AQA Economics Unit 3 (ECON3) 3rd June 2014

I actually feel a lot better for this, Unit 4 is a lot more complicated, while Unit 3 is a lot more interesting and easy to learn (atleast in my opinion lol)
I think anything could come up with this, theres a lot of topics to bring up. I hope its to do with monopoly, or perfect competition. Thats what im best at

Any tips on how to revise for this paper? I find this unit so much harder to understand than unit 4. Sigh...

I haven't started revision for either unit (I know...) but I'd say learn all the diagrams well and know when to use and analyse them. Other than that just practise past papers I guess!

How are you feeling about the exam? I'd be terrified if I hadn't done any revision yet

I've got all my notes ready and I've made a revision sheet of all the diagrams, so I'll just spend one day going through all of that and practising the diagrams. Then I'll just go through all the past papers. I'm not feeling great about the exam but I don't think it's a particularly difficult unit because most of the content has been recycled from last year.

How much revision have you done for it, and do you have any tips?

What did you get at AS and what are you predicted/hoping to get for A2?

Oh it's not as bad as it seems then considering you're well prepared! You've got more than enough time to feel confident with the content. Yeah some has been recycled, I think the bit I struggle with the most is the application of real world events, as this obviously gets you to the high evaluation marks!
I've been doing quite a lot of ECON3 I must admit, moreso than ECON4 as personally, I feel more is recycled in Unit 4 than Unit 3.
Last year I took a low A, so I'm resitting one of my AS modules to - hopefully - bump up my UMS. I feel much more prepared for these exams than what I did last year though, that may be down to experience.
Has your teacher had any suggestions on what might come up?

I wouldn't say well prepared, but hopefully in a good position to revise efficiently once I do start revising! I'll probably start seriously revising for it by the end of this week.

What new content is there for U3 and U4? I think we should make a list.
Unit 3:
- Market Structures - quite a large section with PC/oligopoly/monopoly and types of efficiencies and many diagrams
- Labour Market - trade unions etc
- Inequality - things like GINI coefficient etc

Unit 4:
- Trade - comparative/absolute advantage
- Phillips Curve - relationship between unemployment/inflation discussing the NRU etc
- Exchange Rates
- EU - Single Market, Single Currency etc basically the pros and cons of types of European integration I think

That's all I can think of, can you add anything?

Looking at that I think I'd agree that more is recycled for unit 4 because the new topics in unit 3 are much larger. The impression I've got is that as long as you memorise the pros/cons of several policies etc to evaluate and mention real world examples you should be ok.

My teacher hasn't predicted anything, but I'd like a trade union intervention in a labour market question! I think there's usually a Section A question on externalities so I think I'll need to revisit AS Micro for that.

I swear Unit 3 is almost entirely different?

Gov Intervention - poverty, competition poverty, equity, Cost benefit analysis
Concentrated markets - price discrimination, oligopoly/monopoly/monopsony/PC, growth of firms, efficiency and contestability
Labour Market
Objectives of Firms

Welcome to the thread

Yeah unit 3 is mostly new stuff, but there is a large chapter on government intervention and externalities etc from AS.

I included concentrated markets under market structures and I mentioned Labour Markets, but I missed objectives of firms and CBA!

How are you feeling for U3/U4? Have you revised much, because I appear to be the only one who hasn't!

I wouldn't say well prepared, but hopefully in a good position to revise efficiently once I do start revising! I'll probably start seriously revising for it by the end of this week.

What new content is there for U3 and U4? I think we should make a list.
Unit 3:
- Market Structures - quite a large section with PC/oligopoly/monopoly and types of efficiencies and many diagrams
- Labour Market - trade unions etc
- Inequality - things like GINI coefficient etc

Unit 4:
- Trade - comparative/absolute advantage
- Phillips Curve - relationship between unemployment/inflation discussing the NRU etc
- Exchange Rates
- EU - Single Market, Single Currency etc basically the pros and cons of types of European integration I think

That's all I can think of, can you add anything?

Looking at that I think I'd agree that more is recycled for unit 4 because the new topics in unit 3 are much larger. The impression I've got is that as long as you memorise the pros/cons of several policies etc to evaluate and mention real world examples you should be ok.

