SES A Level Course Guide 2024

Economics Edexcel

ECONOMI CS

Economics offers pupils a brand-new perspective on the world around them. The questions asked throughout the course reframe our experience of day-to-day life, as well as the wider world around us. Why are prices rising so quickly? What factors determine people’s future income? Why are some people rich, and others poor? Economics attempts to take a scientific approach to understanding systems of human behaviour. On a microeconomic scale, pupils will examine the basic decision-making framework of individuals and businesses, and learn how the interactions of these decisions lead to the allocation of resources and the setting of prices around the economy. Pupils will explore the extent to which this free market system works, why it can go disastrously wrong, and the ways in which governments can attempt to fix it. On the way, pupils will examine recent real-world examples and engage with recent developments in economic theory. Pupils also study macroeconomics, where they will learn how the very same market systems covered in microeconomics lead to big-picture changes that affect everyone: economic growth, inflation rates, unemployment. The course examines the government’s role in promoting key macroeconomic objectives, and the role of financial markets in determining economic outcomes, and the significance of the wider international economy, including asking crucial questions about the drivers of economic development and poverty. The A-Level course is well-suited to developing a range of skills, with analytical and mathematical skills featuring strongly alongside extended essay-writing. The economics department at Teddies also affords lots of opportunities for pupils to engage in economics outside the classroom, with a rich set of learning opportunities available to pupils, including clinics to secure learning, a vibrant pupil-run Economics Society, and further opportunities for those who want to pursue economics beyond their time at Teddies.

External Assessments

Paper 1 Markets and Business Behaviour

35%

Papers 1 and 2 assess microeconomic and macroeconomic theory respectively across three sections: Section A comprises a range of multiple-choice and short-answer questions. Section B includes several extended written answers in response to a set of data extracts. Section C offers a choice of two extended essay questions, from which pupils choose one.

Paper 2 The National and Global Economy

35%

Paper 3 Microeconomics and Macroeconomics

30%

This paper has two data response sections, each including an extended essay answer.

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