Exam Technique Guide

Compiled 2026-09-28, from research/veridian/WBS14-verified-facts.md and the real Pearson mark schemes/examiner reports/principal examiner feedback it cites, cross-referenced against content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/paper-anatomy.ts and the seven WBS14 topic lessons under content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/. Full citation list at the end.

#WBS14 Exam-Technique Guide — Unit 4: Global Business

#What this document is (and isn't)

This is a technique layer, not a re-teach. The seven lessons in content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/ already carry the spec content — globalisation factors, protectionism, trading blocs, market/location assessment (including the Porter's-five-forces bonus addition on the pet-food and Glovo/Africa anchors), global marketing, mergers/expansion, and MNC impact/ethics/control. paper-anatomy.ts already carries the whole-paper mark/time map. Nothing below re-derives content those files already teach; where this guide needs a mechanism it cross-references the lesson that owns it rather than restating it.

What this guide adds: how to actually sit the paper. Section 1 is the structural map (which this guide extends one level deeper than paper-anatomy.ts, down to a per-sub-question time budget). Section 2 is tariff-by-tariff technique — what each command word actually rewards on this paper, with its real, confirmed level-descriptor bands. Section 3 is a self-mark checklist. Section 4 cross-references the ~40 trap-taxonomy items already scattered across the seven lessons (so they can be scanned in one place) and adds a small number of genuinely new, paper-wide traps found while re-reading the examiner reports for this pass — traps that don't belong to any single spec point, so no single lesson owns them. Section 5 is a short exam-day protocol, kept deliberately thin because most of what would go here isn't grounded in anything Pearson-specific to this paper. Section 6 flags what's still genuinely unconfirmed, plus one real inconsistency this pass found between the facts bank's own citations and paper-anatomy.ts's stated convention.

Not affiliated with or endorsed by Pearson Edexcel. Every figure, band and short quotation below is checked against a real, attributed mark scheme, examiner's report or principal examiner feedback document — see Sources.

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#1. Paper structure and the real timing budget

IA2, compulsory, externally assessed. 2 hours. 80 marks. Calculators permitted (spec Appendix 10).

That 4+4+8+12+12 = 40 Section-A structure is confirmed identically in every one of the ~7-8 series this course's research has actually read (Oct 2021, Jun 2022, Jan 2023, Oct 2023, Jan 2024, Oct 2024, Jun 2026, Jan 2026 — see Sources; the wider population is ~15 series, so treat "every series checked" as resting on this partial sample, not the full population). Q1(d) and Q1(e) alone are 24 of Section A's 40 marks — 60% of the section, 80% once Q1(c) is folded in.

#Command words actually used on this paper

The spec's Appendix 6 command-word table covers the whole qualification (all four units), and lists Define (2 marks) and Analyse (6 marks) alongside the five used here. Worth stating plainly: no series this course has read shows Define or Analyse anywhere in Q1(a)-(e), Q2 or Q3 on this specific paper. Every confirmed WBS14 question uses one of the five below.

#The timing budget, one level more granular than paper-anatomy.ts

paper-anatomy.ts already establishes the paper's own heuristic: 120 minutes ÷ 80 marks ≈ 1.5 minutes/mark, giving roughly 60 minutes for Section A and 30 minutes each for Sections B and C. That figure is this course's own derived arithmetic, not a Pearson-published schedule — restated here, not re-argued. Applying the same flat rate down to each Section A sub-question (this guide's own extension, same discipline: arithmetic, not a citation) gives:

Treat this as a ceiling to protect, not a schedule to hit exactly — a stuck 4-mark opener is worth finishing at "good enough, working shown" and moving on, because every minute it eats is a minute stolen from Q1(d), Q1(e), or one of the two essays, which together carry 64 of the paper's 80 marks and the paper's heaviest AO4 weighting.

#AO weighting and quantitative skills

AO weighting within IA2 (Units 3+4 combined): AO1 20% · AO2 22.5% · AO3 30% · AO4 27.5% — AO3+AO4 together are nearly 58% of the paper, which is why the conditional-judgement move (Section 2 below) matters more here than the recall it's built on.