My teacher hasn't predicted anything, but I'd like a trade union intervention in a labour market question! I think there's usually a Section A question on externalities so I think I'll need to revisit AS Micro for that.

Haha thanks. That's true, but I feel AS Macro, just brushed over a lot of things. I've finished all my notes, bar BOP, XR and EU for Unit 4. I hate BUSECON, but it's a lot easier. Conceptually I find Unit 4 harder, esp. EU contexts because there is so much you need to know, but I think it's more interesting. I'm okay for the moment, probably because I'm more nervous for my history exam. I know I can blag a lot of econ, as long as you understand it. I just need to remember the defs and graphs. You?

Kinda strange but I'm at the exact same stage as you with my Unit 4 notes... Are you using the Nelson Thornes book? I used different books for my unit 3 and unit 4 notes now I think I should have used this book for both units

Yeah I think there is a lot more detailed content in Unit 4, but I think it's easier to understand personally. Why do you find the concepts of unit 4 difficult? I find the diagrams in unit 3 a bore...

Yeah, I'm going to try and finish my U4 notes by Wednesday then revise all my U3 notes and practice past papers from then on! Can't say I'm looking forward to either Economics exam if I'm being honest! How did you do at AS and what are you hoping to get at A2 if you don't mind me asking?

Yeah sounds like a good idea! What did you get last year?
The thing that I need to clarify is the difference between Keynes, Classical and Monetarists as I feel that'd be good evaluation in the exam, do you know much about these?

All I can think of to add is:
Unit 4
- We covered Terms of Trade (even though not in the spec) which is good for international trade
- With trade, the protectionism side of it - the tariff diagram comes to mine

Unit 3
- Cost-benefit analysis - even though I don't really think this is a big part of it, we still covered this
- Contestability of markets
- Theory of a firm - a huge part of this topic - understanding all of the cost curves

Other than that, I can't think of what much else we've learnt that's new

I think a main point about Unit 4 and also Unit 3 at A2 level is that a greater contextual understanding of what's going on in the economy in order to get that high evaluation, like you said, knowing a few policies and the advs/dis should be pretty good. What sort of things would you be looking at including?

With Unit 4, Do you think we need a good understanding of the convergence criteria on the EU - how important is it that we know all of it?

Really? A labour market question? I would said that's my worst side of this Unit, I looked over that content the other day and I am a bit more confident about it now, like with the role that Trade Unions can play.. like in a perfect labour market, it will reduce the amount of employment whereas in a monopsony it could in fact increase employment and the wage rate, but I still need a lot more work on that I'm guessing. Also, like you said, externalities do seem to crop up still quite a lot so I'll be revising that and making sure that I know the graph. My teacher was also saying that externalities is good to put into Unit 4 as evaluation - obviously not much of it and certainly not the graphs but negative externalities of growth for example is pollution, I just thought this was a nice little link into it.

No, I'm using the official AQA textbook and the peter cramp revision guide for notes. Not sure, I just really hate learning all the theories, like the original phillips curve, and then the free market economists version etc. Haha yes same, I can't imagine why some people would want to study business economics at uni. I was a couple of UMS off an A, I got an A in my micro, and stuffed up my Macro last year, so I'm retaking it. I'd be happy with an A at A2, but I've been predicted an A*, so I guess that's my aim. I've applied to study economics at uni, you?

I got an A last year and I only need a C this year to get an A overall so that's taken some pressure off, although I think that may be why I've been so relaxed about revising!

About Classical vs Keynes, I thought that was more of an AS issue and that Classical models are generally accepted for A2? You could evaluate fiscal measures using the classical model arguing that it only leads to inflation and thus you need to improve the productive capacity of the economy instead (through fiscal supply measures) and vice versa.

I am absolutely dreadful at theory of the firm. I don't really understand any of it! What sort of questions (that don't explicitly mention it) would we need to talk about cost curves in and what would we say about them? I understand that in a monopoly D=AR because the firm is the market (I think that's right anyway...) but that's about it really.

Depends on the question but just explain the pros then use the cons as evaluation material and perhaps use recent statistics (i.e. UK inflation at 1.6% in April 2014) to give some context I guess.

I haven't done any notes on the EU yet and, rather worryingly, I've never heard of that!