economic essay (1 Viewer)

ris08

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Hey guys,
does anyone have any advice on how to prepare for a in class economics preliminary essay? should we learn basic research/facts for the syllabus dot points and learn stats(we are required to do this) or would it be more beneficial to memorise a baseline essay and adapt it on the day?

also are any past hsc eco students who are good at economics extended responses willing to give me some feedback?
 

jane1820

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@Hehehe22 helped me heaps w my inclass essay exam, i got 19/20 rank 1 or 2 (isnt confirmed)

while she replies i might provide some:
- know your syllabus, like deadass: which topics is your exam about? read through the dot points on the syllabus as you go (like a checklist)
- yes statistics are SO IMPORTANT! if you forget any make them up, but make them believable
eg. Economic growth in Australia has been increasing at a quarterly rate of 3.2%.
NOT: Economic growth in Australia has been increasing by 26%. because it didnt, and you may not know that but the marker/teacher 100% does know that
- institutions, campaigns, years: they are all useful!! know as many as you can, though they arent all useful
- ask past year 11 eco students from your school for their essays, preferably get the 1st in the class' essay and the last so you can know what stands out to the teacher the most (for me i just asked the 1st in the class)
- GRAPHS!!!!! it might seem like 'its not worth it' or 'too time consuming' but eco teachers ACTUALLY DO TAKE THE TIME TO LOOK AT THEM: it shows your understanding of how things are in the real world
- apply your class knowledge: i used the possibility production frontier and the circular flow of income to show that 'yes sir i am listening to you in class'
- be straightforward: something is increasing say that it is and why! dont be like: "Australia's economy has demonstrated consistent quarterly expansion, registering a growth rate of 3.2% per quarter." its boring, too time consuming, and economist teachers hate that (if you keep doing that throughout, you might lose marks)
- [lowkey forgot what the last dot point is]

anyways these are my tips! if you want my essay to read over and know what i did ill send it through!
 

yourlocaliga

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Hey guys,
does anyone have any advice on how to prepare for a in class economics preliminary essay? should we learn basic research/facts for the syllabus dot points and learn stats(we are required to do this) or would it be more beneficial to memorise a baseline essay and adapt it on the day?

also are any past hsc eco students who are good at economics extended responses willing to give me some feedback?
if youre given a stimulus 100% make sure to use it. and you need need to include a graph to get top marks unless its a question where you really cant
 

Hehehe22

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@Hehehe22 helped me heaps w my inclass essay exam, i got 19/20 rank 1 or 2 (isnt confirmed)

while she replies i might provide some:
- know your syllabus, like deadass: which topics is your exam about? read through the dot points on the syllabus as you go (like a checklist)
- yes statistics are SO IMPORTANT! if you forget any make them up, but make them believable
eg. Economic growth in Australia has been increasing at a quarterly rate of 3.2%.
NOT: Economic growth in Australia has been increasing by 26%. because it didnt, and you may not know that but the marker/teacher 100% does know that
- institutions, campaigns, years: they are all useful!! know as many as you can, though they arent all useful
- ask past year 11 eco students from your school for their essays, preferably get the 1st in the class' essay and the last so you can know what stands out to the teacher the most (for me i just asked the 1st in the class)
- GRAPHS!!!!! it might seem like 'its not worth it' or 'too time consuming' but eco teachers ACTUALLY DO TAKE THE TIME TO LOOK AT THEM: it shows your understanding of how things are in the real world
- apply your class knowledge: i used the possibility production frontier and the circular flow of income to show that 'yes sir i am listening to you in class'
- be straightforward: something is increasing say that it is and why! dont be like: "Australia's economy has demonstrated consistent quarterly expansion, registering a growth rate of 3.2% per quarter." its boring, too time consuming, and economist teachers hate that (if you keep doing that throughout, you might lose marks)
- [lowkey forgot what the last dot point is]

anyways these are my tips! if you want my essay to read over and know what i did ill send it through!
Sorry bro, my exam block starts tmr so I can't reply in too much detail

Everything Jane said is very true for general essay-writing technique. Eco is not like English where it's beneficial to memorise essays word-for-word, because it's more about general understanding and application. Essay scaffolds are just as good, if not better - just plan out each point, add some evidence (stats, diagrams, examples etc), and you're good to go.

If you already sorta know what kind of question you'll get asked, you can try and write a practice essay on it, but otherwise, just focus on gathering EVIDENCE. And yes, you do have to memorise stats in eco unfortunately
 

Hehehe22

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Btw, I've got a prelim essay in the notes and resources section of my profile if you want to look at an example. It's on market failure and government intervention so the content itself might not be relevant, but you can look at the structure and how I incorporate evidence. Looking back, I wrote it a year ago so it's not excellent, but it should be sufficient for a year 11 level
 

Neogotmyback

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I used to write an essay on every main point in the syllabus, memorise it and then when it got to exams i would create a frankenstein essay. Best way to memorise essays is to read them out like youre giving a speech; like youre trying to teach an audience in front of you.
This scored me pretty good marks and it saves so much time. In the HSC youre going to want to aim to write 8 pages in 35 mins for each essay. This does not leave a lot of time for thinking. Save yourself some time and just memorise it all beforehand.
 

jane1820

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I used to write an essay on every main point in the syllabus, memorise it and then when it got to exams i would create a frankenstein essay. Best way to memorise essays is to read them out like youre giving a speech; like youre trying to teach an audience in front of you.
This scored me pretty good marks and it saves so much time. In the HSC youre going to want to aim to write 8 pages in 35 mins for each essay. This does not leave a lot of time for thinking. Save yourself some time and just memorise it all beforehand.
for our at1 eco (it was to prepare an essay to the question provided beforehand) and ive heard abt the time too so i manged to write 10.5 pages in 45 min (exam was 55min i got 10 min break extra) thats my absolute biggest flex (ended w a 19/20)
 

Neogotmyback

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for our at1 eco (it was to prepare an essay to the question provided beforehand) and ive heard abt the time too so i manged to write 10.5 pages in 45 min (exam was 55min i got 10 min break extra) thats my absolute biggest flex (ended w a 19/20)
dayyuummmm
 

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