Advice for Business Studies (0450)
Study the syllabus. Use this book: Cambridge IGCSE® and O Level Business Studies Revised Coursebook, Mark Fisher, Medi Houghton, and Veenu Jain
This subject requires you to be able to explain and justify your “knowledge points” so it is advisable to read the book thoroughly and if necessary, make notes.
Refer to the book from time to time.
Begin solving topic wise questions from past papers – as given in the Resources tab, use Resource Plus offered by Cambridge (do the quizzes and see ECRs) – after finishing a unit (unit refers to an entire chapter such as Marketing). You can, after answering the questions on the Resource Plus site, filter out questions from past paper sites.
For 0450, there is a specific paper pattern.
In Paper 1, in one short case study, you have one or sometimes two definition questions worth 2 marks each. Know all the definitions. Do not memorise them, but understand why they are defined as they are.
Then, there is a 4 mark question, which you are supposed to give two knowledge points and two application points for. Lastly, there are two 6 mark questions. For the first one, you are required to give two knowledge points, two analysis points and two application points. For the last question, it is a general 6 mark question, and therefore, there are no application marks. You have to apply your knowledge to justify why you have chosen an option and disregarded the other – worth 2 evaluation marks. There are also 2 knowledge and 2 analysis marks.
The last question is always the hardest (in my opinion). I recommend you do it in the following way: Knowledge positive side, Analysis positive side, Knowledge negative side, Analysis negative side, Evaluation positive side, Evaluation negative side, so the positive/ negative side is better.
All units will come in Paper 1, so be prepared by solving past papers.
Solve papers and time yourself, and all the best in your exams!
