ECO22Exam Technique: Papers 1 and 2

• Paper 1: How markets work (mostly microeconomics). Paper 2: How the economy works (mostly macroeconomics). Some questions draw on the other half of the course.
• Each paper: 1 hour 45 minutes, 80 marks, 50% of the GCSE. No tiers, no coursework, no choice of questions.
• A calculator is allowed on both papers. Take one you know how to use.
• Both papers have the same shape, Q01 to Q26. Section A (48 marks) has 10 multiple-choice questions, ten 2-mark questions, a 6-mark Analyse (Q15), a 3-mark Draw (Q20) and a 9-mark Assess (Q21).
• Section B (32 marks) starts with Items A and B, then Define (Q22, 2), Calculate (Q23, 3), two 6-markers (Q24 and Q25) and the 15-mark ‘Do you think…? Justify your view’ (Q26).
• Only the 6, 9 and 15-mark questions are marked in levels. Everything else is marked point by point.
• Timing: 105 minutes for 80 marks is about 1.3 minutes a mark. Aim to start Section B by about the hour mark.
• There are no separate marks for spelling and grammar, but the 9 and 15-mark levels reward accurate economic terms.

Every paper follows this map (suggested timings are ours)

AO1

Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of economic concepts and issues.

AO2

Apply that knowledge to a context, including drawing diagrams and calculating.

AO3

Analyse and evaluate economic evidence: build chains of reasoning, weigh up, judge and conclude.

• Ten questions, 1 mark each, four options (A to D), one answer. Aim for about 13 minutes. They get harder as you go.
• Cover the options first. Work out the answer, then look for it. This stops a plausible distractor pulling you in.
• Cross out the options you know are wrong. If you have to guess, guess between two. Never leave one blank.
• Underline ‘not’ and ‘most likely’. A ‘which is not…’ question has three true options.
• Two-column tables (for example ‘Effect on saving / Effect on borrowing’): decide each column on its own, then find the row that matches both.
• Calculation MCQs: work it out in full with your calculator. The wrong options are usually the common mistakes: the wrong sign, the formula upside down, or an average instead of a change.
• Diagram MCQs: ask which curve moved, and which way, before reading the options.
• Quote MCQs (‘I am saving up for…’): match the words to the term, such as ‘saving’ to store of value.

• State two (2 marks): two short, different answers, 1 mark each. No explanation needed. Two answers that are too alike, or simply opposites, score 1.
• Explain one (2 marks): 1 mark to identify the point, 1 mark to explain it: a reason or a consequence, using ‘because’ or ‘so’.
• Define (2 marks, Q22): a complete definition gets 2; part of one, or just an example, gets 1. Learn AQA’s key definitions closely.
• Answer about the person asked. If the question says workers, consumers or the government, write about them, not firms.
• The opposite-category trap costs whole questions every year. Check that your answer is the right kind of thing before you write it.

• Each paper has about 10 to 13 marks of calculations: Q14.1 and Q19.1 (2 each), Q23 (3) and two to four MCQs. At least 10% of the GCSE is quantitative.
• Show your working. A correct answer alone gets full marks, but the right method with a slip still earns 1 mark. A wrong answer with no working gets nothing.
• Percentage change = (new − original) ÷ original × 100. Dividing by the new value is the most common wrong denominator.
• PED keeps its minus sign. An answer of 0.5 instead of −0.5 loses a mark. PES is positive.
• Balances need a direction. For the trade balance, current account or budget, write ‘surplus’ or ‘deficit’ (or a minus sign). A correct number without it loses a mark.
• Round exactly as asked: 1 decimal place, nearest £, nearest whole number. Not rounding as asked usually costs 1 mark.
• Units: write £, %, ‘million’ or ‘billion’. Mixing millions and billions is a common factor-of-1,000 error.
• Multi-step Q23: number each step. If an early step is wrong, examiners can still give marks for later steps that use your figure correctly.

Q20 is usually a demand and supply diagram showing one change. It can be a product market, the labour market or the market for pounds. Sometimes it asks you to finish a bar chart or pie chart instead. Draw in pencil and use a ruler.

