9609/33/O/N/25 · 9609_w25_qp_33
A Level Business 9609 Paper 3 Business Decision-Making — October/November 2025
9609/33/O/N/25 is component 33 of Cambridge International A Level Business from the October/November 2025 series — Business Decision-Making: 60 marks over 1h 45m, across 5 questions. Past-paper sites list it as 9609_w25_qp_33.
It is answered from a case study about Lithium Battery Metals (LBM) — every application mark on the paper comes from using that material.
Quanta has broken this paper down part by part against the assessment-objective grids in its published mark scheme. Below is how its marks split between knowledge, application, analysis and evaluation — which tells you what kind of writing the paper is actually rewarding.
Updated 15 September 2026
At a glance
| Cambridge code | 9609/33/O/N/25 |
|---|---|
| Filename | 9609_w25_qp_33 |
| Syllabus | 9609 — Business (AS & A Level) |
| Component | 33 (Paper 3 Business Decision-Making) |
| Series | October/November 2025 |
| Case study | Lithium Battery Metals (LBM) |
| Duration | 1h 45m |
| Total marks | 60 |
| Questions | 5 (9 parts) |
Where the marks are, by assessment objective
Every part of a 9609 paper is marked against a grid that splits its tariff between the four assessment objectives — a 12-mark question is 2 knowledge, 2 application, 2 analysis and 6 evaluation. Summing those grids across the whole paper gives the split below. How the grids work, and what each objective demands →
AO4 Evaluation carries 18 of the 60 marks (30%). On a Business paper that is usually where candidates lose most — examiner reports say the same thing every series: marks are dropped not for lack of knowledge but for not applying it to the case, or for describing where a judgement was asked for.
How to answer each question type on this paper
The tariff of a 9609 question fixes its grid, so the same technique works on every question of that size. This paper sets:
- 3 × 12-mark12-mark 'evaluate' questions →
- 2 × 8-mark8-mark 'analyse' questions →
- 1 × 3-markShort-answer questions (2, 3 and 5 marks) →
- 2 × 2-markShort-answer questions (2, 3 and 5 marks) →
- 1 × 1-markShort-answer questions (2, 3 and 5 marks) →
Practising this paper
Cambridge publishes past papers and mark schemes through its own site and through schools — this page describes the paper rather than reproducing it. Inside Quanta you can sit this paper as it is set: the case study beside the answer boxes, one question at a time, and every answer marked automatically against the published mark scheme, objective by objective, with the reasoning shown — and your teacher can adjust any mark.
Practise 9609/33/O/N/25 against real mark schemes
Quanta has real Cambridge A Level Business 9609 past-paper questions, with the case study beside the answer boxes, every answer marked automatically against the published mark scheme objective by objective, and the reasoning shown — and it tracks which skills you’re missing. Free for individual students.
Start practising freeCommon questions
What does 9609/33/O/N/25 mean?
It is Cambridge’s reference for one specific paper: 9609 is the syllabus, 33 the component (Paper 3 Business Decision-Making, variant 3), and the rest is the series — October/November 2025.
What is 9609_w25_qp_33?
The same paper in the filename convention past-paper sites use: 9609 syllabus, w25 for the series (m = February/March, s = May/June, w = October/November, then the year), qp for the question paper (the mark scheme is ms, the examiner report er), and 33 the component.
How long is this paper?
1h 45m for 60 marks — roughly 105 seconds per mark. Practising at that pace matters as much as knowing the content.