Entrepreneurship Track Admissions

You have a developed idea and an available prototype, together with a presentation, pitch deck or concise written summary/business plan. Revenue is not required.

Complete A0–A3: explain your project’s stage, present the idea, write your Focus Sentence and reflect using Brookfield’s Four Lenses. Submit a pitch deck, presentation or business plan alongside the booklet, or a One-Pager if you do not have a formal deck.

Your deck or plan should cover the problem, solution, target market, business model, team, current challenges and what you have tried to address them. The One-Pager structure covers problem and context, solution and value proposition, target customer, evidence, SWOT highlights and a business model snapshot.

• Length: Sections A0–A3 of your booklet should fit on no more than 5 pages. The 5-page limit applies to A0–A3 only. The self-check is not counted. You may attach a pitch deck, presentation, business plan, or sketches or photos of your prototype as an annex. The annex has no page limit.
• Focus Sentence: explain who your product helps, the specific outcome it delivers and the method that makes it distinctive.
• Brookfield’s Four Lenses: reflect from your own perspective, your users’ or customers’ perspective, the perspective of industry peers or mentors, and the perspective of evidence, data or research.
• Complete the self-check for your pathway. Name files clearly, for example Surname_FirstName_ProjectName, and save your submission documents as PDFs.
• If you have used cloud storage such as Google Drive to share photos, videos, etc. and included the link in the booklet, check that anyone with the link can open the folder.
• Complete the declaration with your name, date and signature. It confirms that the work reflects your own thinking and project, and includes consent for TLF to share a project summary and outcomes in admissions and promotional materials, including your name unless you request otherwise.
• Acknowledge everyone who helped and explain their contribution. Include any generative AI tools used and copy the prompts you used.

You have already launched something and have real users, data, revenue or funding to report.

Complete B0–B4: explain your project’s stage, write your Focus Sentence, report actual metrics, provide evidence of traction and reflect using Brookfield’s Four Lenses.

Report one key metric and two supporting metrics, explaining why each matters and how it was measured. Include relevant evidence such as active or paying users, revenue, funding, external recognition, how customers find and access your product, and what you have learned from them. Use actual results, not projections; small numbers are welcome when reported honestly.

• Length: Sections B0–B4 of your booklet should fit on no more than 5 pages. The 5-page limit applies to B0–B4 only. The self-check is not counted. You may attach a pitch deck, presentation, business plan, or sketches or photos of your prototype as an annex. The annex has no page limit.
• Focus Sentence: explain who your product helps, the specific outcome it delivers and the method that makes it distinctive.
• Brookfield’s Four Lenses: reflect from your own perspective, your users’ or customers’ perspective, the perspective of industry peers or mentors, and the perspective of evidence, data or research.
• Complete the self-check for your pathway. Name files clearly, for example Surname_FirstName_ProjectName, and save your submission documents as PDFs.
• If you have used cloud storage such as Google Drive to share photos, videos, etc. and included the link in the booklet, check that anyone with the link can open the folder.
• Complete the declaration with your name, date and signature. It confirms that the work reflects your own thinking and project, and includes consent for TLF to share a project summary and outcomes in admissions and promotional materials, including your name unless you request otherwise.
• Acknowledge everyone who helped and explain their contribution. Include any generative AI tools used and copy the prompts you used.

Estimate a number you cannot look up, such as how many items are sold in a year. The examiner wants to see your steps, not an exact answer.

Sample question

Estimate how many pizzas are bought in a city of 2 million people in one year. Show each step and state your assumptions.

What a good answer includes

• Give a clear chain of steps before calculating: people → households → how often they buy → pizzas per order.
• State each assumption and give a short reason. For example: “About 2.5 people per household, so 800,000 households. A typical household orders pizza twice a month and gets 2 pizzas each time.”
• Calculate: 800,000 × 2 × 12 × 2 ≈ 38 million pizzas a year. You may also account for restaurant and frozen pizzas.
• Check whether the answer is reasonable: about 19 pizzas per person per year, or one every three weeks.

Tips

• Split people into groups if they behave differently, such as students and families.
• Use round numbers.
• Avoid counting the same thing twice.

Explain how you would approach a problem and what information you would ask for before you have any data.

Sample question

A café’s profits have fallen over the last year. What questions would you ask to find out why? Organise your questions clearly.

What a good answer includes

• Use the profit framework: profit = revenue − costs. Split your questions into these two groups.
• Revenue: are fewer customers coming? Does each customer spend less? Have prices or the mix of products people buy changed?
• Costs: has rent gone up? Are coffee, milk or food more expensive? Are staff costs higher?
• External factors: has a new café opened nearby? Are people spending less in general? STEEPLE can help here.
• Start with the most likely causes and explain why you would investigate them first.

Read a table or chart and explain what the numbers mean.

Sample question

A bookshop’s sales are shown below. What do you notice, and what might explain it?

