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Opinion on A-level Economics

Has anyone taken A-level economics if so how did you find it? Are there a lot of essays?
There are some essays but if you're on OCR it is really stupid structure you have to follow and so they are not really proper essays. Apart from that it is just memorising facts and arguments and a few basic graphs. I do really enjoy it and I find it relatively easy in comparison to my other subjects (Maths,Computing and Chemistry) but it is nothing to shout about. It definitely is easy to do well in though if you just put the effort in.
To be honest, I much preferred the degree to A Level.

To do well in A Level Economics, you need that magical "exam technique" and you need to answer the questions in the exact structure that the examiners want you to.

This is for AQA. :smile:
Original post by SecretDuck
To be honest, I much preferred the degree to A Level.

To do well in A Level Economics, you need that magical "exam technique" and you need to answer the questions in the exact structure that the examiners want you to.

This is for AQA. :smile:

I plan on doing 'Economics and Economics History' at LSE for uni next year (assuming I get an offer) so I just want to ask where are you studying and what sort of stuff have you been doing in economics at a degree level e.g. mostly maths , some essays etc.. ? Thanks :smile:
Original post by OrionMusicNet
I plan on doing 'Economics and Economics History' at LSE for uni next year (assuming I get an offer) so I just want to ask where are you studying and what sort of stuff have you been doing in economics at a degree level e.g. mostly maths , some essays etc.. ? Thanks :smile:


I did economics with CCEA and loved it, great subject if your interested in that area and better yet, its a subject universities like :wink:
Reply 5
Original post by OrionMusicNet
There are some essays but if you're on OCR it is really stupid structure you have to follow and so they are not really proper essays. Apart from that it is just memorising facts and arguments and a few basic graphs. I do really enjoy it and I find it relatively easy in comparison to my other subjects (Maths,Computing and Chemistry) but it is nothing to shout about. It definitely is easy to do well in though if you just put the effort in.


Are there a lot of graphs that have to be interpreted? Have you finished A2? If so what grade did you get? sorry for the excessive questions :biggrin:
I do economics on OCR and the structure is stupid but it's a really interesting subject i think, i love it
Original post by User008
Are there a lot of graphs that have to be interpreted? Have you finished A2? If so what grade did you get? sorry for the excessive questions :biggrin:

No I only did AS level but I got an A. There is a reasonable amount of graphs to be intepreted but honestly they tend to ask you to make the graphs rather than intepret them. At AS they are not that advanced if you revise a reasonable amount in my opinion although for A level they expect more from you in terms of creating graphs (they are more advanced) from what I have seen. By the way these are not scaled graphs like you would normally see in maths or sciences they are sketches like this:
http://i.investopedia.com/inv/tutorials/site/economics/economics5.gif or
http://www.economicshelp.org/images/macro/AD-AS-spare-capacity-Yf.jpg
Original post by User008
Are there a lot of graphs that have to be interpreted? Have you finished A2? If so what grade did you get? sorry for the excessive questions :biggrin:


Every topic has a a graph or 2 and I would say 70% of essays require you to draw a graph or atleast describe. Now with so many graphs you aren't expected to memorise the graphs as such but just understand the graphs so you can draw them at any point. These aren't like maths graphs with numbers up the sides normally its your 2 axis with 2 labels e.g. goods and price and with a line showing the general trend.

^ something important to note economics is all about theory, and showing trends with its fundamental economic problem being scarcity.

Economics was graphs + Writing, in my exam board we got a data response, a nice 6 marker trend question on a graph they provided and the rest where 8, 10 ,12 markers for the DR the 2nd part was a 15 and 25 mark essay where you drew graphs and explained relevant theory with examples. All theory in economics is linked normally in some way and so very often with questions there is a huge amount of content to cover meaning writing can often be concise and 2 the point
Original post by OrionMusicNet
I plan on doing 'Economics and Economics History' at LSE for uni next year (assuming I get an offer) so I just want to ask where are you studying and what sort of stuff have you been doing in economics at a degree level e.g. mostly maths , some essays etc.. ? Thanks :smile:


QMUL :smile:

It was mostly maths based, thank God. Very few essays involved. The hardest maths part was the econometrics proofs in the final year. So hard that I had to write an entire textbook just so I could get a decent grade on it.
Original post by SecretDuck
QMUL :smile:

It was mostly maths based, thank God. Very few essays involved. The hardest maths part was the econometrics proofs in the final year. So hard that I had to write an entire textbook just so I could get a decent grade on it.

Ah ok that's good to hear. I imagine because I plan to go on a joint course the other half will have more essays but I don't mind it so long as the other half (economics) has only a few. Thanks for the help :smile:
Original post by OrionMusicNet
There are some essays but if you're on OCR it is really stupid structure you have to follow and so they are not really proper essays. Apart from that it is just memorising facts and arguments and a few basic graphs. I do really enjoy it and I find it relatively easy in comparison to my other subjects (Maths,Computing and Chemistry) but it is nothing to shout about. It definitely is easy to do well in though if you just put the effort in.


