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Which subjects make up the commerce group?

Economics, Business and Accounting — what each one actually is, and the syllabus change happening to one of them.

Three subjects make up the commerce group: Economics (0455), Business and Accounting (0452). None of them is tiered — every candidate sits the same papers and the full A*–G range is available — and none of them assumes the others have been studied.

They are not three versions of one subject

  • Economics is about how markets, firms and governments behave, and why prices, employment and trade move as they do. It is the most theoretical of the three and the most argument-based.
  • Business is about how a single firm is run — marketing, people, operations, finance — and is examined largely through case material about a specific company.
  • Accounting is a set of rules and records: what a transaction does to the books, and how the books produce a statement. It is the most procedural, and the one that suits students who like a method that gives a right answer.

There is some shared vocabulary — costs, revenue, competition — but each is examined on its own terms, and doing well in one is no guarantee in another.

How each is assessed

Economics 0455 has two papers: a multiple-choice paper worth 30% and a longer structured paper worth 70%, containing a compulsory data-response question plus a choice of longer questions. The current syllabus lengthens the multiple-choice paper to forty questions in an hour and reshapes the structured paper.

Accounting 0452 also has two: a multiple-choice paper worth 30% and a written paper worth 70% made up of five compulsory twenty-mark questions. Recent syllabus content adds ethical considerations and the effect of technology and sustainability on accounting practice.

Business has two papers of equal weight: a short-answer and data-response paper, and a case study paper, each with four compulsory questions built on stimulus material.

The Business syllabus change

Cambridge is replacing Business Studies 0450 with a new syllabus, 0264. The last examination for 0450 is the November 2026 series and 0264 is first examined from the March 2027 series. On the 9–1 scale the equivalent change is 0986 ending and 0774 beginning.

This is a genuine revision, not a rename. Content has been reordered and trimmed, questions now carry four parts rather than five, application carries more weight, and new material has been added on technology in production, sustainable production and digital communication. The practical consequence for a student: past papers from 0450 no longer match the new syllabus in full, so revision material has to be chosen for the right code.

Who takes them

Commerce subjects are the natural set for a student heading toward business, finance, law or management. They are also the most common electives added by students whose main package is science, where the timetable allows it — a separate question, and one the school answers.

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