What a good answer includes

• Identify the trends: printed book sales fall by 4,000 a year (10%, then about 11%), e-book sales more than double, and printed book prices rise.
• Calculate total sales: 45,000, then 44,000, then 44,000. Total demand is roughly steady; the data suggest that customers are switching formats rather than reading less.
• Add a useful calculation: printed book revenue is €600,000, then €576,000, then €544,000. It falls despite higher prices.
• Offer a possible explanation, such as the convenience of reading e-books on phones and tablets. Distinguish this explanation from what the table directly shows.

Tips

• Do not just repeat the numbers. Explain what they mean.

Use the numbers provided to calculate an answer or compare options.

Sample question

A gym has 1,000 members paying €40 a month. Each member costs the gym €10 a month to serve. The manager wants to cut the price to €30 and expects 1,300 members at the new price. Will the gym’s monthly profit go up or down?

What a good answer includes

• Before fixed costs, the current monthly amount is 1,000 × (€40 − €10) = €30,000.
• After the price cut, it is 1,300 × (€30 − €10) = €26,000 a month.
• If fixed costs stay the same, profit falls by €4,000 a month. On these numbers, the price cut is not worthwhile.
• For an extra step, calculate how many members would keep profit unchanged: €30,000 ÷ €20 = 1,500 members.

Tips

• Explain each step so the examiner can follow it.
• Check units: per month or per year, per person or in total?
• Finish with a sentence that answers the question.

Decide whether two things changing together means that one causes the other.

Sample question

A school notices that students who eat breakfast get better exam results. The head teacher says: “Breakfast makes students do better in exams. Let’s give every student free breakfast and results will rise.”

1. Why might the data not prove that breakfast causes better results?
2. Suggest another explanation.
3. How could the school test whether breakfast really helps?

What a good answer includes

• The two things are correlated, but students who eat breakfast may differ from those who do not in other ways.
• A hidden third factor could cause both. More organised home routines, more sleep or more parental support may make students more likely to eat breakfast and study well.
• Suggest a fair test: offer free breakfast to a randomly chosen half of similar classes for a term. Compare their results with the other half’s, keeping other conditions the same.

Tips

• Ask whether something else could cause both.
• Consider whether the cause could run the other way.
• A good test changes one thing and compares against a control group.

Use clues given one at a time to find the most likely reason for a problem.

Sample question

A bakery’s profits have fallen. You find out:

• Prices and the number of loaves sold are unchanged.
• The cost of flour, butter and staff per loaf is unchanged.
• Customers now ask for more types of bread, so the bakers make 15 varieties instead of 5.
• Each variety needs the ovens to be cleaned and reset before baking.

What is the most likely cause of the falling profits?

What a good answer includes

• Rule out the changes the facts do not support: prices, sales volume and the stated per-loaf costs have not changed.
• Spot the key clue: more varieties mean more oven changeovers. Investigate the extra cleaning time, downtime and staff hours; these can increase total costs without producing more bread.
• Suggest a fix: cut the least popular varieties, bake similar breads in the same batch or charge more for special breads.

Tips

• A fishbone diagram can help you list possible causes before choosing one. Consider people, methods, materials, machines and environment.

Suggest ways to grow a business, create new products or cut costs, and explain why they could work.

Sample question

A small bicycle shop in a busy city wants to earn more money. Suggest at least four ideas and explain why each might work.

What a good answer includes

• Offer varied ideas with reasons. Repairs and servicing could bring repeat business because people use their bikes for years. Rentals could serve tourists visiting the city.
• Consider selling helmets, lights and locks with bikes, offering monthly maintenance plans or selling electric bikes. Explain why each idea fits the customers.
• Link your ideas to the shop’s location, staff skills and existing customers.
• Use SWOT: opportunities such as more tourists or more cycling, together with strengths such as expert staff, help identify realistic ideas.

Tips

• Four well-explained ideas earn more marks than ten ideas without reasons.

Choose between options and explain the trade-off: getting more of one thing may mean getting less of another.

Sample question

A cinema can charge €6 or €12 for a ticket. At €6 it is usually full; at €12 it is about half full. Which price would you choose? Explain the trade-off and use a real-life example.

What a good answer includes

• Make a clear choice. For example: “I would charge €12 on Friday and Saturday evenings and €6 on weekday afternoons.”
• Explain the trade-off: a higher price earns more per ticket but fills fewer seats. A lower price fills the room but earns less per ticket. Popcorn and drink sales also depend on attendance.
• Use simple numbers: with 200 seats, €6 × 200 = €1,200 and €12 × 100 = €1,200. Ticket revenue is the same, so higher attendance may bring more snack sales.
• Give a real-life example: airlines and trains charge more at busy times and less at quiet times.
• Discuss risks, such as customers feeling that the higher price is unfair.

Tips

• Make a clear decision and explain the trade-off; “it depends” alone does not explain your reasoning.