May I ask about this stupid ocr essay structure? I did AS ocr economics and was getting B's all year and felt I knew my stuff. However I ended up getting an E so was wandering if my teacher was not telling us something as most of my class got poor grades :frown: I think next year I'll have to resit at lwast one of the papers. How likely do you think it would be for me to still get A D/C overall? Its worth mentioning I was three marks away from D now

gutted and not sure if I should continue.
Original post by alexp98
May I ask about this stupid ocr essay structure? I did AS ocr economics and was getting B's all year and felt I knew my stuff. However I ended up getting an E so was wandering if my teacher was not telling us something as most of my class got poor grades :frown: I think next year I'll have to resit at lwast one of the papers. How likely do you think it would be for me to still get A D/C overall? Its worth mentioning I was three marks away from D now

gutted and not sure if I should continue.

If it was your worst subject and your other ones were a lot better then you may want to consider it but if not then you can do some resits. The OCR essay structure is just about sticking the layout on the mark scheme and making sure you say all the marks you need for analysis so you don't get capped. Other questions in the paper like 'comment' questions are just about answering the question talking about the obvious answer but then evaluating it by saying what factors it depends on and how other factors / the size of a change in a factor could depend it and what not. The source questions are just about stating the obvious and sometimes saying that the sources may be biased, should use a larger sample of countries or years, different measurements of inflation in different countries etc...
Original post by OrionMusicNet
If it was your worst subject and your other ones were a lot better then you may want to consider it but if not then you can do some resits. The OCR essay structure is just about sticking the layout on the mark scheme and making sure you say all the marks you need for analysis so you don't get capped. Other questions in the paper like 'comment' questions are just about answering the question talking about the obvious answer but then evaluating it by saying what factors it depends on and how other factors / the size of a change in a factor could depend it and what not. The source questions are just about stating the obvious and sometimes saying that the sources may be biased, should use a larger sample of countries or years, different measurements of inflation in different countries etc...


Hmm ok, this helps a lot. Its a weird one as I thought I did to a lot better in the micro but got an e on that and d in macro. Would it be worth me resitting one or both? Also do you have any tips on hoe I can keep on top of A2 econ so I have te to focus on the resits? Did you just do the traditional note taking out of core textbook?
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by alexp98
Hmm ok, this helps a lot. Its a weird one as I thought I did to a lot better in the micro but got an e on that and d in macro. Would it be worth me resitting one or both? Also do you have any tips on hoe I can keep on top of A2 econ so I have te to focus on the resits? Did you just do the traditional note taking out of core textbook?

I made notes on AS OCR Economics. If you memorise these then these should be enough.
Unit 1:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/4ait8abiwje9964/Economics_AS_Level_Notes.docx

Unit 2:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/1blv5abv36a56zf/Economics_AS_Level_Notes_Macroeconomics_%28Finished%29.docx
and yeah I would resit both of them.
Original post by OrionMusicNet
I made notes on AS OCR Economics. If you memorise these then these should be enough.
Unit 1:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/4ait8abiwje9964/Economics_AS_Level_Notes.docx

Unit 2:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/1blv5abv36a56zf/Economics_AS_Level_Notes_Macroeconomics_%28Finished%29.docx
and yeah I would resit both of them.


Thanks so much :smile:
Original post by alexp98
Thanks so much :smile:

No problem. EconPlusDal and PajHolden on youtube should also be helpful.
I love AS Economics (not sure about A2, quite vague at the moment for me but I will concentrate on it again once the school year begins). It is an essay-based subject, not entirely but you will have to write quite a lot, even in MCQ part (Edexcel exam board's experience, I don't think other exam boards require this). If you concentrate on it and can grasp the knowledge, it will not be hard, just all about the right exam techniques. Try to make some mindmaps and write concisely about the topics you have finished early, read it over everyday so it would give you a firm foundation for further topics that you have to do (they are connected with each other closely). I would suggest going to Tutor2u to read for explanation, or do further research on Internet about parts you don't understand, and go to Youtube to watch videos (Khan Academy is a good one for me). Good luck!
(edited 8 years ago)
Reply 18
Original post by prepdream
I love AS Economics (not sure about A2, quite vague at the moment for me but I will concentrate on it again once the school year begins). It is an essay-based subject, not entirely but you will have to write quite a lot, even in MCQ part (Edexcel exam board's experience, I don't think other exam boards require this). If you concentrate on it and can grasp the knowledge, it will not be hard, just all about the right exam techniques. Try to make some mindmaps and write concisely about the topics you have finished early, read it over everyday so it would give you a firm foundation for further topics that you have to do (they are connected with each other closely). I would suggest going to Tutor2u to read for explanation, or do further research on Internet about parts you don't understand, and go to Youtube to watch videos (Khan Academy is a good one for me). Good luck!


Thanks!! :biggrin:


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