Edexcel A Economics A Level Style Practice Papers

With my tuition students, I would usually attempt the practice papers in timed conditions nearer the exams or ahead of important tests.

After that, you should try to get feedback on your answers, whether that is from a teacher, tutor or someone else you know who did well in A Level Economics.

If time allows, you could then add parts to your essays or improve them.

Otherwise, I also use my practice papers to get students to plan essay responses. There are lots of other ways to use the papers as well.

Unless you are a top A* student just checking you can write essay plans for different essays, I would generally suggest getting feedback on any paper you attempt. Attempting lots of papers, without any sense of how you are doing may not be as helpful.

Using practice papers does not guarantee a particular outcome; it depends how you use them and on other factors such as your broader revision strategy. Working on your content knowledge will also be key.

Some of the advantages of practice papers include:

• Practice papers may often relate to current affairs topics, while some older past papers may cover more distant topics. This can help some students engage more with the papers and questions. In the past, some examiners may also be considering current affairs topics when setting exam papers. (See the next question for more on this).
• The difficulty of the practice papers can be adjusted for more effective practice. My practice papers are often, but not always, slightly more difficult than the actual exams. This can provide an extra challenge for the most able students.
• There is a little more freedom to produce challenging or slightly unusual questions, so that students are ready for whatever the exam throws at them. We can also prepare students for questions on all parts of the specification, including parts not (recently) tested.
• Some students aiming for A or A^* grades will run out of past papers. Extra practice papers can help fill in the gap.

Of course the past papers have the advantage that they are written by senior examiners with strict guidelines. Their difficulty is calibrated to ensure the paper is accessible to a range of student abilities, while differentiating between students of different grades. While occasionally mistakes occur, the papers have likely been through more rounds of checking. As the years go on, of course there will be more and more past papers too.

As it is just me creating these practice papers, I rely on the kind help of strangers to spot occasional mistakes in the papers, for which I am very grateful.

In short, the practice papers and past papers have different strengths and weaknesses. It is quite common to attempt practice papers in addition to past papers in other subjects. For instance in mathematics, there are several sets of practice papers provided. In this sense, I would consider practice papers and past papers as complements, not substitutes.

I would not see these practice papers as predictions.

The only time it was possible to “predict” the papers was when the examiners gave out a list of exam topics in 2022 before the exam. Since then, I have released papers as “practice” papers, not as predictions.

It can be engaging to practise on topics from current affairs. It can be interesting to reflect on a modern extract from a practice paper and think “I wonder if that could come up in the exam”.

There’s also a small chance that a similar topic from a practice paper comes up in the final exam. Current affairs and practice papers have had some predictive power in the past, but it’s pretty unlikely for a given practice paper question.

That said, I think calling it a “prediction” is too strong and these papers should not be treated as such. Instead, the practice papers are best used as extra practice, as I always say. This is more like how students would use practice papers in maths for instance, as additional practice ahead of exams.

You should not use practice papers to narrow down the list of topics. Instead, I recommend revising all topics on the course to give you the best chance of success.