Economics Unit 2 Edexcel - Managing the UK economy Tuesday 19th May 2015 (PM)

what are the grade boundaries usually like?

60-63 marks for an A

53-55 for a B

Never heard animal spirits, but yes low profits can be a cause but would have expanded more, I put increases in NMW as it is factual and also high corp tax, some people argue that you had to take the recession into the account

The animal spirits (feelings about the economy's future) could be debatable. It does affect investment but mainly external investment. Probably true as the recession made everyone worried.

Low profits was a good one I think as I referenced to the recession that destroyed profits of firms, so they could not reinvest as much. I went into depth for this.

That sounds decent, why did some people put investment increased, im pretty sure that its incorrect?

Maybe in nominal terms, but there was no information to show this. It clearly decreased from 33 billion to 29 billion if I recall correctly.

They would be more likely to ask a question on falling investment rather than improving investment as the only factors that would cause investment to rise are mainly optimism and high profits, whereas there are far more reasons for falling investment.

In my opinion they should have made it clear whether it fell or not as some people will have lost marks due to this.

It fell overall which is what I think and hope the question was focused on. It wouldn't ask two reasons for a fluctuating graph.

for the two possible reasons why investment changed from 2008-2013 I said:

1st reason: interest rates - if interest rates increased, investment would fall

2nd reason: overall business/economic confidence and future outlook - of course for firms to invest they have to be confident and invest at the right time, if confidence and outlook is low, investment will decrease

these are two valid reasons, right?

Yes, both valid I used the second one. And for the first reason they would likely use it, but not if they were harsh as interest rates haven't changed for a long time so it is incorrect. My economics teacher told me things like this will be incorrect in unit 3 and 4.

But an overall trend is not about if it goes upwards or downwards mainly. It's about the first value and the last value, that's all that counts. It decreased overall.

yeah, the way the question was asked felt like it was just testing pure theory on investment which is why I went straight for interest rates and confidence as I see these as being primary factors for investment

yeah, the way the question was asked felt like it was just testing pure theory on investment which is why I went straight for interest rates and confidence as I see these as being primary factors for investment

If I forgot to tick the box on which question I did will it matter?

No don't worry about it, I did the same for Unit 1 as did many others, it won't change anything

Thanks! Literally just realised and was so worried! How did you find the two exams?

I thought they both went quite well, not perfect as I know some places where I lost a few marks, but overall pretty good.

how did you find them?

Has anyone been able so far to 100% verify the 30 marker for question 1 and I mean verify word for word with their own eyes or through a teacher...? The British Council over here is being a bitch and not handing out the spare paper to my school...