How to get an A* or A in A-level Economics 2024 (10 Tips)

As a professional economics tutor, these are the tips I give to my students to help them achieve A* and A grades in A-level Economics every year.

For more resources for A-level Economics, check out the blue buttons below:

Contents: The 10 Tips to achieve an A or A*

1. Time management

When I take on a new student, one of the main concerns for a great majority of them is time management.

Often they are spending way too much time on short answer questions like the 8 mark question in Edexcel or the 9 mark question in AQA.

So possible strategies here are:

• Reduce time spent on short questions. Write less for these questions or get more practice so you can answer them more quickly.
• Allocate an amount of time to each question. Base this on the number of marks available. If you use your time allocation, move on!
• Some students prefer starting with the large essays and using remaining time for shorter questions. This can work in some cases.
• Do timed practice to get used to what timed conditions feel like.
• Learn to track time in exams e.g. with the clock or even a type of watch that is allowed in exams.

2. Do lots of practice questions.

Do lots of past paper questions! Make a spreadsheet, tick off the past papers as you do them. Write what went well and what you need to learn from that paper. Repeat for the next paper.

When you run out of papers, do more practice questions.

For example, make up your own practice questions or find some.

I am creating practice paper questions for 2023 exams. Check out the links below for 2023 AQA and Edexcel Economics style practice papers:

Research shows practice tests help students perform better in the actual exam. See this article for the evidence on this here.

3. Conclusions should give a decision

I recommend not just summarising arguments in the conclusion.

Repeating what you have already said is not going to get you more marks.

Instead, give a decision.

For example, if the question is “to what extent are higher interest rates necessary?”, you could answer they are necessary to some extent, to a large extent or they are rarely necessary.

If the question says “evaluate the effects of higher interest rates on the economy”, you should still make a judgement even if the question is less obvious. For example, are the effects large or small? Beneficial or harmful? What is the largest effect? You could pick any one of these and make a decision based on it, in this instance.

Also justify your decision. What is the key reason behind your decision? Is there a particularly important factor? Maybe it is the data or the context, or a key economic argument.

Then you could mention factors that may influence the decision. Does the particular industry matter? Do the effects vary between the short run and the long run? Could other policies help solve any issues raised?

4. Know essay structures

You should know how many points you need to write for each question type. How many analysis paragraphs, how many evaluation paragraphs and so on.

For Edexcel, most long answer questions (8 marks plus) can be answered with 2 KAA, 2 evaluation paragraphs. A conclusion can be added for the 25 mark question. This is the simplest exam structure to remember, with the points getting longer, the more marks are available.

For AQA for example, your 15 mark questions can be two to three points long, with an introduction defining key terms. No evaluation is required for 15 mark questions.

To see more on essay structures for Edexcel A and AQA, check out the course below:

For Edexcel exam answer structure, see here.

5. Know your real-world examples

Application is one of the key criteria for both Edexcel and AQA Economics. Add some of your own knowledge or extract to your analysis points. If possible, you can also use data or extracts to support evaluation points too.

For key application stats to learn, click here.

6. Master evaluation

Too many students don’t know what evaluation is.

For Edexcel, this can be taking the other side of the answer or weighing up an argument using “it depends on” type arguments.

For AQA, I recommend my students focus on the “it depends on” style.

The key evaluation structure is:

• State the evaluation factor e.g. the result depends on x.
• Explain why x matters – a chain of analysis.
• Use context and/or another supporting chain of analysis to further develop your point.
• Link back to question.

For more information on Edexcel evaluation, see here.

For AQA-style evaluation information, see here.

7. Get your work marked and view sample answers.

It is one thing to do lots of practice tests and past papers. But how will you know how well you did?

While it is easy to see for short questions, for essay questions this is much harder to evaluate.

So I recommend you ask a teacher, tutor or even a top-performing student in your class for some guidance.

Alternatively, consider looking for sample model answers. For exemplars to 25 mark questions, you can find some (for AQA) here and (for Edexcel A) here.

For more practice questions, check out the links below:

8. Make revision notes as you go along

Particularly in second year of A-level Economics, some students can fall behind the course material. There is a big jump between AS and A2 Economics in my opinion.

Hence, keep writing revision notes from the start. This will reinforce what you are doing in class but also mean you are less likely to fall behind.

Bonus tip: if possible, you can even write your notes before you have the class on that topic. That way, when you head into class, there is no need to waste time trying to understand the basics. Instead you can focus on dealing with the harder parts of the course.

9. Active recall

Some students feel they know everything before the exam. But when they get into a mock exam in exam conditions, they forget big chunks of what they learnt.

So, what happened?

One possibility is they were not committing facts to their longer-term memory.

It’s one thing to read and understand something. But it’s another to be able to recall it.

Now this is where “active recall” comes in. Two ways to do this:

1. Use flashcards. Put a question on one side e.g. what is
2. Make a spreadsheet or table with questions on one side and answers on the other. Cover the answers, see if you get the questions correct without looking.

This helps practise the retrieval process – getting information from your brain rather than from a textbook.

10. Use examiner’s reports

Examiner’s reports contain important information on common mistakes, structuring arguments and what top students do well.

For Edexcel, you can find examiner’s reports here. The Edexcel examiner’s reports are really good for showing exemplar answers with student commentary.

Also for AQA, the examiner’s reports are here. While they give less detail than Edexcel, they can still be quite useful for avoiding common pitfalls.

While nothing can guarantee you an A/A*, if you keep putting the effort, I hope you see results. Good luck!

Related posts

For essay structure advice for Economics A-level, click the blue button below:

For other A-level Economics resources, see the link here:

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