Quantitative skills are at least 10% of the paper's marks (spec Appendix 7). Confirmed applied on this paper: QS2 (percentages — the GDP-per-capita opener), QS3 (diagram construction/interpretation — the supply-and-demand opener variant), QS4 (index numbers), QS5 (cost/revenue/profit/break-even), QS6 (investment appraisal — distinct from the location-factor "return on investment," see §2 below), QS7 (price/income elasticity — a confirmed opener variant), QS9 (interpreting information across the discursive parts). Identify which QS code the opener is actually testing before writing — a diagram answered in prose (or vice versa) earns nothing regardless of correct economics.

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#2. Tariff-by-tariff technique

#The 4-mark opener — know whether it's Calculate or Construct before you start

This opener changes command word between series: Oct 2021 and Jan 2023 both set a Calculate (GDP per capita, 2dp); Jan 2024 and Oct 2024 both set a Construct (a supply-and-demand diagram). Don't assume the mode from memory of a previous paper — check the command word first.

On Calculate: the confirmed mark split is K1/App2/An1 — one mark for stating the right formula, one each for the two data points pulled correctly from the extract, one for the final computed answer. The real NB rule from the June 2022 mark scheme (GDP ÷ population): a fully correct answer with the currency symbol and to the exact decimal-place count asked scores 4/4; the same number without the currency symbol scores 3/4 — a whole mark lost for a missing $, not for wrong economics. Always show your working: a correct method with a wrong final figure still banks the K/App marks, and the June 2022 examiner's report makes this point directly — showing your working is what protects you when the arithmetic slips.

On Construct: the axis labels carry their own dedicated mark, separate from the marks for the shift itself. The Oct 2024 mark scheme (a tariff's effect on the wheat market) awards 1 mark specifically for correctly labelled axes ("price"/"quantity"), then up to 2 more for showing the original equilibrium and the supply curve shifting in the right direction, and 1 for the new equilibrium (price up, quantity down for a tariff). The mark scheme explicitly accepts either an ad valorem/percentage tariff or a fixed-amount/unit tariff shape as the same shift — don't lose time deciding which one to draw. One distinction worth being deliberate about: this ordinary one-curve-shift domestic-market diagram is a different shape from the two-flat-lines world-supply-vs-world-supply-plus-tariff diagram this course's own protectionism lesson teaches for the price-wedge-vs-quantity-cap contrast (content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/protectionism-and-trading-blocs.ts) — know which one the command word is actually asking for before you start drawing.

#The 4-mark Explain — one point, fully developed

Same K1/App2/An1 shape, confirmed on the June 2022 Thailand-rubber question: name the mechanism (K), apply two real pieces of extract evidence (App — a figure and a name/fact, not just one), then explain why it follows (An1). The examiner's report is explicit about where marks are actually lost here: candidates who named the right advantage but didn't develop why it occurs lost marks even with the correct answer identified — under-development, not a wrong answer, is the real failure mode (cross-reference names-the-advantage-without-developing-why in globalisation-and-growing-economies.ts). Answer the actual party named in the question stem, not the topic in general — confirmed twice independently as a real, repeated error (European businesses vs. developing economies generally, June 2022 Q1d; local vs. national economy, Jan 2024 Q3).

#The 8-mark Discuss — chains first, a brief assessment still required

Real, confirmed band (identical in June 2022 Q1c and June 2026 Q1c): L1 1-2 · L2 3-5 · L3 6-8. This is the paper's only three-band descriptor — Assess and Evaluate both use four bands (below), so don't import that mental model here. The spec wording asks for "logical chains of reasoning in context showing cause(s)/effect(s)," with only a "brief assessment required" — real, contextualised chains are the main job. But "brief" isn't "none": the June 2022 examiner's report states plainly that balance is "definitely needed" even though no formal conclusion is required. A description of what changed, without any weighing of the effect, caps below top band regardless of how accurate the description is.

