The Cambridge AS & A Level Business (9609) May/June 2026 papers and mark schemes are out, and they’re free. All four papers, 9609/12 to 9609/42, can be downloaded and printed on the Tutopiya Learning Portal. Below is a breakdown of the questions and case studies on each paper and how the mark scheme gave marks, taken from the papers themselves.

Key points from the 2026 9609 papers

• People management ran through every paper: human needs and trade unions on Paper 1, a diversity and equality plan on Paper 2, delayering on Paper 3 and an employee performance strategy on Paper 4.
• Redundancy came up three times: as a 3-mark definition on Paper 2, as part of the delayering proposal on Paper 3, and in the Paper 4 case, where self-check-in devices replaced more than 200 staff.
• Inventory and capacity linked the papers. Paper 1 asked about operating over maximum capacity; Paper 2 asked for a type of inventory and a flower shop working over capacity; Paper 3 asked about valuing inventory and inventory turnover.
• Five calculations, all short: labour turnover, capital expenditure, span of control, accounting rate of return and the change in inventory turnover. The own figure rule applied throughout.
• Context decides the mark. Copying the case or naming the business without using it earned nothing. The schemes call this repetition.

All May/June 2026 9609 papers

Paper	Code	Duration	Marks	What it tests
Paper 1 Business Concepts 1	9609/12	1 hour 15 minutes	40	Short answers and one essay (AS)
Paper 2 Business Concepts 2	9609/22	1 hour 30 minutes	60	Two short case studies (AS)
Paper 3 Business Decision-Making	9609/32	1 hour 45 minutes	60	One long case study in an insert (A Level)
Paper 4 Business Strategy	9609/42	1 hour 15 minutes	40	One strategy case with two 20-mark questions (A Level)

Timings and marks are taken from the front cover of each 2026 paper. Papers 1, 2 and 4 are answered in an answer booklet; Paper 3 is answered on the question paper, with the case study in a separate insert. For the full syllabus content, see the Cambridge International AS & A Level Business 9609 syllabus.

Which variant is this? Cambridge sets different versions of each paper (variants) for different time zones. The papers here are variant 2: 9609/12, /22, /32 and /42. All variants cover the same syllabus at the same difficulty, so variant 2 is just as good for practice as the one your school sat.

Download the 9609 May/June 2026 papers →

What came up in 9609 Paper 1 (Business Concepts 1), May/June 2026?

Paper 1 had four compulsory questions in Section A (20 marks) and a choice of two essays in Section B (20 marks). You answer five questions in total.

Question	Topic	Marks
1	Define intrapreneurship (2); why business objectives change over time (3)	5
2	Define work-life balance (2); one disadvantage of off-the-job training (3)	5
3	Define psychographic market segmentation (2); one disadvantage of market segmentation (3)	5
4	Analyse one impact of operating over maximum capacity	5
5 (option)	Two reasons why poor cost information can lead to business failure (8); evaluate budgets for the success of a large road construction project (12)	20
6 (option)	Two advantages of satisfying human needs at work (8); evaluate the view that removing trade unions is the only way to stop industrial action in a public sector railway business (12)	20

Watch for: Question 4 gave no marks at all unless you named a relevant impact first. The analysis marks only come after the knowledge mark.

What came up in 9609 Paper 2 (Business Concepts 2)?

Paper 2 had two case studies, each worth 30 marks, with the same question pattern: 1, 3, 3, 3, 8 and 12 marks.

Question 1, Public Television (PT): a public sector broadcaster and streaming service with 20 000 staff, 40% of them women. A table showed that female employees had lower average pay and job satisfaction and higher labour turnover than the workforce as a whole. A new law on workplace diversity and equality had led the directors to plan parental leave for men, free childcare, selection targets for women (including senior posts) and equal access to training.

Question 2, Zorba’s Flowers (ZF): a flower shop set up by a former engineer with his redundancy savings. His business plan listed set-up and monthly costs. In the first three months he hit supply chain problems (weather, peak-time over-capacity, perishable stock) and ran out of working capital because he had not managed his trade payables.

