The Student Room Group

What's AS Economics like?

How hard is it, and how's it structured?

Next year I'm doing Geography, Economics, Biology and Health and Social Care. All AQA.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 1
It isn't hard neither is it easy. It's all about if you can understand the concepts of demand and supply and be able to apply it to various situations. Just make sure you go over everything you do in class and also exam practice is key!
Reply 2
Agreed with above its neither rock solid or easy
It is split into two sides
in macro it's the economy as a whole and focused on unemployment, growth, inflation and the current account
the micro side is more of the individual business and markets
its all pretty much straight forward once you have got around the key concepts and with revision over the subjects it's clear and not hard tok understand
Unit 1's good, unit 2 - I find tricky.

There's a concept called "ceteris paribus" which is very hard to grasp on. So, when you look at models you must imagine nothing else is happening - but the those factors taking place.

Essay writing is difficult. You have like 30 markers by unit 2. It's a killer.

But I am sure you'll fine.

Good luck :smile:
Did anyone here do (I)GCSE Economics?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 5
Original post by NidaJaffri
Unit 1's good, unit 2 - I find tricky.

There's a concept called "ceteris paribus" which is very hard to grasp on. So, when you look at models you must imagine nothing else is happening - but the those factors taking place.

Essay writing is difficult. You have like 30 markers by unit 2. It's a killer.

But I am sure you'll fine.

Good luck :smile:



Ceterus Paribus is just presuming nothing else has changed isn't it, where's the difficulty in that? You do it every time you draw a diagram.

AS Economics on AQA is broken down into two sections. The first is 25 multiple choice questions, 4 options, 1 correct answer, 1 mark per correct answer. The second is worth 50 marks and is broken down into a 5,8,12 and 25 mark questions. The 5 mark is a definition. The 8 mark is comparing two sets of data. The 12 mark is a small, brief essay and the 25 mark is a proper essay. It isn't a particularly hard exam as long as you know how to answer the questions and either your teachers or people on here can help you with that. Exam technique is incredibly important, simple, but important. No matter how much you know, if you don't know how to answer the question you'll be staring at a big fat U on results day. Equally, even if you know very little you can still do very well as long as you know how to answer the questions.
Reply 6
Yes, answering the question properly is incredibly important. Waffling, and straying off the point(considerably) may make your answers seem like they were done well, but you may have only got 1/4 or 3/8 etc. Make sure you are succinct and clear. You should read examiners' reports, exemplar scripts + examiner commentary to see what a high level answer should look like and what a bad answer looks like.
Reply 7
Lovely jubly :smile:
Reply 8
I found Unit 1 relatively simple, exam technique is the biggest killer though. You need to get a hang of that and study sample answers and do past papers to get a good grade. I got an A for my Unit 1 exam last Jan, revising for Unit 2 now and I find it slightly trickier. I didn't do Economics at all until AS, I was cautious that I might have found it too hard starting from scratch but it was fine.


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by JodieW
I found Unit 1 relatively simple, exam technique is the biggest killer though. You need to get a hang of that and study sample answers and do past papers to get a good grade. I got an A for my Unit 1 exam last Jan, revising for Unit 2 now and I find it slightly trickier. I didn't do Economics at all until AS, I was cautious that I might have found it too hard starting from scratch but it was fine.


Posted from TSR Mobile


I am about to start AS Economics next year without any previous learning lime you did.

How did you find it at the beginning? Did the other people who had learnt it before have an advantage?

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 10
I'm currently studying A2 economics, when i started the course last year i had absolutely no clue about the subject.
I happened to enjoy it very much and i've also applied to do it at uni!

It depends what you enjoy really, If you're more of a number person who likes to think logically - unit 1 will be for you. Unit 1 has alot of graphs and logic behind it.
However, if you enjoy writing then unit 2 (macro economics) will be enjoyable for you.

I enjoy the subject as it's current - as in, it's happening now, and you can relate to the real world.
Before economics i'd watch the 10 o'clock news and have no idea what they're talking about, now - i can fully understand.
Loved unit one, but I am slightly lost on unit 2! Not that difficult tho, and I never took the GCSE!

Quick Reply

Latest