#The two 12-mark Assess questions (Q1d/Q1e) — Section A's workhorse

These two questions alone are 60% of Section A's marks. Real, confirmed band — identical across three independent series (Jan 2023 Q1d, June 2022 Q1d, June 2022 Q1e): L1 1-2 · L2 3-4 · L3 5-8 · L4 9-12. L3's descriptor (paraphrased): accurate, thorough knowledge with an attempted assessment, "though unlikely to show the significance of competing arguments." L4 requires reasoning that's "balanced, wide ranging and well contextualised," showing "an awareness of competing arguments/factors, leading to a supported judgement." (This real, three-series-confirmed band differs from a separate five-band convention paper-anatomy.ts states it's using for this same tariff — flagged explicitly in §6, not silently overridden here.)

Two structural traps specific to this tariff:

• The Assess tariff itself is 12 marks here, not the 10 it carries on WBS11/WBS12 — a real, easy copy-paste error if Unit 1/2 content gets ported across papers (cross-reference assess-is-12-marks-not-10-on-this-paper).
• Two of the confirmed real anchors carry their own specific misreading risk, not a balance problem: "return on investment" as a location factor is a qualitative judgement call about a business's decision, not the investment-appraisal calculation technique (QS6) — conflating the two costs marks, and the Oct 2023 examiner's report notes candidates who did understand the term often "dismissed it without development" (cross-reference roi-dismissed-without-development). Exchange-rate exposure runs in opposite directions depending on whether the business in the question is entering a market or producing in it — a generic, scenario-blind exchange-rate paragraph is a confirmed, repeated trap; the Jan 2024 report calls exchange rates "usually a tricky topic" for exactly this reason (cross-reference enter-vs-produce-exposure-reversed).

#The two 20-mark Evaluate essays (Q2, Q3)

Real band, confirmed identically across three independent series (June 2022 Q2, October 2024 Q2, October 2025 Q2): L1 1-4 · L2 5-8 · L3 9-14 · L4 15-20. The spec wording asks for "fully developed, coherent chains of reasoning," a "full awareness of the validity/significance of competing arguments," closing in "a perceptive conclusion proposing a solution/recommendation" — that closing clause matters: a supported judgement that never actually proposes anything stops short of what the descriptor asks for. Roughly 30 minutes each at the flat heuristic; protect that time, because a rushed final two minutes is exactly where the highest-AO4-value sentence on the whole paper goes unwritten.

The single highest-value trap on this entire paper sits inside this tariff: Porter's matrix (cost leadership/differentiation/focus) confused with Porter's five forces — two different tools, mapping to two different spec points (4.3.3.1.d vs 4.3.2.2.b). The Principal Examiner's Report for October 2023 is direct about this: "a significant number of candidates" "knew little, or nothing, about Porter's matrix" and "confused it with Porter's five forces." This is Pearson-documented, names the exact wrong-tool substitution, and is worth a deliberate pre-exam check that you can tell the two apart cold (cross-reference porters-matrix-not-five-forces and five-forces-vs-porters-strategic-matrix — both lessons already teach the disambiguation; this guide isn't re-deriving it, just flagging why it's worth a final check).

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#3. Self-mark checklist

Run this against your own answer, by tariff, before moving on.

4-mark Calculate/Construct

• Identified which command word it actually is before starting
• (Calculate) Working shown, not just the final figure
• (Calculate) Answer carries the exact unit/currency symbol and decimal-place count asked
• (Construct) Both axes labelled exactly as required
• (Construct) Original equilibrium and new equilibrium both shown, with the shift direction correct

4-mark Explain

• One point, developed once — not several half-finished points
• Two real pieces of extract evidence used (not just the country/business name)
• The why, not just the what, is stated
• Answers the actual party/angle named in the question stem

8-mark Discuss

• Both directions of the effect covered
• A brief weighing/assessment given, even without a full conclusion
• Chains reach an actual effect, not just a description of what changed
• At least two genuinely distinct developed points, not a list

12-mark Assess (×2)

• A real, named example anchored to the actual business/country in the extract
• Both sides covered with roughly even development
• A conditional judgement given ("...holds if/when...") — not a flat, unconditional verdict
• Answers the exact scope/stakeholder named in the question
• Remembered this is 12 marks here, not 10

20-mark Evaluate (×2)

• Fully developed chains on both sides, not a list of factors
• A real, integrated supporting example — not just asserted
• A conclusion that actually proposes a judgement/recommendation, not just "it depends"
• Directly answers the extent/aspect the question specifies

