For as long as formal education has been a part of society, the debate has raged over which form of education is more effective. Some aver that the 'School of Hard Knocks' is a far better teacher than any schoolmarm or master could be while others contend that the true path to enlightenment can only be found in academia.
There's merit to both sides of the argument but the final answer comes down to practicalities. Do you want someone to operate on you by trial and error? Would you accept being represented in court by anyone with no knowledge of the law?
The same applies to economics. You could go to work in an accounting firm or intern at a global financial centre to gain experience working in that field but, unless you know about economic theory, awareness of all the ways economics impacts every aspect of the human condition, you will end up hopelessly lost.
That's why your Economics A-Level strives to cover as much ground as possible.
AS Economics
Your first year at college will see you study these economic topics, among others:
- production, costs and revenue
- price determination in competitive markets
- competitive and concentrated markets
- government intervention in markets
- the market mechanism
- market failure
These and other topics are related to the operation of markets and the consequences of market failure. You'll also broach the economic problem and learn about economic methodology. You'll examine the national economy in a global context; all about the macroeconomy and economic performance.
A-Level Economics
Your second year of college economic study will take a detailed look at microeconomics; everything about individual and business economic decisions. You'll also turn your attention to the labour market, poverty and inequality, and income and wealth distribution.
And then, pulling the focus back, you'll come to understand fiscal policy, monetary policy and financial markets, and indulge in a deep exploration of the international economy.
Clearly, that's quite a lot of ground to cover in two short years, especially because the subject material is so intensive. However, this short overview demonstrates that these are not ideas you could simply pick up on as an apprentice, even if you were interning with the greatest economic minds alive today.
Granted, in some career fields, apprenticeships are far more effective for learning job particulars. Technicians, for instance, benefit greatly from getting hands-on with their work as soon as possible; even before they learn any of the theory that drives the mechanical systems they work on.
But not economics. For that, you need a load of academic study; the next step in your development as an economist is A-Levels; Superprof delivers this guide to help you along.
An Overview of Economic A-Level
Whether you're in your first or second year at college, your GCSE Economics exam is not so far behind you that you don't remember how it was structured and what you were called on to do.
Your AS exam will follow the same pattern - a three-hour ordeal consisting of two papers. However, this time, you'll have 20 multiple-choice questions on each paper, instead of just 10. The rest of these papers' work depends on those questions, You'll be presented with a choice of Context A or B, each of which relates to a different set of multiple-choice questions, and instructed to choose only one.
Your A-Level qualifications exam is a bit more intensive; thus you are allotted two hours per paper, for a total of six hours.
Your first two papers require all written responses; multiple-choice questions feature only on your third paper. We'll talk more about Paper 3 in a moment; for now, let's keep our focus on the first two.
Again, you will be offered a choice of two contexts, from which both papers' first half draw upon for their questions. Both papers' Section B consists of essay questions. You'll be given three prompts; you only need to choose one and expound on it at length.
Paper 3 leads off with 30 multiple-choice questions, after which you will be tasked to examine a current and ongoing economic situation through a variety of perspectives (extracts).
Clearly, Economic A-Level exams demand far more than knowledge of the basics of economics; we've got a lot of reviewing to do, don't we?
Economic AS
In this article's introduction, you got a preview of the topics covered at this stage of your Economics education. Now, let's elaborate a bit.
Your AS year syllabus is broken into two components, just as your GCSE was. Essentially, you'll continue your dive into theoretical and global economic concepts, only to a much more expansive degree.
Under the header of market operation and market failure, you'll discover economic methodology, learn about competitive and concentrated markets and explore how to determine prices in a competitive market. You'll also touch on factors that drive market failure and discuss the value of government interference in markets.
You'll be tested on all of these topics in Paper 1 of your AS ordeal.
On the macroeconomic side, you'll examine the national economy in context with the global economy. You'll learn how to measure macroeconomic performance and discover the inner workings of the macroeconomy. Finally, you'll expound on macroeconomic policy. All of these topics are covered in your AS Paper 2.
Economic A-Level
Students entering college typically choose five or more subjects to study and, after their first year (and first round of exams), review their choices and drop the subject(s) they scored the lowest on. It's a sensible solution to academic overburdening; after all, UCAS only demands three marks.
We're of a mind that you'll continue your Economics education. Indeed, we hold firmly that clever minds like yours will find the best jobs for Economics graduates and make a better future for us all. In that spirit, we continue with our breakdown of A-Level Economics.
Again, you'll see a break between microeconomics and macroeconomics in the way your curriculum is structured.
Under the microeconomic banner, you delve into topics such as individual economic decision-making and income/wealth inequality and distribution. You'll also cover topics related to businesses - the labour market, price determination, imperfectly competitive market and monopolies.
On the macroeconomic side, you'll explore the international economy, fiscal and monetary policies, and the machinations of financial markets. You'll also study how the macroeconomy works.
As with your GCSE and AS exams, your A-Level papers will address discrete aspects of the course curriculum. Paper 1 covers microeconomic topics, Paper 2 tackles macroeconomic concepts and Paper 3 focuses on economic principles and issues.
To best prepare for all of these exams, past papers should be among your best resources. It wouldn't hurt to have a Superprof Economics tutor on speed-dial to help you understand some of the more complex aspects of economics, either...
Find out all about Economics tuition here.
What Examiner Reports Reveal
If past papers and marking schemes are your best resources for stage-by-stage exam preparation, combing through the examiners' reports should be your first draw.
Whether you're a fan of dystopian fiction - a la Squid Game or The Hunger Games, or you simply admire the greatest minds in economics, you know that finding out where others failed is where you should put your first effort to. To that end, there is no better roadmap than these reports.
Consider the examiners' review of multiple-choice questions on the AS exams, Paper 1. They found that most students had more difficulty answering these questions correctly; some because the questions were misleading or confusing and others because they were simply too demanding.
For Section B of that paper, most students chose Context 1 and did very well on it. Would you also choose that Context, based on what this report reveals?
One particularly helpful aspect of Examiner Reports is their analyses of how students could improve their exam performance; specifically, they indicate what students didn't understand well and how they could do better.
The authors' explanation of the intent behind each question - which area of economic knowledge it was meant to test, is another fantastic feature of these reports. Each question's assessment starts with what the student was supposed to explain, assess or describe, followed by what students actually did and how many found that question easy or troublesome.
According to the latest report, any attempt to graph an answer was generally poorly done so, if you intend to incorporate any graphs, be sure that you label your axes (and graphs) properly, and calculate your variables correctly.
The latest reports available are from 2019. They are roughly seven pages long, discounting the title page and blank pages; there is one for each exam Paper.
And they contain so much information to guide your efforts.
If you've accepted that you're destined for a career in economics, you surely know that your future will consist of continual learning. Everything you're studying now will become the foundation of all the valuable and necessary work you've yet to start.
That's why finding the right university for your further Economics study is so vital. Get ahead of the competition! Discover the best UK universities for Economics.
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