2024 Final Economics Exam Guidance Yr11

You will sit two papers:

 Paper 1 = Microeconomics (chapters 1-24)
 Paper 2 = Macroeconomics (chapters 25-42)

What will be on the test?

Everything could be!!!

Timings, marks and types of questions

You will have 90 minutes for each paper, and there are a total of 80 marks for each paper.
 Each paper consists of three 6-mark questions, two 9-mark questions and one 12-mark question.
 Thus there will be a total of 48 marks for these long questions, with 32 marks remaining for short
questions (between 1-3 marks each).
 See guidance below for how to answer these questions.

Where can I find all the slides from lessons?

These are all located in the class notebook within Microsoft Teams, within the folder called "Chapter
Notes".
 All answers to all case studies from the textbook are in these slides.

Revision checklists

Revision checklists are a good way to check that you have covered all of the basic knowledge for each
chapter.

Revision checklists are located on Teams => Class Notebook => Exams and revision => Revision Checklists

Where can I find past papers?

These are all located in the class notebook within Microsoft Teams, within the folder called "Exams and
revision", and “Past papers”.

When practicing these questions, remember to correct your answers with a different colour pen. I would
suggest that these questions are good to practise towards the end of your revision. Before this, you need to
ensure that you know the basic knowledge (see the revision checklists further down the page).

I will give you print-outs of a full paper 1 and paper 2. I strongly suggest that you complete these under
exam conditions (timed) near the end of your revision for practice.

Check out the new worksheets

There are interesting worksheets for each chapter that you have not done. These can be found at the
location below and include answers. Please note that although these worksheets are useful, they do not
contain the same level of detail as my notes or the essay answers to group questions.

Location: Teams => Class notebook => Exams and revision => Worksheets by chapter
Advice on exam technique

 To help your revision, make sure you know which areas of exam technique you have lost marks for
in past assessments (e.g. not explaining fully, or not reading the question carefully enough).
 When the exam begins, have a quick look at the six long questions (just read the question rather
than all the information above it). Anything that looks easy should not be left until the end, because
you might run out of time and severely regret it! It is wiser to leave harder questions to the end.
 You will almost certainly be pushed for time. Don’t waste time by writing definitions for 3-mark
questions (not needed), writing explanations for “state” questions (not needed) or writing more
than 3/4 sentences for paragraphs in a 6/9/12-mark question.
 Don’t forget context in 3-mark explain questions! Just repeating words from the question (e.g. a
product, or name of a business/country) is not context!
 Calculation questions:
o Practise calculations during your revision. Our notes and worksheets contain lots of practice.
o Don’t forget units (e.g. millions, or thousands) and perhaps currency symbols.
o Show your working. If you make a calculation error, you can still get one out of two marks.
o Know your formulas, e.g. PED, PES, YED, labour productivity, total costs, total variable costs,
average cost, profit, revenue etc.
 Diagrams:
o When drawing a new supply or demand curve, ensure to draw dotted lines across to the x-
axis and y-axis to show the new equilibrium price and quantity (and label them, p2 and q2
for example).
o Don’t forget to label both axes and all curves.
 Definitions: not making the effort to learn accurate definitions means losing some of the easiest
marks in the exam.
 Underline key words in the question to avoid misunderstanding what the question is asking.
 Remember that 9- & 12-mark questions are always two-sided.
o Sometimes the question says “assess the benefits of…” or “assess the drawbacks of…”. In
both cases you need to have two-sided answers, looking at both the benefits and the
drawbacks.
 If you draw a diagram in a 6-, 9-, or 12-marker, you must reference points on your diagram in your
written explanation. You will get little credit for a diagram which is not explained or referenced.
 Answer the question directly on all long questions. At the end of every paragraph, link your point
directly to the question (e.g. “therefore derived demand may not affect the demand for labour, but
instead it is the availability of substitutes such as machines”).

How should I revise?

The most important aspect of revision is that it should be active. Simply copying or reading notes / the
textbook is shown to be one of the most ineffective ways of revising, so please don't waste your time with
this.
 Evidence here: https://www.gcse.guru/revision-tips-and-techniques/avoid-these-ineffective-
revision-techniques-and-mistakes/

Active revision => testing yourself in some way has been shown by research to be very effective. This could
be done by drawing mind maps related to different topics, answering revision checklist questions (attached
below), answering case studies (from your textbook - my PowerPoint slides on OneNote contain al the
answers to all case studies), redoing tasks from the notes (including numerical calculation examples), and
answering past-paper questions.
In all of the cases of testing yourself above, it is vitally important that you correct your answers with a
different colour pen. A good method is to test yourself WITHOUT looking at your notes.
Also, do not look at your notes just before testing yourself - you will remember many correct answers at
the time, but in the test you will forget. You should revise a few days before testing yourself.

When should I do my revision?

Revision should be done in small, regular chunks over time (this is called “spaced practice”) – not crammed
into a short period before the exam.

Cramming results in (i) less memory retention when compared to more regularly spaced revision and (ii)
quick memory loss following the test, meaning that final exam results are likely to be worse given the large
volume of knowledge that needs to be re-learned.

Make a plan to revise regularly in small chunks between now and the test. "Failing to prepare is preparing
to fail!"

New-style 3-mark questions

There are no marks for definitions in these questions.

One mark is awarded for context, so use the information in the question in your answer. Just repeating a
word from the question is not using context.

An example of context, in a question about manufacturing pens, would be “the firm will have to pay higher
costs for raw materials such as ink and plastic”.

New-style 6-mark questions

Any 6-mark questions will be of the new-style, i.e. those being from the new syllabus which was first tested
in May 2019. You should have already had plenty of practise of 6-mark questions by this stage of the
course. Below is a guide to answering these questions.
New-style 9-mark questions

Define any key terms in the question (not the additional information)
 Don’t define anything that has already been defined in the additional information given to you.
 Don’t define anything which isn’t an economic term that you have learnt in your course.

Use relevant arguments that are not explicitly referred to in the information given

Provide a two-sided (balanced) response

 Remember to go into detail on your points. As a rough rule, try to write two separate points on
each side, with 3 or 4 sentences on each point.

Use the context of the question throughout your answer. This means using information from the question
as much as you can in your answer.

A conclusion is NOT required.

New-style 12-mark questions

Define any key terms in the question (not the additional information)
 Don’t define anything that has already been defined in the additional information given to you.
Don’t define anything which isn’t an economic term that you have learnt in your course.

Use relevant arguments that are not explicitly referred to in the information given

Provide a two-sided (balanced) response

 Remember to go into detail on your points. As a rough rule, try to write two separate points on
each side, with 3 or 4 sentences on each point.

Use the context of the question throughout your answer. This means using information from the question
as much as you can in your answer.

A conclusion / evaluation is required

 You can only gain credit if your conclusion adds something new – don’t just repeat previous
arguments or summarise.
 Also, rarely will “the advantages are bigger than the disadvantages” be rewarded.
 Look at your two-sided arguments. Will these always happen? Are they always true? If not, in which
situations would some of them not be true? Now you have found something that the
answer depends on!!