• Mark 1: axes labelled, original D and S drawn and labelled, original equilibrium P and Q marked on the axes with dotted lines.
• Mark 2: the right curve shifted the right way, labelled D1 or S1. Shift the wrong curve and you score only mark 1, even if you label it with the right letter.
• Mark 3: the new equilibrium P1 and Q1 marked on both axes, correctly higher or lower than P and Q.
• Before you draw, decide two things: does the change affect buyers (demand) or sellers (supply)? Does it make them want or offer more (right) or less (left)?
• Currency market: more UK exports raise the demand for pounds (D right, £ rises). More UK imports raise the supply of pounds (S right, £ falls).
• Labour market: wage on the vertical axis. More demand for a product raises the demand for the workers who make it (derived demand).
• Charts: 1 mark for labelled axes with a sensible scale, then marks for bars at the right heights. For a pie chart, label every segment.

Where each of the three marks comes from

Axis labels for the three markets you may draw

Two kinds of 6-marker look alike but are marked differently. Read the command word.

• Analyse (levels): Level 1 is separate points with no chain; Level 2 starts a chain and uses the Figure; Level 3 has full, logical chains. No conclusion is needed.
• Explain two (3 + 3): each point is marked out of 3. Make two different points, each developed. Two points that repeat each other lose marks.
• A chain of reasoning links cause to effect in steps: ‘this means… which leads to… so…’. Two or three links per chain is enough.
• Two chains are usually enough for full marks in an Analyse. Depth beats a long list.
• Use the Figure or Item: pick a number or a phrase, then say what it shows. Don’t copy out long passages: examiners say it earns nothing on its own.
• Using data well: work something out from it (a percentage change, a revenue figure) and use it as evidence in your chain.

One chain of reasoning: each step causes the next

‘Using Figure n, assess whether…’. AO2 3, AO3 6. About 12 minutes.

• Structure: one developed paragraph for, one against (two each if time), then a conclusion.
• Each paragraph: point → evidence from the Figure → chain of reasoning → what it means for the question.
• No conclusion means no Level 3. AQA placed an answer with Level 3 analysis but no overall judgement at the top of Level 2 (6 marks).
• A justified conclusion answers the question directly, says why one side outweighs the other, and adds an ‘it depends on…’.
• Good ‘it depends on’ ideas: the size of the effect, short run or long run, which group you look at, the price elasticity, whether the data is reliable or complete.
• Don’t start with your verdict if you then have to defend it all the way through. Weigh up first, then judge.
• Calculate from the Figure if you can. AQA’s 9-mark exemplar worked out cost per kilogram at each output to support both sides.

How the 6, 9 and 15-mark levels climb (our summary of AQA’s descriptors)

The last question on each paper: AO2 5, AO3 10, five levels. Use Items A and B and your own knowledge. About 20 minutes, including a 2 to 3 minute plan.

• Plan briefly. Examiners say the best answers often show a short plan. Jot two or three points each side and your verdict.
• Open by framing the question: define the key term and say what you will weigh up. Don’t open with a fixed verdict.
• Two or three developed arguments each side, each a chain of reasoning backed by the Items.
• Bring in your own economics: opportunity cost, price elasticity, externalities, effects on different groups, alternatives the government could use.
• Evaluate as you go: end each paragraph with how strong that point is (‘this matters most if…’).
• Conclude with a justified verdict: which side wins and why, the key ‘it depends on’, and short run against long run.
• Any well-argued view can reach Level 5. There is no right side. Marks come from the quality of the argument.
• Quality over length. Examiners say answers don’t need to be very long. Answers that wander, or that end with a brief, unsupported conclusion, stay in the middle levels.

• Read the whole question. Students lose marks by missing words like ‘to consumers’, ‘for workers’ or ‘in the UK’ and writing a general answer.
• Shift or movement? A change in the product’s own price moves along the curve (‘quantity demanded’). Everything else shifts it.
• Elastic and inelastic the right way round. Necessities with few substitutes are price inelastic. Getting this backwards kept answers in Level 1 or 2.
• Externalities fall on third parties. The buyer’s own benefit is a private benefit, not an external one.
• Three deficits are different: the budget deficit (government), the trade deficit and the current account deficit (the rest of the world). Debt is the total built up over time.
• Falling inflation is not falling prices. Prices are still rising, just more slowly.
• Bank Rate is set by the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, not by the government.
• Don’t leave blanks. The questions with the most blanks are on less familiar topics (economies of scale, building societies, supply-side disadvantages). Write something relevant.

Each calculation is taught in its own topic. Here they all are with fresh, invented numbers. Cover the steps and try each one with your calculator.