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Why study Economics?
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Open a closed book - so many people read the papers, have opinions and vote without knowing anything much about the key economic issues. You will get to understand the real story behind the headlines in ways that other people can’t.
Impress universities - this course is well known for teaching rigorous analytical thinking so train your brain, especially if going on to subjects like Law or Management.
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Will I enjoy it?
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If you mean will it stimulate, challenge and engage you then yes definitely - understanding Economics gives huge satisfaction. Lots of students enjoy it in class and carry it on to university, even when they had little idea of what it was about to start with.
We discuss a huge range of real-life issues. Like why babies are starving in a Niger feeding centre when the market 10 miles away is full of food. And how food aid could even be a bad idea.
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Course Content
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AS: How the market mechanism works to give us what we want; we look at markets like health care, low-cost air travel, ring tones - all sorts. Also how markets fail, so the poor would have no doctors or clean water, cars would destroy the environment and no-one would pay for the police or the army. It’s scary when economies stop working, just look at New Orleans. Then on to how the national economy operates; will you be in a good job market in a few years time? Thirdly a study of a real market - Housing - so learn how to forecast changes in house prices!
A2: More on markets but this time it’s real Business Economics. Help your future job prospects with some commercial awareness. Then more on national economies but this time round we take it further and go global with world trade and exchange rates. The growth of the Chinese economy is a big story - why is it getting richer so fast when sub-Saharan Africa just gets poorer? And for one paper, instead of coursework, we study Europe.
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Assessment
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AS: 3 x 1 hour papers
A2: 2 x 1 hour 30 minutes papers and 1 x 1 hour 40 minutes paper
Coursework Requirements: None
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Tell me more…
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• Balance your subjects - Economics is a wonderful social science mix of words (mainly), diagrams and numbers and NO you don’t need much Mathematics to cope, though you might for top university courses later.
• Go for a subject that is sometimes seen as more for boys - we don’t know why. Silly idea.
• You’ll use all the skills of your GCSE subjects, so don’t worry about it being new. We get lots of A grades.
• http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/eco.html for a complete specification
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