A-Level Economics Week 1 Exam Preparation Tips

Blog 1: A- level Economics Starting Off

Hi gang, my names Mehnaz and welcome to my A-Level Economics blog! As exams are approaching it is important to develop a very good plan for tackling all the content and past papers in order to help boost your grades. It is also important to visualize the grade that you want to achieve and make it quite high so that you can really motivate yourself throughout the study period! What's stopping you from getting those few extra marks or that next grade up? Visualizing a high grade will also translate to a more rigorous revision process and force you to interact with all the material of A-Level Economics, especially the material that you don’t enjoy and would rather ignore (we've all been there). Furthermore, it is important to really immerse yourself in the subject, below I have explained the techniques that you should start implementing in your first week of studying for A-Level Economics.

1. Read economic related news so that you can add context to your answers. This is important as there are a lot of changes in the current business world that are affecting the global economy. There is no need to read extremely in depth but understanding the repercussions of certain events and how they are adversely affecting the economy is important.

2. Use a timetable to track your revision, this will make it easier to cover the content and also block out the same revision spots each week to designate a specified time for economics revision. Remember to divide your time effectively as you also have other subjects that you need to revise for! It is important to also add in breaks at regular intervals to prevent feeling like you are working for extended periods of time. a recommended time table would be adding between 2-5 hours a day (this also depends on your level of confidence in other subjects, be honest with yourself here!).

3. Find revision guides online (very easily available) and they have exam style questions which are extremely helpful to practice as you get closer to the time of the exams. Additionally revision guides include summaries of topics which can be useful to increase your understanding on certain topics that you need further clarification from. This is easier than scanning textbooks for information as it is represented more simply in revision guide.

4. Create an exam file either digitally or physically and add all exam related stuff in it. This will include handouts, past papers, example answers, revisions notes, cue cards etc.… This makes it easier to organize all your resources and quickly retrieve them when needed. It also creates a sense of accountability as you are visualising all the revision and past papers you need to go through and therefore will be more likely to complete them. Using colour is especially important to sort files and this can be done simply by digitally changing the colour of your folders or physically, using different coloured files or paper.

5. Get yourself a white board and some coloured board pens! Scrap paper can replace this but in being eco-friendly, a white board is a better option. This will allow you to draw diagrams (especially with all the different colours and lines needed. Secondly, it won’t be tedious to continuously keep drawing diagrams to represent shifts in any factors, simply erasing lines will speed up the process and increase retention.

6. Examine the specification papers: look at a specification and write out the different points and then create a mind map around it that is just an initial word vomit of all the information you know about that specific specification point. This is an important way to visualise what you know going into your revision. When doing this word vomit on the mind map, remember to include: any key words, formula, reasoning, evaluation and any significant world events that may be connected to that point that could be brought up in an exam.

7. After doing this it is important to go through the specification and identify any points that you've missed out. These should be added to the mind map in a different colour. The importance of this is to identify topics that may need additional revision as you did not think of them initially when you unpacked the specification point.

8. Create key words sheets for each topic. This is a great way to make sure you are covering the bases for the topic that you are studying and also, when you see these words come up in a question in an exam you can easily answer them. The key words will also serve as a basis to begin leaning definitions as well as improving your answers to exam styles questions as it will force you to use the correct terminology that the specification requires.

9. After doing the above, start creating revision papers or summary notes. These should include definitions, diagrams, explanations and examples for each topic that you want to go through. Especially for economics, definitions are important for low mark questions, diagrams need to be interpreted and explained for larger mark questions and for essay questions, examples are needed.

Try and get on these key things as soon as possible! I'll be back soon with more exam preparation advice!

Have any questions about how to prepare for your A-Level exams? Having problems with any hard to understand content or tricky past exam questions? Then ask Mehnaz. Mehnaz will be hosting a series of Q&A webinars in the 2 weeks before final exams. Post your questions here, and Mehnaz will answer them in these sessions.