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

Written by Tom Furber, an economics tutor. | Published 8th April 2022 | Updated 23rd August 2026.

As an economics tutor, I have had tuition students improve from a C to an A, an E to an A and from a B to an A*. So I have seen what it takes to improve your grades in A-Level Economics.

This article contains the tips I give to my students to help them achieve A* and A grades in A-level Economics every year.

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 shorter 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. For example, I set my tuition students practice questions or practice paragraphs in timed conditions.
  • Learn to track time in exams e.g. with the clock or even a type of watch that is allowed in exams.

Tutor’s commentary – optimising marks per minute

As one of my Cambridge Economics supervisors once told me, to maximise your grade, you need to consider the “marks per minute” for working on each question.

At first glance, assuming questions are of equal difficulty, this means spending time in proportion to the marks available on each question. This is a good general rule of thumb and works broadly well for say AQA Papers 1 and 2 for instance.

However, not all questions are created equal. Some are harder than others and you may want to take this into account when deciding how much time to spend. Some questions, if you spend longer than the proportional time, still generate more marks per minute. Conversely, running over time on a 4 mark question for AQA or Edexcel is unlikely to generate significant extra marks for each minute spent.

For many students, this means spending a few minutes more on 25 markers and a little less time on shorter answer questions (Section A in Edexcel A, 4 and 9 mark questions in AQA etc.).

I’d recommend having a timing strategy of how long to spend on each question before the exam. Check it with your teacher or tutor, and try to stick to it during the exam.

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 past papers, do more practice questions.

Yes, practice questions exist for A Level Economics, just like for maths. This website hosts practice questions for Edexcel A and AQA exam boards for example.

Alternatively, make up your own practice questions.

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? Which 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.

Tutor’s commentary on essay structure

There are multiple possible essay structures. As a tutor, I’ve found it often helps to stick to one for most / all questions for a student. This gives one less factor for students to consider, allowing you to focus on arguments.

Model answers are a critical resource for students to understand essay structures and what a top level essay looks like.

When you read model answers, I’d advise writing down a few key takeaways from the answer. For instance, think of three key things the model answer did that your answer did not do.

I do not recommend simply memorising a model answer without understanding the course content and exam technique. The written takeaways will often be applicable to other questions; raw memorisation will rarely be applicable elsewhere.

I recommend viewing model answers, such as those linked below, to help with knowing your essay structures:

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, here are some of the most important examples for microeconomics.

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.

One way to structure your evaluation for 25 mark questions is:

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

See this list of common evaluation points for some evaluation ideas to get started with.

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 feedback.

This way, it is easier to improve after each past paper or practice paper attempt, rather than being stuck on similar scores for each essay.

Alternatively, consider using the model answers on this site.

Tutor’s commentary on getting your work marked

Proper marking of work is not just a tick and cross exercise. It should be comprehensive while focussing on the most important improvements to students.

Also, marking should lead to clear, specific takeaways for students. If you do not understand what “develop your analysis” actually means in the context of quantitative easing, then it may be difficult to progress.

This comprehensive but focussed, clear and specific marking is a key part of my economics tutoring.

Feedback does not stop when work is marked. Good teachers and tutors with time available are also great at giving feedback. If you’re unsure about the meaning of a comment, try to ask your teacher for extra feedback after marking. Also, you can ask peers, especially where you have a highly achieving fellow student in your class.

If you are interested in one-to-one tutoring to get detailed feedback on your essays, please check out my A-Level Economics tutoring (specialising in AQA and Edexcel A).

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 (by hand) 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. There are many ways to do this, including:

  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.
  3. Attempt practice questions without looking at notes.

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 or A*, if you keep putting the effort, I hope you see results. Good luck!

If you are looking for tutoring to help you achieve an A or A*, please check out my A-Level Economics tutoring page.

About my A-Level Economics tutoring →

The 4 most common challenges A-Level Economics students face →

How my tutoring sessions work →

Edexcel A resources → | AQA resources →

About the author

Tom Furber

Helping economics students online since 2015. Previously an economist, I now provide economics resources on this site. I also tutor A Level (AQA and Edexcel) Economics as well as a few undergraduate economics students. Read more about me here.