2022 UPDATE: PLEASE NOTE FOR 2022 APPLICATIONS THE ECAA IS NOT BEING USED. INSTEAD STUDENTS ARE BEING ASKED TO TAKE THE TMUA ENTRANCE TEST
In this post, I will give some tips on how to do better in your ECAA essay. These are some of the key strategies and pieces of advice that I have given to students I have tutored for this test.
I have discussed the ECAA Maths section in previous articles. For a selection of those articles, see here:
What Makes a Good Essay?
There is one big problem with the ECAA essay: publicly available information on how to write a good ECAA essay is limited.
From the ECAA specification (linked here), we have the following quote about how they assess the ECAA essay:
“In Section 2, the candidate’s essay will be assessed by taking into account the quality of the candidate’s reasoning, and their ability to construct a reasoned, insightful and logically consistent argument with clarity and precision.“
While they do not give us very much detail, this is in part because multiple approaches can do well. Also previously essays have been marked by college fellows, who may have different slightly preferences and opinions regarding different essay styles.
We can break down some of the key words in this quote:
- “Reasoned” – justify the chains of analysis you make and the conclusions you come up with.
- “Insightful” – go beyond the extract given. Think about using theories, examples and ideas, as well as filling in the gaps in the chains of analysis, to extend your answer.
- “Logically consistent” – no contradictions within a chain of analysis (of course however, you should acknowledge advantages and disadvantages). Conclusion follows from analysis given.
- “Clarity” – make your points clearly and without waffling.
- Precision – being exact about what you mean, for example defining relevant terms.
Even despite this attempt to understand the words from the ECAA specification, there is still a lot of ambiguity here.
So what actionable advice is there?
The Obvious Tips
A lot of the tips here are obvious, before we get into the details behind these tips. To begin with, here are the “obvious” or general tips:
- Make sure you answer the question.
- Do not spend too much time reading.
- Spend a little time planning (e.g. what will be the key point in each paragraph).
- Read lots (more on this below).
- Do lots of essay practice (again more on this below). This should include practice in timed conditions.
What to Read?
Reading lots of economics material is important: it gives you an understanding of economic reasoning, examples from the real world, as well as possible economic ideas, terms or models to use in your essays. If you are looking to study an economics degree for three years, you would hopefully find reading about your subject interesting too!
What exactly should you read?
For ECAA purposes I would recommend starting with The Economist magazine. For several years they have used articles from here as a basis for the ECAA essay extract and also the articles give you a good sense of how economists reason, as well as some exposure to key economics ideas and terminology.
Beyond that, any reading related to economics is going to be useful. You could read economics books on various topics, economics articles, listen to economics lectures on Youtube or podcasts or read economics blogs.
Building Paragraphs
Note there is no set answer here for how you should structure paragraphs, but standard paragraph structures like point, evidence, explanation can work if you are not sure how to make your points.
For explanation, you can create a chain of analysis that clearly explains how one thing affects another. While you can pick up this style of analysis if you are doing A-level Economics, you can also pick this up from reading about economics (e.g. in the Economist). Note the Economist tends to leave gaps in the chain of analysis. You will be required to fill in these gaps essentially to show understanding.
Evidence can come from the text, your own knowledge of relevant examples. You could also use an economic theory you know, either in the explanation or as evidence to support your claim. This is where you can really show off any wider reading you have done.
An extra step, where appropriate, is to consider evaluation. While “evaluation” may have various meanings at A-level, I will use it to mean weighing up different arguments. In other words, arguing whether certain arguments are more important (have more weight) or less important. You can either do this evaluation throughout or in the conclusion. Ultimately this will allow you to pick a side when writing a conclusion too.
Introduction and Conclusion
A quick note on introductions and conclusions.
Usually for introductions you just want to get into writing the essay as quickly as possible. Possible things you could include in an introduction are: answering the question in a summary sentence, or defining key terms. If you have time, you are welcome to include a bit of extra context for the question but this is not too important (it will not gain you much credit). Similarly listing what paragraphs you are going to write can help you to plan an essay, but it is more important to get onto the actual main body.
For conclusions, it goes without saying that you should directly answer the questions given. Despite this being relatively obvious, this is a common mistake among students. You should also try to justify your answer. Why do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, for example? What factors might affect your answer? These are the key things to think about. But there may well be other relevant factors to mention, based on the essay you have written and the article.
Common Mistakes
Other common mistakes:
- Exaggerating words. Often gets in the way of a reasoned arguments. The argument alone should show the importance of an issue.
- Incomplete chains of analysis. Is there a missing step in what you have explained?
- Running out of time or rushing a second part of the question.
- Lack of wider reading or understanding of economics makes it more difficult to flesh out paragraphs.
Extra Practice Essays
While I would first recommend reviewing the past paper essays, one should note that most of the previous essays have been based on Economist articles. Hence I have included below three questions based on Economist articles. You will need to be able to access the Economist, otherwise I would recommend trying to find other articles online on the same topic. Please see the linked document below:
Warning: these questions are simply questions I have made up to help students practise for the test. I have no idea what will feature on the test and so I recommend students prepare more widely than just a few sample questions. Also, while the advice given here is intended to help students prepare for the ECAA, reading this and taking on the advice does not guarantee a good result, not least because Cambridge Economics admissions are very competitive.