How To Excel In Your Economics Examination
The Singapore-Cambridge GCE ‘A’ Level Economics Examination is just around the corner. Are you ready? To many JC students, it is a challenging subject which takes more than good memory and hard work in order to do well. If you are one of them who find yourself struggling in this subject, read on to learn about the right methodology to tackling the essay questions.
Analyse The Questions
Economics essay questions come in different forms, just like chocolate cookies in various different packaging. However, with the guidance from your economics tutor, you should be able to analyse the questions and put them into a few different categories. Those in the same category can be answered by applying the same set of economic concepts.
Answer The Questions In A Systematic Way
A good economics tutor should be able to help you develop a systematic way to organise your essays. If you have not been taught about this by your economics tutor in economics tuition, you can consider the following steps.
Define the Relevant Economic Concepts
Identify the relevant economic concepts to be applied in your essay and define these concepts at the beginning of your essay.
Apply the Relevant Economic Concepts in your Answer
In the examination, students are required to apply the relevant economic concepts in explaining some complex real-life economic events. Most of the time, there are multiple factors at work which may lead to opposite conclusions. It is important for students to cover as many as possible all important influencing factors and their individual effects in their essay. It is also important for the students to address the magnitude of these effects and draw a conclusion on what the combined effects are most likely to be. When doing this, students are advised to take into consideration real life conditions. Therefore, besides teaching the economic concepts and methodology to writing a good economics essay, a good economics tutor should also be able to relate what they teach to real life economic events and examples.
Evaluate your Answer
This is the icing on the cake. A good evaluation adds depth to your answer and will definitely set you apart from the rest. Unfortunately, even some highly qualified JC school teachers and experienced economics tutors fail to do a good evaluation. Some even skip it.
It may not matter as much if you just aim to pass. However, to those who aim at an “A”, a good evaluation may be your pass to the league of A scorers.
Having mastered the right methodology, the rest is memorisation and practice.
Compile A List And Memorise
Students are required to memorise the economic concepts precisely in order to apply them correctly in their essays. You should have learned in your economics tuition what are the important concepts that you need to define in your essays. Compile a list of such concepts and in consultation with your economics tutor, identify what are the most common conceptual errors that students often make. Spend some time with your economics tutor to go through these common conceptual errors in economics tuition.
Prepare A List Of Real-life Examples
Economics is a subject that focuses very much on application. Therefore, students are required to apply what they have learned in economics tuition from their economics tutors to real-life situations. They are also required to cite some real-life examples when writing their essays. It will be beneficial if your economics tutor has the habit of sharing in economics tuition, some real-life examples that can be used in your essays.
I hope the above tips can help you excel in your upcoming Singapore-Cambridge GCE ‘A’ Level Economics Examination. Please approach your economics tutor for further details and assistance.
Linda Geng
Economics Tuition Singapore @ Economics Cafe
Principal Economics Tutor: Mr. Edmund Quek