AS & A LEVEL ECONOMICS EXAM TECHNIQUE

 AS & A -Level Economics  Exam Technique

Data-Response Questions

 

• If a question asks for two points, ensure you include 2, otherwise you’re limiting yourself to half the marks
• If a question asks you to ‘refer to the data’ then don’t forget to do so
• When drawing diagrams, ensure they’re fully labelled- both axes and lines

• Do not make reference to an answer you made on a different question- they’re all marked separately, and probably not even by the same examiner
• Ensure each point you make, whether its explanation or evaluation, is detailed enough to earn you the full marks- you’ll only get 1 for stating a point, then there’ll be 2 or 3 supplementary marks for expanding on the point you’ve made
• In a longer question, you need to be making several points to earn the full marks- e.g. on a 12-mark question from the specimen paper you needed to make 3 ‘explanation’ points and then 2 or 3 ‘evaluation’ points to earn full marks

Evaluation:

‘Evaluate’, ‘Assess’, ‘Discuss’, ‘To what extent’, & ‘Examine’ are all evaluative words. When you see these in a question you need to immediately consider the evaluation involved. You need to be considering both sides of an argument and criticising the points you make.

E.g. if you are talking about the introduction of congestion charging then you might make the point that it should increase the cost of driving in congested areas, and so discourage people from driving into, say, central London. You could then go on to EVALUATE this point by saying:

‘However, people’s elasticity of demand for vehicular access to central London may be very inelastic and so the introduction of a congestion charge may make little difference to the number of vehicles travelling into the city centre and thus do little to reduce congestion’

 

Make a point and then criticise it!!

 

 

* * RTQ…then…ATQ * *

(read the question…then…answer the question)