Unsure how to study for economics assessment (1 Viewer)

goobypls

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I have an economics exam next tuesday that goes for 90 minutes that I am unsure how to study for. The exams consists of two topics: Introduction to Economics and Consumers and Business. 15 marks m/c, 10 marks short answers, 20 mark essay. It is a stimulus based exam and I am unsure if I should be making summary notes or just doing practice questions in the workbook that we have, there is a lot of content to make summary notes for so I am unsure if it is worth doing it in the time I have available.

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fizzbylightning

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I would definitely try make summary notes because the process of going through content is revision in itself. Just try and work quickly and not get distracted (remember, the goal is to get there comfortably before next Tues!). Do you have the Tim Dixon workbook? If you do that is an excellent excellent (cannot emphasise this enough) resource for revision and offers great MC, short answer and long response questions. Even if it isn't Dixon, I'm sure the workbook you have is worthy. Make sure you don't neglect practicing for the long response because it's worth a hefty 20 marks. Make sure you do an essay plan for sample questions as a bare minimum. These are extremely valuable as you're forced to collate your thoughts structurally and coherently. You don't want to end up reading the question in the exam room and start writing down everything you know without a purposeful structure. It's not too hard to do well in economic essays even though it may seem daunting. It's a matter of answering the question (ie. making sure what you're writing is relevant to the question - you won't get any marks for being smart on unrelated topics), using statistics and examples (but not overdoing it - so being selective as these examples are meant to support your theoretical content and give you an edge over other students), and finally, structuring your essay well which means you need a good intro and conclusion also to frame your ideas (markers want to be given "pointers" - imagine that they have a checklist).

As it's a stimulus based exam (this is really important), make sure you always refer back to the data, whether it be a quote, a graph, anything. Make the most out of it. Exploit it. Do not dare write an essay and neglect stimulus. Make sure it's a pivotal point of your essay, not just something you refer to in one sentence.

Intro in Eco and Consumers and Business are pretty easy topics (as you're at the start of Year 11). Therefore, I wouldn't worry about the idea that taking notes will be a waste of time. I think if you put your head down, you can do it comfortably.
 

RivalryofTroll

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Structure your study around the Syllabus for Preliminary Economics. (especially the Learn About dot-points)

Whether it be memorising or understanding or whatever.

It is too late now to make notes --> you're better off reading the textbook to consolidate your knowledge of the content below each dot point.

Doing practice questions is a good idea --> helps you consolidate knowledge further.

So yeah, be prepared to have any syllabus dot points from the first two topics thrown at you. KNOW the syllabus and you should score a nice mark.
 

goobypls

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I would definitely try make summary notes because the process of going through content is revision in itself. Just try and work quickly and not get distracted (remember, the goal is to get there comfortably before next Tues!). Do you have the Tim Dixon workbook? If you do that is an excellent excellent (cannot emphasise this enough) resource for revision and offers great MC, short answer and long response questions. Even if it isn't Dixon, I'm sure the workbook you have is worthy. Make sure you don't neglect practicing for the long response because it's worth a hefty 20 marks. Make sure you do an essay plan for sample questions as a bare minimum. These are extremely valuable as you're forced to collate your thoughts structurally and coherently. You don't want to end up reading the question in the exam room and start writing down everything you know without a purposeful structure. It's not too hard to do well in economic essays even though it may seem daunting. It's a matter of answering the question (ie. making sure what you're writing is relevant to the question - you won't get any marks for being smart on unrelated topics), using statistics and examples (but not overdoing it - so being selective as these examples are meant to support your theoretical content and give you an edge over other students), and finally, structuring your essay well which means you need a good intro and conclusion also to frame your ideas (markers want to be given "pointers" - imagine that they have a checklist).

As it's a stimulus based exam (this is really important), make sure you always refer back to the data, whether it be a quote, a graph, anything. Make the most out of it. Exploit it. Do not dare write an essay and neglect stimulus. Make sure it's a pivotal point of your essay, not just something you refer to in one sentence.

Intro in Eco and Consumers and Business are pretty easy topics (as you're at the start of Year 11). Therefore, I wouldn't worry about the idea that taking notes will be a waste of time. I think if you put your head down, you can do it comfortably.

Yes I have the Tim Dixon workbook and I've been going through that and filling in any gaps in my knowledge when I get answers wrong. Decided to not bother finishing the notes as I havent done very much and have 3 other exams to study for next week over the weekend.
 

Drifting95

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Yes I have the Tim Dixon workbook and I've been going through that and filling in any gaps in my knowledge when I get answers wrong. Decided to not bother finishing the notes as I havent done very much and have 3 other exams to study for next week over the weekend.
You should really get into the habit of doing notes on a continual basis though, or else this will continue into year 12.
 

goobypls

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I have the notes handwritten I just haven't typed up a neater copy
 

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