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2016 Economics Official A-Level thread

This is a revision thread that people self-studying or just studying A-Level or IB Economics may find helpful. It lists YouTube channels and revision websites that teach Economics.

Must-do revision for specification content

https://www.youtube.com/user/pajholden
I cannot stress how much of a good teacher pajholden is. If you are looking to review some economic concepts like YED and law of diminishing marginal returns, look no further.
Just because this channel is really good and helpful, it doesn’t mean you can solely rely on it to ace your exams. A knowledge on the current affairs would be invaluable all the time.
Good for all GCE-AL exam boards.
Both AS and A2 material available.
Quality of teaching - 10/10

https://www.youtube.com/user/EconplusDal
Mr. Dal is a fine teacher and the best time to watch his videos is a week or month before the exam, as they provide an insightful recap to what you have learned.
I recommend his channel only to polish your existing skills, I personally find his videos a bit confusing the first time I watch them.
Best for Edexcel but goes great for AQA and IB too.
Both AS and A2 material available.
Quality of teaching - 9/10

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFR...GOMaGr92JFXXSQ
A teacher uses mind maps and a voiceovers solely to craft videos that are very short and good to understand basics.
Dangerous thing is that economic concepts are not really delved into as exam boards like CIE, Edexcel and AQA might require you to do so.
Only AS material available.
Quality of teaching - 7/10

General revision

https://www.youtube.com/user/ACDCLeadership
This channel has short and concise videos that hit economic fundamentals and diagrams into your grey matters like bullets.
However, it is targeted for the American syllabus and be sure to know what to learn from the video and what to ignore.
Both AS and A2 concepts covered fundamentally but target a different syllabus (American).
Quality of teaching - 9/10

https://www.youtube.com/user/jodiecongirl
Knowing and UNDERSTANDING are two different things. This channel would definitely improve your understanding, however, the diagrams drawn and economic measures (such as GDP) might be slightly different from the requirements of the British board. I recommend you to have a basic understanding before using this channel. She might be confusing at times of you are a slow learner and most of the videos are intensely packed with knowledge.
Her practice problems videos are something worth checking out too.
Again, both AS and A2 concepts covered fundamentally but target a different syllabus (American).
Quality of teaching - 7/10

https://www.youtube.com/user/mjmfoodie
One of the oldest economics channel on YouTube, simplified diagrams are used to explain complex material. However, it’s not targeted for the British board and you may want to skip this if you don’t enough time before exams. Skip this one if you have already watched a lot of the channels above and solidified your understanding.
Quality of teaching - 8/10



Exam-revision videos

https://www.youtube.com/c/Tutor2uNet
This channel isn’t really that great when it comes to teaching content but the exam techniques on how to evaluate are gems of wisdom you might want to look out for.
Both AS and A2 material available.
Quality of teaching - 8/10
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgT...p1wXTAi9B6kzCg
Excellent channel however only a few videos at the time of writing to tackle both AQA and Edexcel exam techniques.

Please find the Economics note in the reply to this thread.

UPDATE 1:
Supplementary notes - credit to a user named Dylann in the seventh reply to this thread (Please thank him not me, by putting the link here I am just making it more convinent for you guys but he is actually the one who compiled them.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2...E1VdFRSc3NNNEk

UPDATE 2:
News outlets
Here are a few news outlets that could help you to brush up your Economics theory and help in evaluation, and the more news you read, the more you are submerged in Economics. Plus, news is a blessing for macro-students, as the more you readit, the better your theory and practicality in Econ.


Basic e-reading

http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics
Since most of our exam boards are British, I would recommend the Guardian the most. Sometimes interactive articles pop up with ever interesting stats. Moreover, it targets the layman audience, helping out those of us who have forgotten theoccasional definition of PPP or the intriguing concept of game theory.
Rank – 3
Relevance to A-Levels – Starting to read this six months before the actual exam might notch up a grade.
Understandability– You can decipher most articles unless you don’t understand English

http://www.economist.com/
The best. Especially when it comes stats, data and reliability. The only thing lacking is that they charge to read after a few articles. But deleting your cookies in your browsing data history will combat that.
Rank -2
Relevance to A-Levels – Macro ( A lot ), Micro ( Not as much)
Understandability for the layman audience – Medium to high, these people expect you to have the grasp of basics (Like knowing the basic economic problem- unlimited wants in face of limited resources AND the difference between when they are talkingabout macro and micro). This site provides a lot of microeconomics contentwhich many other business newspapers (or simply newspapers) like Financial Times and New York Times aren’t very keen on.

http://beta.tutor2u.net/economics/blog
Curated foryou from a teacher at Eton’s College. News targeted at the A-Level Spec. Whatmore could you ask for? Moreover, it is updated daily and generates news fromall the different outlets above.
Rank -1
Relevanceto A-Levels – High
Understandability for the layman audience - High

Further reading

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/?_r=0
Only go to this blog if you are conceptual Econ God. I recommend you not to read it toomuch, it will confuse you with your basic concepts.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/business/economy.html
The Chinese perspective of things that many may pawn off as propaganda. This is a state-owned media venture. However, the value of Chinese opinions may come inhandy while arguing for them (or their policies) in exams.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/
Prioritizes American news over British. However, it justifies things from the American point. Can get a bit hard to read around at times, so make sure you have agrasp of basic economics concepts.