Question	Public Television (Q1)	Marks	Zorba’s Flowers (Q2)	Marks
(a)(i)	Identify one method of employee selection	1	Identify one type of inventory	1
(a)(ii)	Explain the term public sector	3	Explain the term redundancy	3
(b)(i)	Calculate how many female employees left in 2025	3	Calculate capital expenditure at set-up	3
(b)(ii)	Why PT matters to country A’s development	3	One way to manage trade payables better	3
(c)	One advantage and one disadvantage of targeting the mass market	8	One benefit and one limitation of a business plan	8
(d)	Evaluate the most likely impact of the diversity and equality plan	12	Evaluate the importance of improved supply chain management	12

What made it hard: the 1-mark questions were strict. Only listed selection methods counted for Q1(a)(i), and Q2(a)(i) wanted a type of inventory such as raw materials or finished goods. “Flowers” scored nothing.

What came up in 9609 Paper 3 (Business Decision-Making)?

Paper 3 is one long case study, printed in an insert, about CC, a car retailer. From the data the mark scheme uses, CC had moved its showroom to a site on a busy road between two cities, sells petrol and electric models, and operates in a country with high inflation and rising GDP. The directors were considering delayering, by making two sales managers redundant, and buying an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) programme to take over some of their work.

Question	Topic	Marks
1	Analyse two factors that may have determined the new showroom site	8
2	Analyse two difficulties CC may have when valuing inventory	8
3(a)	Span of control for the showroom sales manager (from an organisation chart)	1
3(b)	Accounting rate of return (ARR) for the ERP programme	3
3(c)	Evaluate whether the directors should delayer the structure	12
4(a)	Change in the rate of inventory turnover between 2024 and 2025	4
4(b)	Evaluate the importance of sales forecasting for CC	12
5	Evaluate how far economic factors may affect CC’s decision making	12

Watch for: Question 5 was about decisions, not just impacts. The scheme only gave Level 2 or Level 3 evaluation when you linked an economic factor (inflation, growth, interest rates, exchange rates) to a decision CC would actually make.

What came up in 9609 Paper 4 (Business Strategy)?

Paper 4 was a timeline case on Gas Motels (GM), a chain of 104 motels across Europe that grew by taking over smaller chains. Between 2018 and 2025 it updated its fire evacuation plan after new laws, chose the cheaper of two cybersecurity products, and closed its motels during the pandemic. That led to losses, then a slow return to break-even. GM then spent $10m on self-check-in devices that replaced more than 200 staff, suffered a cyberattack that disabled them for two weeks in the summer peak, and reviewed its insurance. The HR director blamed poor employee performance for revenue and profit staying below pre-2020 levels.

Question	Task	Marks
1	Evaluate the effectiveness of GM’s contingency planning between 2018 and 2025	20
2	Advise the board on an appropriate strategy for improving employee performance	20

What made it hard: Question 1 covered seven years of events. The strongest answers judged each plan (fire, cybersecurity, pandemic, insurance) against what then happened, such as the cheaper cybersecurity package failing to stop the 2024 attack.

How the 9609 May/June 2026 mark scheme gives marks

Business is marked on four assessment objectives: AO1 knowledge, AO2 application, AO3 analysis and AO4 evaluation. Each question type uses a fixed split.

1. Definitions are 2 marks for clear, 1 for partial. Paper 1 Question 1(a) gave 2 marks for an employee who thinks and acts like an entrepreneur inside a business. “Someone who has new ideas” scored 1, because it could describe any entrepreneur.

2. The 3-mark “explain” questions need knowledge first. They split 1 mark for knowledge and 2 for application. On Paper 2 Question 1(b)(ii) the three marks were a reason, an explanation and a link to PT. The scheme states that no marks can be given without the knowledge point. One exemplar scored just 1 because “names are not content”.

3. Repeating the case is not application. For Paper 2 Question 1(a)(ii), saying PT is an example of the public sector was not credited, because it just repeats the data. On Paper 4, context “used, but not linked to another AO” was also treated as repetition.

4. Calculations use the own figure rule (OFR). Paper 2 Question 1(b)(i) gave 3 marks for 1600 female leavers: 1 for the labour turnover formula, 1 for 8000 female employees, 1 for the answer. On Question 2(b)(i), adding one revenue item to the two capital items still scored 2 marks on OFR; adding two scored 1; adding three scored 0. On Paper 3 Question 3(b) the ARR was 24%, and the scheme listed part marks for common wrong routes.

5. The 8-mark “analyse” questions split 2/2/4. You get 2 marks for knowledge, 2 for application and 4 for analysis. Analysis has two levels: limited (1 to 2) and developed (3 to 4). Paper 3 defined these clearly. Limited analysis shows one link in the chain of reasoning; developed shows two or more. On Paper 3 Question 1, only your best two factors counted, and one fully developed factor could reach 3 analysis marks on its own.

