KS4

The GCSE Economics course offered is provided by AQA.

The course requires students to …….

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding
• Apply their knowledge and understanding to address current issues and problems, using appropriate terms, concepts and ideas
• Select, organise and interpret data to analyse problems
• Make reasoned judgments and present conclusions accurately

How is the Course structured ?

The content covers the following areas or topics…….

• The basic economic problem
  The subject is concerned with how society makes choices faced with scarce resources, and uses a market system to distribute goods. How does this work ?
• Market Systems
  Markets consist of buyers and sellers who interact to determine prices. Here students will consider demand, supply, market mechanism and equilibrium.
• Business Behaviour
  Business enterprises or organisations are the major suppliers of goods and services. Here students look at objectives, the growth of businesses, competition, and production strategies.
• Market Failure and Government policies
  The market system does not always work effectively or acceptably ……. It sometimes fails to allocate resources to meet societies’ needs or objectives. This section looks at how this happens, what the impact may be and how Governments attempt to solve the problems.
• Macro economic concepts and policies
  This section considers the management of the economy as a whole, looking at objectives for the economy e.g. employment, low inflation, and how Governments take action to try to achieve these.

How is GCSE Economics assessed ?

Students sit two exam papers.

Paper One 2 hours or 2 ½ hours - A series of structured questions, some open ended, based around an extract from an article or data.

Paper Two 1 hour - A problem solving exercise again based on an economic case study provided. (This paper replaces Coursework.)

The exam can be taken at two different levels……

• Foundation grades C-G
• Higher grades A*- D

The main text book used on the course is ……..

Economics for GCSE - Anderton Published by Collins Educational

Economics Homepage

Useful websites

What's the difference between Economics and Business
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