Economics

“Economics is everywhere, and understanding economics can help you make better decisions and lead a happier life.”  — Tyler Cowen

Economics is a course intended for motivated and academic students who wish to study how individuals, firms and governments interact with each other in society to try to improve overall welfare.  This 2-year A-level course will examine concepts such as how markets work, circumstances under which they do not function properly and what governments can do to try to improve outcomes for society.  Students will also be introduced to analysing the economy on a national and global basis using macroeconomic policies to improve overall performance measures. This will include learning about the circular flow of income, AD/AS analysis and the economic impacts of globalisation.

The full A-level course will go further in the second year to analyse microeconomic concepts such as production costs and revenues, imperfect competition and monopoly, income and wealth inequality and the labour market.  They will also study macroeconomic concepts including financial markets, monetary, fiscal and supply-side policies and the international economy.

The course will be based very much on real-world scenarios and students are advised to keep up with the latest economic news to relate current events to core concepts taught in class.

Assessment (Exam Board – AQA)
Students will be assessed across four Achievement Objectives:  Knowledge, Application, Analysis and Evaluation as follows:

A-level Course (100% exam-assessed):

• Paper 1 (2hrs): Markets and Market Failure.  Section A: Data Response questions requiring written answers – choice of one from two contexts worth 40 marks.  Section B: Essay questions requiring written answers – choice of one from three worth 40 marks.  Paper 1 is out of 80 marks and is worth 33.3% of the A-level course.
• Paper 2 (2hrs): National and International Economy.  Section A: Data Response questions requiring written answers – choice of one from two contexts worth 40 marks.  Section B: Essay questions requiring written answers – choice of one from three worth 40 marks.  Paper 2 is out of 80 marks and is worth 33.3% of the A-level course.
• Paper 3 (2hrs):  Economic Principles and Issues (all course content assessed).  Section A: Multiple Choice questions worth 30 marks.  Section B: Case Study questions requiring written answers, worth 50 marks.  Paper 3 is out of 80 marks and is worth 33.3% of the A-level course.

Further Information

AQA Economics Specification

Entry requirements:
7 Higher Grades:

• Grade 5 (or above) for Maths
• Grade 4 (or above) for English
• Grade 4 (or above) for other GCSE subjects
• 1 BTEC (or equivalent) at Merit (or above) may be included within the 7 grades

Other items you may be interested in:
Student Investor Challenge – Annual National Stock Market Competition
Zidisha – Oakes College Cambridge Micro-Financing Club
Young Enterprise – See what the students have accomplished