Economics applicant thread UCAS 2013

lol same!, urmm i have an anderton revision guide which is pretty much it, and i go on tutr2u if there's ia anything i dont understand, where are you thinking of applying? Srry if i already said

ah okay, same, the anderton book seems to be quite good for unit 2 at least!
im not applying for economics, im going to apply for maths, but im doing economics a level and didn't know where else to find out about the grade boundaries haha!! what about you?

I was in the 2012 cycle so yeah i can give some sound advice.

they look at everything. UMS, AS grades, A2 predictions, PS, gcse's and subject combination. There's no 15% gcse's 20% AS kind of stuff. It goes without saying the better the gcse's the better. when they have applicants with 4A's at AS predicted several A* its an easy way to distinguish.

Wow, never knew that, thanks so much!

I'm very confident with unit 1, it's unit 2 i'm slightly worried about...to say that my class has been badly taught on unit2 would be understatement of the year!

What resources did you use to revise for unit 2? any specific website which you found particularly useful?

Again, thanks for those boundaries

LAst year 74 unit 1 and 77 unit 2, but it varies quite a bit, those are the highest boundaries I've seen and generally 100 ums seems very achievable

thanks how do you know that? did you find out from the internet or did teachers in school tell you? do you have any idea about what the boundaries have been for the years before??

i looked on the website after my mock, but if you want to find out, if you go to the edexcel website, and go to grade boundaries yoou can work out 100 ums: A + 2*(A-B)

so if you takt the boundary for an A and then add twice the difference between A and B you'll have 100 ums, this is the same for all ASs by the way , i can find out for you if you want?

EDIT: Jan 2012 Unit 1 75 Unit 2 70, Jan 2011 U1 69, U2 68, June 2010 U1 72 U2 78 Jan 2010 U1 66 U2 N/A June 2009 U1 71, U2 77 jan 2009 U1 68 U2 N/A

i think before jan 2009 was the old spec

This January the unit 1 boundary was 75/80 for 100 UMS. I got 99 in ECO1 with 74 raw marks.

TooAmbitious - By the "Anderton revision guide" do you mean the big fat textbook or is there an actual revision guide?

Is it worth getting some economics work experience if you're applying for economics at a top 5 uni? Can good grades make up for lack of work experience?

Yo guys how are you lot revising for economics unit 2 - im finding it a headache!

Also is it even worth applying for Economics with 3 B's 6 C's at GCSE?? (applying to top 5-15 unis)

The top 5 universities will care predominantly about grades.

However, when you have the number of applicants with outstanding grades applying to Economics courses they do, they of course begin to look at other factors. The proof that you have a passion for the subject, indicated by a relevant work experience is one factor that can set you out from the rest. Others include stepping out of the normal expectations of an A-Level/IB student by considering an EPQ or some other kind of addition to your profile.

Really,
Can good work experience make up for lack of good grades? No
Can good grades make up for lack of work experience? It depends what other applicants have to offer. If your reference is strong too, I'd say you'd be likely to get an offer from strong grades.

Thanks!

Basically my relatives and older friends have been pestering me and saying that to get into Oxbridge or UCL/LSE you need work experience like working in a bank or worked somewhere. But it's so hard to find work experience because who would want an A level student working at your bank?

So basically, I'm convinced that focusing on getting all A grades at AS and at least A*AA at A level is more important than getting worried about all this work experience hype, right?

Hey guys another 2013 applicant here - hoping to study economics and finance.
GCSE's 5A* 3A 2B 2C
Been looking at 7 Unis - Exeter, Leeds, Loughborough, Nottingham (international economics), Surrey, Sheffield and York.

Surrey! =D i like the look of surrey im hoping to become a 2013 applicant there aswell!

Hey guys, I know it's not overly relevant to the thread, but I'm hoping to read economic history at LSE.
My GCSEs were: 4A* 7A 3B
And my A-levels are: Politics, Economics, Maths, French and Italian.

I should be predicted A*A*AAB at A2, as I'm getting 100% in most of the mid terms and what-not. Plus I'm doing a fair bit of tangential reading: road to serfdom, Frédéric Bastiat, curious alignments etc. etc. I also somehow managed to get four day's work experience at HSBC, and will be volunteering at the london Olympics (I could go on but I don't want to clog up the thread).

How competitive/relevant is economic history, and how likely am I to get in... Thanks


Oh yeah, my uni choices are: LSE, Oxford, St Andrews, Durham, Edinburgh, and maybe King's