Cambridge IGCSE Business 0264 Revision: Free Guide & Practice
Updated: Oct 12
Cambridge IGCSE Business has a new syllabus code for first assessment in 2027: 0264. If you are taking the qualification from 2027 onwards, this is the course you should be revising.
Cambridge says the move from Business Studies 0450 to Business 0264 modernises the content, updates terminology, adds more technology and sustainability, and changes the assessment-objective weightings. The underlying subject remains recognisably Business, so older 0450 questions are still useful where the content overlaps.
The six syllabus areas
The 2027–2029 0264 syllabus is organised into six areas:
Understanding business activity
People in business
Marketing
Operations management
Financial information and decisions
External influences on business activity
What the exam looks like
All candidates take two externally assessed papers. Paper 1 is Short Answer and Data Response; Paper 2 is a Case Study. Each paper lasts 1 hour 30 minutes, is worth 80 marks and contributes 50% of the qualification.
When you move on to AS & A Level, the Cambridge 9609 Business syllabus guide covers the next stage of the course.
Both papers can test AO1 Knowledge and understanding, AO2 Application, AO3 Analysis and AO4 Evaluation. Across the qualification, AO2 Application carries about 30% of the weighting, so simply memorising definitions is not enough: you need to use information about the business in the question.
How to revise Business effectively
1. Learn the idea, then attach it to a business
Do not stop at definitions. For every concept, ask what it would change for a specific business: costs, revenue, employees, capacity, cash flow, customer demand, risk or objectives.
2. Practise chains of reasoning
A strong Business answer usually moves beyond a point into a consequence. For example: training improves employee skills, which can reduce errors, which may lower waste and improve customer satisfaction. That chain is much stronger than saying training is simply good for the business.
3. Use the marks to control depth
Cambridge explicitly tells candidates to use the number of marks as a guide to the amount of detail expected. A two-mark calculation needs a different response from an eight-mark judgement.
4. Treat the case or stimulus as evidence
Application is not name-dropping the business. Use facts from the stimulus because they change your argument: size, location, finance, workforce, market, objectives, capacity or the data provided.
What about old 0450 past papers?
Cambridge 0450 remains the historical question bank, while 0264 has specimen material but no past papers yet. Older 0450 questions are therefore valuable for topic practice, but they should be mapped carefully to the current 0264 syllabus and the updated assessment model.
Official sources
Reviewed by JOSHI · Last reviewed 13 September 2026