Whole paper

• Real named examples throughout, not generic assertions
• Re-read the command word before writing each answer
• Concise — no padding, no copied-out extract text standing in for analysis
• Time checked against the ~60/30/30 budget at each section boundary

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#4. Danger phrases and common traps

#Already mapped in the curriculum — cross-referenced here, not re-taught

Every item below already exists as a named trap-taxonomy entry inside one of the seven WBS14 lessons. Scan the name and file if you want the full mechanism; this table exists so the whole paper's trap list can be seen in one place rather than seven separate files.

#Genuinely new — paper-wide, not owned by any single lesson

These four don't map to one spec point, so no topic lesson's trap-taxonomy carries them. Each is grounded in a real citation found or re-synthesised during this pass.

1. The opener's command word changes between series — answering in the wrong mode forfeits the K mark regardless of correct economics. Confirmed: Oct 2021 and Jan 2023 both set Calculate; Jan 2024 and Oct 2024 both set Construct. A candidate who has drilled one mode and free-writes prose reasoning onto a Construct question (or attempts a diagram nobody asked for on a Calculate question) loses marks for a format error, not an economics error. Check the command word before starting, every time — don't pattern-match to whichever variant you last practised.

2. The K-mark-loss mechanism is the same shape on both opener variants, even though it looks like two different mistakes. On Calculate, it's a missing currency symbol or wrong decimal-place count (confirmed: a correct number without the $ drops a full mark, per the June 2022 mark scheme's own NB rule). On Construct, it's a missing or imprecisely worded axis label (confirmed: "price"/"quantity" must be stated exactly, per the Oct 2024 mark scheme's own dedicated labelling mark). Both are the same underlying skill — state the answer in the exact form the mark scheme is checking for, not just correct underlying economics — but because the two citations sit in different questions on different papers, no single lesson states them together as one transferable rule.

3. Run the recurring examiner checklist as a final two-minute scan, not a study list. Across three independently-read series (June 2022, October 2023, January 2024), the reports repeat, close to verbatim each time: read the question and answer what was actually set; watch the command word, especially Assess/Evaluate being ignored; use real examples; avoid generic or copied-out evidence; watch timing; write concisely; add a real conclusion to the longer questions. That level of repetition across independent series is strong evidence this is a stable, structural failure pattern rather than one cohort's issue — which means it's worth treating as a final check before submitting each Discuss/Assess/Evaluate answer, not just something read once during revision.

4. The BMW/Jaguar "inelastic PED protects against tariffs" example is a real, twice-credited differentiator — but it isn't a universal shield. Two independent 20-mark essay series (January 2022 Q3 and June 2023 Q3) credit the identical example, word for word: "if PED is inelastic, tariffs may have little impact. BMW and Jaguar cars sell well in the USA despite trade barriers." Knowing examiners have rewarded this exact move twice makes it a genuinely useful example to have ready for a "protectionism's impact on global businesses" essay. But don't over-generalise it: the same protectionism lesson's own trap-taxonomy (ped-inelastic-exporter-assumed-immune-on-every-channel) already flags that inelastic export demand doesn't protect a business from the other real channel — retaliatory tariffs/quotas raising the cost of imported raw materials and components it still has to buy. A strong essay uses BMW/Jaguar for the demand-side point and still tests the input-cost side separately.

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#5. Exam-day protocol

Kept short, deliberately — most generic "exam day" advice isn't grounded in anything specific to this paper, so it's left out rather than padded in.

• Bring a calculator you're actually fluent with (spec-permitted, Appendix 10) — Section A's opener is a live QS2/QS3/QS7 calculation or diagram from the first four marks of the paper.
• All three questions (Q1, Q2, Q3) key to Source Booklet extracts — a quick skim of the whole booklet before committing to Q1 means Q2/Q3's extracts aren't being read cold when you reach Sections B/C.
• Identify the Q1(a) command word (Calculate vs Construct) before planning your Section A time — see §4, trap 1.
• Protect Q1(d), Q1(e) and the two 20-mark essays — 64 of the paper's 80 marks, and nearly all of its AO4 weighting — from a Section A opener that's run long. A good-enough opener with working shown, finished on time, beats a perfect opener that eats into Q1(e).
• In the last two minutes on any Discuss/Assess/Evaluate answer, run the self-mark checklist (§3) rather than adding another sentence — the recurring examiner checklist (§4, trap 3) is about what's missing from an answer, not how much more could be added to it.
• Have at least one real, named example ready per major spec area rather than relying on a generic, unnamed "many businesses..." sentence — generic, non-specific evidence is flagged as a live problem across every series this course's research has read.