Scroll to see replies

Here are all the specifications you might need, remember you tailor your course according to your spec, not YouTube suggestions or whatever the internet throws at you.

We all know about the incumbency of tutor2u but here are a few under the radar A-Level sites
For worksheets (all these worksheets are originally for IB, but hey, our specs are more or less the same)
http://www.contentextra.com/bacconline/OnlineResources/Economics/Worksheets.aspx

For a temporary replacement of tutor2u (just in case you think you need a change.particularly good for Edexcel)
http://www.learneconomicsonline.com/edexcel.php

Here are more resources btw.
https://goo.gl/1K4FzN




Hey guys,I have started a Whatsapp group in February. TEXT me your number if you would like to join. It's about instant and quick help for Economics. You may text me at +852 66274076 on Whatsapp or facebook.com/dhruvi1997. We have around 65 members as of 12th May,2015.
(edited 7 years ago)
OCR Specification.pdf209.2KB
Edexcel Economics Specification.pdf833.6KB
AQA Economics Specification.PDF331.2KB
CIE Syllabus.pdf193.7KB
UPDATE 4: the link to the notes was broken. I will do more reviews in time about best ways to learn evaluation (particularly if you are self-studying).
Meanwhile, here's the broken link for the Econ notes -
http://bit.ly/a2economics
Credits: Dylann

Edexcel A2 Economics Unit 4 6EC04 (June 23rd 2016) Exam Thread
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3817961

Edexcel A2 Economics Unit 3 6EC03 (June 20th 2016) Exam Thread
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3809873&p=61760743#post61760743

Edexcel Economics A: Paper 2 The UK Economy – Performance & Policies (May 23rd)

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=63324023&highlight=Edexcel%20Economics%20A:%20Paper%202

Edexcel Economics A: Paper 1 Intro To Markets And Market Failure (May 16th)

http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3944207&p=63323987#post63323987
Here's another emerging channel btw
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnU70eR4cFPSMNJD0RKnP6g/playlists
(edited 8 years ago)
UPDATE 5:
Glossary or definitions for A-LEVEL Economics
Credits: tutor2u

All of these are uploaded herehttp://bit.ly/1VVRAsN
(edited 8 years ago)
AS Micro defintions.pdf139.2KB
AS MACRO - ALL Definitions.pdf195.8KB
A2 MICRO definitions.pdf140.6KB
A2 MACRO definitions.pdf171.3KB
Aw @fedorahat88 you're such a sweetheart, I was wondering what happened to the other thread- I was so upset and angry when it stopped working x God bless you for posting the links again as they were extremely helpful.
Original post by Cherry82
Aw @fedorahat88 you're such a sweetheart, I was wondering what happened to the other thread- I was so upset and angry when it stopped working x God bless you for posting the links again as they were extremely helpful.


Thanks for the love!
Below are ways to improve your evaluation skills. Starting to skim read through them right now will avoid loads of stress during the actual exam prep period. Reading this will help you reflect on how to evaluate after learning a new Economics concept/diagram/model. Many of my AS students and my friends complain that evaluation is never in the textbook and thus, tricky.

The bottom line on 'how to evaluate' is dropping the ceteris paribus assumption. This means explaining how theory may differ from practice (more accurately reality) in Economics.

Here are some resources to notch your evaluation skills.
Credits : tutor2u


All of these are uploaded here
http://bit.ly/1VVRAsN
(edited 8 years ago)
General ways to improve evaluation.doc150.5KB
A2 Evaluation - For the entiriety exams.pptx1886.2KB
Improving your evaluation skills.ppt689.7KB
A2 Micro Evaluation example.pptx1649.6KB
Original post by fedorahat88
Below are ways to improve your evaluation skills. Starting to skim read through them right now will avoid loads of stress during the actual exam prep period. Reading this will help you reflect on how to evaluate after learning a new Economics concept/diagram/model. Many of my AS students and my friends complain that evaluation is never in the textbook and thus, tricky.

The bottom line on 'how to evaluate' is dropping the ceteris paribus assumption. This means explaining how theory may different from practice (more accurately reality) in Economics.

Here are some resources to notch your evaluation skills.
Credits : tutor2u


Hi fedorahat88...To be frank I got really confused when I got to know that your
previous thread was deleted.
Great effort ! You haven't still given up sharing your knowledge & information with everyone. That's really great :smile:
Original post by Dacia Lilac
Hi fedorahat88...To be frank I got really confused when I got to know that your
previous thread was deleted.
Great effort ! You haven't still given up sharing your knowledge & information with everyone. That's really great :smile:


I know right, same. I'm still trying to figure out why and what happened.
UPDATE 6:
Hi all, here are a few revision guides to strengthen your basic knowledge on AS Economics. Remember that these guides will only provide you with 50% of the material you need for the AS exam, so be sure to buy a workbook or contemplate about evaluation here and then.

