Study Tips
Business Studies: How to Answer Case-Study Questions
By Sana Iqbal · · 7 min read
Quick answer
Business studies exams are won on application. Generic answers about 'a business' score low; answers that use the specific business in the case — its size, market, finances and constraints — score high. Read the case before the questions, mine it for evidence, apply theory to that evidence, and finish with a justified recommendation rather than a list of advantages and disadvantages.
The case study is evidence, not scenery
Students often skim the case, answer from memory, and wonder why a technically correct answer scored badly. The mark scheme rewards application: using the actual details of this business — its cash-flow position, its market share, its recent decisions — as the evidence for your argument.
Read the case first, slowly, and annotate as you go. Underline numbers, constraints, the owner's objectives and anything that looks like a problem. Those annotations are the raw material for every answer that follows.
Application means naming the business
A simple discipline transforms answers: refer to the business by name and to its specific circumstances in every paragraph. 'Because the company's cash balance has fallen for three consecutive quarters, an expansion funded by borrowing would increase its already high gearing.' That sentence is application; 'expansion can be risky' is not.
If your answer would work equally well for any business in the world, it is not an application answer, and it will not reach the top band.
Analysis: explain the consequence
After applying a point, explain what follows from it. Higher gearing means higher interest payments, which reduces profit and increases vulnerability if sales fall — which matters especially for this business because its market is seasonal. Each link earns credit.
Weak answers stop at identification: 'this is a risk'. Strong answers explain why it is a risk, for this business, in these conditions.
Evaluation and the justified recommendation
Long-answer questions almost always want a decision. Weigh the options against the business's stated objectives and constraints, then commit to a recommendation and justify it. A balanced list with no conclusion reads as indecision, and the top band explicitly requires judgement.
Say what your recommendation depends on, too: it may be right if demand holds, but the picture changes if the seasonal downturn is worse than forecast. That conditional reasoning is exactly what examiners mean by evaluation.
Use the numbers
Case studies contain financial data for a reason. Calculating a ratio, a break-even point or a percentage change and using it as evidence is one of the most reliable ways to lift an answer — and one of the most commonly ignored.
Time and marks
Allocate time by marks and resist the temptation to write everything you know for a low-mark question. Business studies papers are long, and students routinely produce a beautiful early answer and then run out of time on the highest-scoring question at the end.
Use the case, not your general knowledge
Case-study marks are awarded for applying theory to *this* business — its size, its market, its stated problems, the numbers in the appendix. A technically correct answer that could have been written without reading the case will lose most of its application marks.
Quote or reference specifics: the company's declining margin, its cash-flow figure, the fact that it operates in a saturated market. Every point you make should be visibly anchored in the material in front of you.
Recommendations need a justified choice
Longer questions usually ask you to recommend a course of action. A recommendation is not a summary — it requires you to choose, and to justify why this option beats the alternatives for this business, given its constraints.
Say what could go wrong, too, and what it depends on. A confident recommendation that acknowledges its own risks reads as business judgement; one that ignores them reads as a guess.
For further reading, BBC Bitesize is a reliable, authoritative source. When you are ready for personal help, explore our business studies tutoring or book a free demo session.
Frequently asked questions
How much of the case study should I use in my answers?+
As much as is relevant to each question. Every substantive paragraph should be anchored in a specific detail from the case — that is what separates application from generic theory.
Do I need to remember lots of business theory?+
You need a solid core — motivation, marketing mix, cash flow, ratios, structures — but examiners reward using theory well far more than listing it. A well-applied simple model beats a name-dropped complex one.
Should I always give a recommendation?+
For high-mark evaluation questions, yes. Weigh the options and commit to a justified decision. Refusing to decide caps your mark, even if your analysis is sound.
Which boards do you cover?+
We tutor business studies at IGCSE, O-Level, A-Level and IB, across the major boards including AQA, Edexcel, OCR and Cambridge, teaching to the specific mark scheme you will be assessed against.
How much time should I spend reading the case study?+
Read it properly before you start writing — often five to ten minutes, annotating key figures and problems. Students who skim the case to save time almost always lose more marks on application than they gain from the extra writing minutes.
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