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#6. Flagged gaps and one correction for course maintainers

• A real inconsistency, not a judgement call. paper-anatomy.ts states its own 12-mark Assess level-band figures (L1 1-2 / L2 3-4 / L3-entry 5-6 / L3-top 7-8 / L4 9-12) as "this course's own proportional convention... not a number independently pulled from a real WBS14 Assess-question mark scheme," and flags that explicitly. This pass found three independent real mark schemes (Jan 2023 Q1d, June 2022 Q1d, June 2022 Q1e) that all confirm the same four-band structure instead: L1 1-2 / L2 3-4 / L3 5-8 / L4 9-12 — a single L3 band, not split into entry/top. This guide uses the real, confirmed band throughout §2 rather than the course's placeholder convention. Worth a maintainer pass on paper-anatomy.ts itself to reconcile the two rather than carrying both forward.
• Sample size. Only ~7-8 of the roughly 15 exam series held since first assessment (June 2020) have been read by this course's research at all, and most of those are single-question, citation-currency-audit pulls rather than full papers. Any "confirmed on every series checked" statement above rests on that partial sample.
• Still genuinely unconfirmed as standalone questions: "other trade barriers" and the general "reasons for protectionism" list (spec 4.3.1.4), and EU/NAFTA specifically as the central case for a trading-bloc question (ASAN and the non-spec-named AfCFTA/RCEP are the confirmed real cases so far).
• Niche markets (4.3.3.2) remains the lower-confidence spec sub-point on this paper relative to the rest — two confirmed series (Oct 2024, Oct 2022), each anchoring a different sub-point, versus five-plus for most of the rest of the spec.
• This guide's own synthesis, flagged as such: §4's traps 1, 2 and 4 are original cross-lesson/cross-citation synthesis built for this guide, not independently stated as a single named trap anywhere else in the course's own materials. Trap 3 (the recurring checklist) restates something the facts bank already documents as a stable pattern, not a new finding.

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#Sources

Primary documents cited above (all WBS14/01, "Unit 4: Global Business," unless noted): Mark Scheme October 2021; Mark Scheme + Examiners' Report June 2022 (Publications Code WBS14_01_2206_MS, Log Number P71450A); Mark Scheme January 2023 (WBS14_01_2301, P72456A); Principal Examiner's Report October 2023; Principal Examiner's Report + Mark Scheme January 2024; Mark Scheme + Question Paper October 2024 (WBS14_01_2410_MS, P78408A); Mark Scheme + Principal Examiner Feedback October 2024 second series (niche markets, same publication window); Mark Scheme + Question Paper October 2022 (WBS14_01_2210_MS, P72168A); Mark Scheme June 2023 (WBS14_01_2306_MS, P72046A); Mark Scheme January 2022 (WBS14_01_2201); Mark Scheme + Question Paper October 2025 (WBS14_01_2510_MS, P75887A); Mark Scheme June 2026 (WBS14_01_2606_MS, P79710A); Mark Scheme January 2026 (WBS14_01_2601_MS). Full provenance, fetch method and re-verification detail for every one of the above lives in research/veridian/WBS14-verified-facts.md, which this guide treats as its own upstream source of record rather than re-verifying independently.

Secondary: content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/paper-anatomy.ts (whole-paper mark/time reference, AO weighting, command-word table); the seven WBS14 topic lessons under content/veridian/curriculum/wbs14/ (trap-taxonomy cross-references throughout §4); International A Level Business Specification, Issue 1, September 2017 (Appendix 6 command words, Appendix 7 quantitative skills, Appendix 10 calculators).