Economics 2017 HSC exam pack

Students should:

• focus on the key words used in the question – for example, ‘explain’ and ‘compare and contrast’
• specifically address the question
• plan their responses, particularly with regard to the latter part(s) of the question
• use linkages between concepts throughout the response.

In better responses, students were able to:

• know a definition of dumping (Q21 (a)), relevant components of the balance of payments (Q22 (a)), the difference between income and wealth (Q23 (a)), and types of unemployment (Q24 (a))
• understand the operation of subsidies to discourage dumping (Q21 (b)) and the difference between direct investment and portfolio investment (Q22 (b))
• offer two distinct possible changes to taxation to reduce inequality (Q23 (b)) and explain how unemployment reduces economic growth (Q24 (b))
• demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the different roles of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Q21 (c)) and the costs and benefits of foreign direct investment for Australia (Q22 (c)), clearly describing how age and gender affect inequality (Q23 (c)) and contrasting the use of fiscal policy when the economy is at and above NAIRU (Q24 (c)).

Students should:

• write a plan before beginning the extended response questions to help clarify their thinking and structure each response in a logical and cohesive way
• integrate theoretical models within each response
• integrate a variety of relevant economic terms from across the Economics syllabus to form a clear and detailed argument throughout the responses
• use relevant definitions to demonstrate a clear understanding of terms
• replace any general expressions with economic terminology and phrasing
• answer the question asked, rather than writing everything known about the topic
• integrate relevant data and statistics to show that they know what is happening globally and domestically
• use the stimulus material to trigger insight into the possible broader economic terms and theories expected within the response.

Students should expect:

• to support questions with economic theory and diagrams
• to interpret data and think about what the data indicate before writing their response (Section III)
• questions to be unpredictable
• questions to be of varying difficulty.

Students can prepare for this examination by:

• using past HSC papers and marking guidelines to practise writing responses
• writing plans for answers to questions from past HSC papers
• using various economic media sources – for example, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Treasury and Trading Economics
• keeping up to date with current global and domestic economic events
• making relationships between theories and contemporary events.

Section III

In better responses, students were able to:

• directly answer the question in a clear and concise formal academic response
• provide an extensive range of economic theories and terminology to explain economic relationships in a logical and sequential manner using examples, data and statistics
• use a variety of economic tools to answer the question – for example, including relevant and extensively labelled economic diagrams, sophisticated economic terminology and concepts, and contemporary data, statistics and examples
• refer to their diagrams, data and/or stimulus material in their response to enhance their analysis of economic concepts/theory.

Section IV

In better responses, students were able to:

• use a plan to structure their response
• thoughtfully balance all parts of the response
• use statistics to strengthen their response
• use specific examples to strengthen their response
• use current trends to support their response
• organise their response into logical paragraphs that addressed the directive terms ‘compare’ and ‘contrast’
• regularly use economic terms and concepts to answer the question
• respond to the question in a comprehensive and sustained manner.