How To Get An A* In A Level Economics
How To Get An A* In A Level Economics – Introduction
Being able to achieve an A* and having a real enjoyment for economics this particular grade is going to be difficult if not following the tips and advice in this blog post.
Now the first thing to talk about which is a massive thing in terms of all exam preparation it’s past papers. We really can’t emphasise how important past papers are to succeeding in your exams but for economics you might want to go about them slightly differently.
Past Papers
For other subjects like maths and physics it was very easy for me to do past papers and mark them and clearly see where I was working. However for economics the mark themes that come along with these past papers are usually a bit more difficult to self-mark from.
So what we would recommend is asking a teacher or teachers to mark the past papers that you’re doing. What we found with our is that the majority of the time teachers are very willing to do this. This is so helpful it alleviates self-marking stress from you and it also lets you truly see where you’re looking at.
Economics papers are hard to mark
The reason why economics past papers are hard to mark is that the mark schemes don’t clearly tell you what you should or should not write and that’s because they can’t really because it’s an essay-based subject. There’s lots of things you could write but you’re not expected to write them all so it’s hard to self-mark from.
If you look at a typical mark scheme from an A2 A level economic paper you will see it’s just a list of things that could be said. It’s very hard for a student to self-mark without having experience in the marketing process. This is our first point. Do lots of past papers and get your teachers to mark them if possible
Time Management
Now the second thing we want to talk about is time management. This is more practical advice for the actual exam itself rather than advice for the whole course. We have found that economics exams are the most time-pressured out of all exams. For all economics exams all three papers which are three hours long you will be writing for at least an hour.
The way to master time management is to be strict with yourself, allocate a specific set time for each question and stick to it. Obviously in the exam it could be a bit of a wiggle room for example, some essays just naturally have more to say than others. However it’s really important to note that time runs away from you.
In order to achieve those top grades in the exam, after all even if you’ve answered every question really well, if you haven’t answered all the questions it just limits yourself in terms of achieving those top grades.
A good way to master time management links with point one – do lots of past papers in timed conditions. By doing the past papers in time conditions you can see what the real exam will be like and this will really help you work on your time management.
The third thing is those big essay questions. Now these are 25 markers or 20 markers either way this blog is going to give you an overview.
Have a good introduction, evaluate lots, really focus on evaluation and make a judgement at the end.
The fourth thing we want to talk about is active recall and flashcards. Unfortunately your answers to the questions asked in these economic exams it’s limited if you do not have sufficient knowledge of the things you’re being asked about.
Even if you have great exam structure, great exam form, if you don’t actually know the things you’re talking about, that will just limit you. That is so so important to make sure you’re building up that bank of economic knowledge, which we believe is best done through active recall and flashcards.
For first year economics do all your flash cards on paper and for the second year do them all in brainscape. It will be helpful for you in terms of building that knowledge.
There are two key points to be successful with both active recall and flash cards. The first is to make your flash cards throughout your two years and don’t leave it until the end of year 13.
To start making your flashcards make them as you’re learning the content and then when you come to revising content – it is there for you to revise this way. Iit relieves so much stress at the end of year 13.
The second thing is to use your flashcards consistently so yes you should make your flashcards throughout the whole two years of year 12 and 13 but you should also be using them throughout the whole two years don’t just make them all and then leave it to March April time to start going through them.
In order to get the full marks in each type of question you can literally just look at your exam board specification and it will give you specific things of what you need to get each type of mark.
Whether it’s just knowledge, evaluation or analysis etc. So what we say is learn how to answer each type of question and then practise doing them in timed conditions to master them.
Finally add any real world examples which adds so much depth to your essay. For instance if you can bring examples of where Monopoly power has been good and the Monopoly power has not been good. This can be really useful in adding depth and analysis and evaluation to your essay. Furthermore, being able to bring some macro statistics is really useful for example things like the UK’s inflation rate.