12-mark question in Section C is marked in a similar way to the 9-mark questions, with the addition that there are 3 marks for Knowledge. The conclusion also benefits from a caveat, where you can write something along the lines of “I think the following will happen if …”.

Conclusion

Training yourself to ensure you understand and utilise exam technique is such an important way of raising your grade. The easiest and best way is by ensuring you earn all the Application marks available to you. When you write an answer to a question in exam practice, underline each Application element to ensure that you are including the Application, and check with your teacher whether you are getting this right.

Once you understand Application, move on to Analysis, again underlining your Analysis marks in your practice answers and checking with your teacher.

Finally, focus on the Evaluation marks, using the same method.

You need to know what the examiner is looking for so that you can give it to them. Examiners want to give you the marks. Make their life easy by giving them what they want!