Economics revision – approaching data response questions

The AS Level Paper 2 is tomorrow so below are some thoughts on approaching the data response. These questions are all about deep reading of the extract and interpreting the data/graphs. On too many occasions students have struggled to score high marks on these questions for the following reasons:

• 1. Time – their allocation of time between the essay and data response isn’t efficient. Some spend too much time on the essay and leave little for DR. Remember that at AS you have to do 2 essays and a DR over 2 hours – should be 40 minutes each. Usually the essays have a certain amount of predictability so some students do the essay first as it builds their confidence.

• 2. Stem words – Students don’t focus on the stem words and write too much on particular questions that they are comfortable with and don’t consider the mark allocation. There is the psychological effect that if a student writes more they think they will get more marks.

• 3. Repetition of their notes – Students run to the security of their notes and struggle to process data quickly. This is fine for the early questions in the DR question which tend to focus on knowledge and understanding but to gain 15 or above you need to analyse / evaluate issues that relate to the extract – see mark allocation below for each Cambridge paper.

• 4. Analysis of data – Students need to identify that the data presented is sometimes not sufficient to make a full assessment required in the question. Therefore, they have to identify other variables – e.g. for a question on macro-economic performance you might find that certain indicators like unemployment or the trade balance are not presented. Also, the data may show evidence of bias to a particular school of thought. Remember that the questions are usually set 2 years in advance so the data will be out-of-date. Data response questions are generally sourced from the following media: Guardian, Times, FT, WSJ, Herald & Tribune.

• 5. Thinking outside the square – For marks of 15 and above examiners will be looking for answers that are holistic and ‘thinking outside the square’.

Strategies for students

• Read the extract 3 times – highlight key points which are usually at the start of each paragraph.

• Identify peak and troughs of graphs

• Answer the question. If the questions asks for a description of data/graph don’t give reasons for the changes.

• If it says identify 3 problems from the extract – thenidentify 3 problems

• Spend a little extra time on the DR question – maybe 45 minutes which leaves 1 hour and 15 minutes for the two essays.

Data response (final) question

“Using the data and your economic knowledge, assess the extent to which interest rate cuts are likely to improve the performance of economies such as the USA and the UK”

• a. Your answer will need to consider what the “performance of economies” means – i.e. which real economic variables are part of the overall performance issue?

• b. Short term performance?

• c. Longer term economic success

• d. Demand-side effects of interest rate cuts

• e. Supply-side effects of interest rate reductions

• f. Are interest rate cuts on their own sufficient to achieve a sustained improvement?

• g. What are the economic risks from cutting interest rates?

• h. When might interest rate reductions have little effect? (e.g. consider the liquidity trap)

• i. Have lower interest rates actually benefited the performance of countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom? – draw on recent macroeconomic evidence

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