Economics

Course summary

In short, the study of how societies allocate scarce resources between conflicting alternatives. This can range from something as specific as whether to renew a football season ticket or as complicated as a government job support scheme. The impact of Covid-19 on a local, national and international level means that many of the economic choices that individuals, firms and governments face are very challenging. These issues also mean that it is a very intriguing time to start studying the subject. If you are intrigued by the constant flow of economic news and have an enquiring mind that wants to be able to understand and debate what you are being told then it certainly is the subject for you. Likewise, if you have no interest in past or present economic events then you will find economics rather dull! A good way to test out your interest would be to start reading a variety of economic blogs and/or follow key commentators on Twitter (David Smith, Ed Conway, Jeremy Warner, Faisal Islam to name but a few). You won’t understand everything they’re saying (yet!) but it is your level of intrigue that will help you to decide if it is the right subject for you. Or read Freakanomics or The Undercover Economist Strikes Back. If you enjoy them, you will enjoy A-level Economics. The areas of study divide into two broad categories. Microeconomics is the study of an individual part of the economy and macroeconomics which is the study of the economy as a whole. There are three exam papers: Paper 1 Markets and Market Failure (microeconomics), Paper 2 National and International Economy (macroeconomics) and Paper 3 Economic Principles and Issues (a mixture of micro and macroeconomics). All exams are sat at the end of Year 13. Students have consistently achieved strong results over a number of years with approximately 85% of the 400 or so students taught between 2010 and 2019 achieving an A*, A or B grade and 59% of those students achieving an A* or A grade.