A-Level Economics Week 3 Exam Preparation Tips

PAST PAPERS!

(I know… grim…)

Hi guys, today’s post is all about past papers, I know, we just can’t get enough of them can we!

Top tip, USE this website:

https://www.physicsandmathstutor.com/economics-revision/

(weird name as they cover almost every subject, but trust me it’s great!):

Around now we need to start very actively doing entire past papers. It’s important as it helps us actually understand our approach to exam day and get rid of those pesky nerves.

At this point past papers are most helpful when fully completed without looking at any notes, with the goal of moving to being time restricted as well, so we can get into the mindset of what the actual exam will be like.

Below, I will be discussing the tips I used when doing past exam papers and what you should aim to be getting out of this whole process. Obviously you are practicing the content you’ve learnt by answering questions, but additionally you are trying to monitor the ways in which these papers are constructed.

Tips for doing past papers:

1. Print the paper out: a physical paper makes it feel more like a real exam and help us take the paper seriously (don’t confuses serious with stress!). Additionally, it helps eliminate any options to ‘help’ us answer questions we’re stuck on (I’m looking at you google). Be sure to put away laptops, notes and your phone, to avoid cheating and to help make things more official. You can always look up answers afterwards, just not mid-paper. If you are unable to print out the exam then use lined paper and open the exam on a device with you internet turned OFF.

2. Try a different location: move around your house (or wherever you’ve chosen to become an exam hermit) to somewhere other than where you’ve been studying. This is a contextual cue, by moving location you are ‘tricking’ your brain into moving to ‘exam mode’ as it will associate a new space with a new purpose mimicking the mind set of an actual exam.

3. Time yourself: If not for your first practice paper, definitely for the second! It’s essential to practice timed. Giving yourself more time can actually be counterproductive and catch you out in the real exams, spending ages on practice answer may mean you’re being too complex with your response and not reflect the simplicity required in a timed response. Examiners, when marking, are aware of the time you have been given and therefore will expect answers that reflect it. It’s important to stick to your timings, which means wrapping an answer up when the time has elapsed as best you can. Ask someone to time you or simply set yourself some alarms.

a. If you see you are struggling to complete an exam in the required time you can try this: Give yourself a 10 minute allowance. As you continue to do practice exams, this should be shortened to 5 minutes and then finally no extra time. This way, you are gradually decreasing your time and learning how to manage your time better.

4. Don’t look back at any notes: This stems from the timing point and printing the past paper out. Your notes are NOT present in the exam and we need to start taking ourselves away them.

5. If possible try to have someone invigilate you: This can be done with a parent/guardian or you can do this with a friend and then you can invigilate them (teamwork makes the dream work!). Accountability is everything: making sure you are sticking to the time limit, you are not referring back to your notes, and it’s again creating that exam atmosphere we all love. You can set up a Zoom call, mute your mics and begin a past exam. This way it feels more formal as you can agree to invigilate each other but also prevents you from using your laptop/phone/tablet as a distraction.

6. Mark the paper and be very harsh on yourself: I’m not going to tell you to be harsh on yourself often but here it’s important. This will be elaborated on below but essentially being harsh on yourself will mimic the approach an external examiner would take when marking real exams.

7. Make a list for areas that you did not do well on during the past papers: This is one of the most important points. A past paper should not just be left alone after you complete it. You should reflect on the experience and make sure you do better on the next one. A list of areas you did not do well in will additionally help you when you are going back to revision.

Things to look for in past papers:

- Examine questions that have a similar answering style: These are usually identified by a trigger word such as ‘explain, elaborate, evaluate, discuss’. For these sort of questions, they normally require larger, essay-like answers, so it is helpful to devise a structure to tackle these larger questions.

- Topics that consistently come up: When doing past papers it is really essential to identify those topics you see popping up often. You can essentially predict what might come up in your exam. It gives you an indication on topics to study really well as there is some certainty that you will see this topic in your exam.

- When marking your past paper, compare your marking to a marked paper by an examiner or even your teacher: This allows you to gauge the level of your marking. This should be done earlier on in the process of doing past papers so that when marking them, you are consistent throughout and you are marking to the level of an examiner or teacher. Usually we’re easier on themselves when marking our own work, so this approach combats this!

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.