This resource is for the 2018-24 specification. Please visit the 2025 section of the website for up-to-date materials.

Proposing good courses of action is central to IGCSE Global Perspectives:

  • the Individual Report ends with a proposed course of action to address the issue explored
  • the Team Project requires students to formulate and carry out actions to address an issue
  • Exam Q4 (worth 24 marks) asks the student to choose between different courses of action.*

Try the BCDD Framework to evaluate courses of action. It is based on indicative content from mark schemes, various frameworks met on an MBA course (many years ago, admittedly!) plus experience of writing worked examples for students. BCDD is simple enough to memorise – you can say it’s almost as easy as ABC!

Here’s the framework:

Benefits
How well would the action solve the problem?
– quickly/slowly
– permanently/temporarily
– definitely/maybe
– with good/bad value for money?
What are the benefits, and how would different people view them?
Would the action have any knock-on benefits?
Does the scale of the effect (personal, local, national, global) fit the scale of the issue?
 
Capabilities
Could the action be carried out successfully?
Is there enough know-how and money available?
Are there any opportunities which could boost the plan (e.g. working together with somebody or something)?
 
Drawbacks
What are the costs? Who would pay?
Can we foresee any bad consequences? Whom would they impact?
Is there a lot of uncertainty or risk?
 
Difficulties
Are there any bad conditions or technical challenges which could thwart the plan?
Might anybody’s perspective (e.g. culture or vested interest) make them oppose the action? If so, are they powerful enough to stand in the way?

Here is a free preparation table and writing template for a “Recommendation Type” Exam Question 4. We also have a free sample lesson that brings this kind of question into an authentic context – see Lesson 4 of the Globalisation unit of our Out of the Box courseware. If you find these free resources useful, please consider taking out a membership to access all the other great resources we’ve developed for IGCSE Global Perspectives. For example, we have a Q4 worked answer with commentary as part of our comprehensive Student Self-Access Exam Prep pages.

*At the time of writing, 23 out of 29 past papers since the 2018 syllabus change have had this type of Q4. The less common type of Q4 asks students to discuss whether they agree with a stated claim.

Keyboard image by Paul Zoetemeijer on Unsplash