AQA Economics 18th May 2012 Unit 1 Exam

Hey guys

I did context 1 about mining activities. What one of the extracts was effectively saying was that the high prices placed by monopolies could be beneficial to the market in that mining companies in other countries will have an incentive to put down their prices and so competition will increase.

I kinda misinterpreted the question and started talking about how the higher prices could mean the actual monopolies will generate higher profits and so will be able to relocate, and in this way, competition will increase in terms of that China won't have as great of a market share.

I did explain and evaluate neg externalities so that is fine. But what I wanted to know is that even though I misinterpreted what the extract was saying, will I still get marks for it? Do you think that I'll get marks for the argument I made? I did talk about how allocative/productive efficiency can be achieved if left to market forces, so I guess I'll get marks there, but do you see me getting marks anywhere else in that little part of queestion 4?

Thanks, I know it's a lot to ask, but if someone could give me some feedback, that would be amazing

You mean you 'data trawled' ? You should still get 2 marks

Along as you put in the dates and data

My first point was the general trend
And second was the highest point and lowest point

I used the data incorrectly by saying demand and supply peaked at 2012 at however many tonnes when that was just a forecast of demand and supply and I included the forecasted dates in my data for the general trend, saying it rose from whatever it was in 2000 to 2012, really worried I could have lost 8 marks on such a stupid misreading of an extract

I did the beginning and end and did it all the way to 2012, but mentioned that the end values were forecasts.

Yeah thats what I should of done Hopefully I can at least get two marks

I did similar to you, and so did quite a few people; I think it's correct. Also, there are many interpretations and tangents you can go on.

I talked about free markets vs. government intervention - talking about legislation/taxes/permits/regulations (and regulatory capture), etc... and compared it to free markets where external costs (externalities) are not takes into account, and also natural monopolies occurring.

I kind of wrote similar to you, and it seems fine, as long as you argued between intervention and free markets.

Haha, loads are saying its a "fish in the ocean" - in retrospect you could say that the fish is the fisherman's "land" - I'm still not able to understand how though!

I think apart from one-two MCQs, the rest were really easy! I chose Context 2 as I thought it was more accessible - overall, my paper was good (I think, hopefully my evaluation was satisfactory). However I do agree with you on the fact that it was definitely much different as compared to the past papers I solved, I think the way parts (c) and (d) of teh DRQ were framed was quite unexpected!

Which context did you choose?

Hopefully Unit 2 will be more straightforward!

And good luck for Unit 2

To be honest, you should get at least 4 out of the 8 marks. Then the other 4 marks depends on the examiner's mood really

Except is was 15 to 10 not 10 to 50.

so it was 33% fall in the demand.

No it was not. Read the question next time.

No it was not. Read the question next time.

Yeah it would be nice to get 4, thanks for kind words