6. The 12-mark “evaluate” questions put half the marks on judgement. The grid gives 2 marks each for AO1, AO2 and AO3 and 6 for AO4. Evaluation has three levels:

• Level 1 (1 to 2): a judgement with limited support, or an attempt to balance the arguments.
• Level 2 (3 to 4): a developed judgement with balanced evaluative comments.
• Level 3 (5 to 6): the same, but made in the context of the business.

Paper 2 Question 2(d) showed the difference. Saying supply chain management matters “because of the nature of the product” was Level 1. Adding that flowers must be sold quickly made it Level 2. Adding that they are perishable, so Zorba must order the right stock and deliver on time, made it Level 3. The scheme also says a judgement can appear anywhere in the essay, not only in the conclusion.

7. Paper 4 uses a 20-mark grid weighted to analysis and evaluation. Both questions split 3 marks AO1, 2 AO2, 8 AO3 and 7 AO4. Analysis has three levels: limited (1 to 3), developed analysis of individual strategic elements (4 to 6), and developed analysis of the overall strategy (7 to 8). Evaluation runs from Level 1 (1 to 2) to Level 3 (6 to 7), which needs a judgement in context that draws on your earlier analysis. No AO2, AO3 or AO4 marks are possible without AO1.

8. Counterbalance each point. For both Paper 4 questions the scheme says a developed point reaches Level 2 analysis and must be counterbalanced to reach Level 3. Doing that twice earns all 8 analysis marks. For Question 1, the Level 3 evaluation example blamed the 2024 cyberattack on GM choosing the cheaper package to save money.

Which papers should you sit?

• AS Level: Paper 1 and Paper 2.
• Full A Level: Papers 1, 2, 3 and 4.

On Paper 1 Section B, read both essays before you choose. In 2026 one option was finance-based (cost information and budgets) and the other was about people (human needs and trade unions). Pick the one where you can write a judgement in context, not just the one with the easier part (a).

How to use the 2026 papers as a mock

1. Keep them for last. Use older 9609 papers for topic practice and save May/June 2026 for a timed mock close to your exam.
2. Time the case. On Paper 3 and Paper 4, spend about 10 minutes reading the case and marking the figures and events you will use as evidence.
3. Do the calculations twice. Rework the labour turnover, capital expenditure, ARR and inventory turnover answers without looking, and show every step so OFR can save you.
4. Write one Level 3 judgement per essay. For every 12-mark answer, write a final paragraph that names the business, uses a fact from the case and says what your answer depends on.
5. Mark with the grid. Annotate your own answer with K, APP, AN and EVAL, then count how many links each chain of analysis has.

More A Level Business resources

• Cambridge A Level Business 9609: top 10 most frequently tested topics
• Free Cambridge A Level Business notes (9609)
• A Level past papers 2026: all subjects

🔍 Looking for a specific past paper? Use our free Past Paper Finder to search by subject, year and exam board.

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Frequently asked questions

Are the 9609 May/June 2026 past papers free? +

Yes. All four question papers (9609/12, 9609/22, 9609/32 and 9609/42) and their official mark schemes are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

What came up in 9609 Paper 2 May/June 2026? +

Paper 2 had two 30-mark case studies. Public Television, a public sector broadcaster, covered employee selection, labour turnover, the mass market and a diversity and equality plan. Zorba's Flowers, a new flower shop, covered inventory, redundancy, capital expenditure, trade payables, business plans and supply chain management.

What was the Paper 4 case study in 9609 May/June 2026? +

Paper 4 was set on Gas Motels, a European motel chain. Question 1 asked you to evaluate its contingency planning between 2018 and 2025, and Question 2 asked you to advise the board on a strategy for improving employee performance. Each question was worth 20 marks.

How are the 12-mark essays in 9609 marked? +

They use a grid worth 2 marks for knowledge, 2 for application, 2 for analysis and 6 for evaluation. Evaluation has three levels, and the top level (5 to 6 marks) needs a developed judgement made in the context of the business, not just a general conclusion.

Why can't I find 9609/11 or 9609/13 for 2026? +

Only variant 2 of the May/June 2026 papers is on the portal at the moment. Cambridge sets different variants for different time zones; variants 1 and 3 test the same syllabus in the same format, so variant 2 prepares you just as well.

When will the October/November 2026 9609 papers be available? +

Cambridge usually releases the October/November papers in the new year. We add them to the Learning Portal once they are published.

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