Another thing I have uploaded is the spec that teachers are given, which seems to emphasise on APPLICATION of Economic theory (I know you probably skipped reading that, but it was important). Textbooks only give you theoy, for application, use workbooks and this spec.

P.S. I am trying to find a printable workbook online, it might be in the later threads.
P.P.S. @Cherry82 and @Dacia Lilac, my thread was deleted when I tried updating the original post by TSR moderators, I really have no clue why tbh
P.P.P.S Will be posting a few links to a few Economics documentaries and their reviews soon enough.
(edited 8 years ago)
AS Market Failure REVISION GUIDE.pdf208.6KB
AS Markets - How They Work REVISION GUIDE.pdf392.1KB
AS MACRO - ENTIRE - REVSION GUIDE.pdf598.2KB
What students should know - from a teacher's point of view!.pdf545.1KB
@fedorahat88 & @Cherry82 we should keep in touch. This is a great way to study for our econ exams.
Here are a few links to the best Economics documentaries being released.
Be sure to check them out. I would suggest you watch them before your exam prep and not during your exam prep, as theory is more important than reality and many of my friends/AS students muddle up theory with reality during the final stages.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/category/economics/
http://documentaryaddict.com/index.php?page=movie&do=category&category_id=30&view=thumb

P.S. These links are just supposed to help you but pm if you need topic-specific documentaries, for example, I have got one on Monopoly called 'The Diamond Empire'.

@Dacia Lilac, yes sure, more than happy to!
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 12
Avatar for Dylann
Dylann
21
Basically a lot of links you have you have just copied from somewhere else, but you haven't copied the whole URL.

Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFR...GOMaGr92JFXXSQ

When you post a long URL, it usually gets automatically shortened for convenience by adding '...' in the middle. This just replaces a lot of the characters in the URL, but if you actually try and go to that URL with the '...' in the middle, it obviously won't work. There are still quite a few of your links that have this problem, just check over that each one works :redface:
Original post by Dylann
Basically a lot of links you have you have just copied from somewhere else, but you haven't copied the whole URL.

Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFR...GOMaGr92JFXXSQ

When you post a long URL, it usually gets automatically shortened for convenience by adding '...' in the middle. This just replaces a lot of the characters in the URL, but if you actually try and go to that URL with the '...' in the middle, it obviously won't work. There are still quite a few of your links that have this problem, just check over that each one works :redface:


I know some of them are shortened but they work fine. The only one giving me pain is the AQA YouTube channel link. The long worksheet one and long documentary one is fine with me. But are you finding it easy to access them?
(edited 8 years ago)
This thread is so helpful😊
Reply 15
Avatar for Yousf
Yousf
13
Original post by Dylann
Basically a lot of links you have you have just copied from somewhere else, but you haven't copied the whole URL.

Like this one: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFR...GOMaGr92JFXXSQ

When you post a long URL, it usually gets automatically shortened for convenience by adding '...' in the middle. This just replaces a lot of the characters in the URL, but if you actually try and go to that URL with the '...' in the middle, it obviously won't work. There are still quite a few of your links that have this problem, just check over that each one works :redface:


what exam board are your notes for
Original post by Yousf
what exam board are your notes for


Those notes are best suited for Edexcel and AQA.
(edited 8 years ago)
UPDATE 7:

New list of sites to help your revision

http://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/economics-revision
Here is a convinent link to all the exam boards and their past papers btw. The notes on this site are not really brilliant but you could give them a shot.
Score - 10/10 since convienent to access and has all EXAM boards, even WJEC and CIE.

http://www.economicshelp.org/
This site provides excellent evaluation in it's essays which really does set it apart from the rest of it's peers. Modal answers have never been so good and clear-cut.
Score - 9/10 since it really sets the bar for you and tells you what is expected of you in the exam.

http://www.mrbrook.co.uk/?tag=bryns-blog
Due to the existence of the incumbent tutor2u, this site looks like a homemade experiment gone wrong. But that doesn't stop it from providing good daily news relevant to Economics.
Score - 5/10 - since it's just a blog and makes it easy for you to off-track

https://sites.google.com/site/bedatkingsmac/miss-whalleys-page
This site is not even fully developed but it does have a few good printable resources.
Score - 4/10 since it's not that bad but the site does have a pitiable layout and people who are not exactly tech-savvy may have hard time finding the resources
(edited 8 years ago)
Hey everyone,
I don't think I will be self teaching Economics A level any more :smile:
But thanks for this awesome thread. I'll still pop in and out though as I know many who are doing A level Economics this year. Just a question, for CIE Economics in May/June when do the exam dates come out. A friend of mine is becoming a private candidate for AS Economics only. I suggested to her centres but they themselves haven't given her the official dates.
Original post by Cherry82
Hey everyone,
I don't think I will be self teaching Economics A level any more :smile:
But thanks for this awesome thread. I'll still pop in and out though as I know many who are doing A level Economics this year. Just a question, for CIE Economics in May/June when do the exam dates come out. A friend of mine is becoming a private candidate for AS Economics only. I suggested to her centres but they themselves haven't given her the official dates.


The dates come out between early January to late February for CIE.

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