Taking up Higher level Economics in 6th year

Mizzstefan

Hello i have decided tot take up Economic's and studying it by myself now and try and get a c3 do you think its achieveable and which topics come up every year and which topics should i cover first i am really committed to doing well in this subject.

aimzLc2

Mizzstefan wrote: »

Hello i have decided tot take up Economic's and studying it by myself now and try and get a c3 do you think its achieveable and which topics come up every year and which topics should i cover first i am really committed to doing well in this subject.

I definitely think its achievable , i took it up in a year and got a B , it is not a very difficult subject!
Every year there will be at least 3 micro long questions , if you like micro study all the micro off by heart and know it perfectly , then you can just pick a few of the most common macro to study for a fourth long question such as money and banking/international trade/ national income.If you are lucky four micro may come up.

If you prefer macro ,you could nearly get away with just learning all the macro perfectly and do 4 long macro questions
Remember though that the short questions will be a mix of micro and macro so learn all definitions from both and practice all the exam paper questions.

Some year they have mixed micro and macro in one or two of the long questions so be prepared , obviously you should study the whole course but start with the above and then do as much of the rest as you can.

A7XGirl

Does Economics have a lot of Maths? I might take it up too

Mizzstefan

which topic should you say i should do first and how long should i spend on each chapter as i do 7 other subjects?

aimzLc2

A7XGirl wrote: »

Does Economics have a lot of Maths? I might take it up too

No.. i was nearly put off as people would say oh doesn't that have loads of maths? as i am really bad at maths and it doesn't! only has a few calculations for short questions and you choose 4 out of 8 long questions so you can skip a long question that has maths in it

aimzLc2

Mizzstefan wrote: »

which topic should you say i should do first and how long should i spend on each chapter as i do 7 other subjects?

just as i said above, start with the first micro chapter , i had the positive economics book last year..but i'm sure all books have the chapters in order of micro and macro. I can't give you a time! everyone is different when studying , learn the chapter and then answer exam questions on it , if you don't know the answers you have not spent long enough on the chapter , if you got most of the answers ,move on. Spend as long on economics as you would with other subjects such as business

yournerd

Start with government policies and aims and then national income Nd banking

A7XGirl

Can anyone recommend a suitable Economics book?

yournerd

I got this book called modern economics, it's an old book but it has everything !!

aimzLc2

A7XGirl wrote: »

Can anyone recommend a suitable Economics book?

positive economics, they only brought it out recently so its really update and it has sample answers and the layout is nice and clear to study from

Exo

I studied Business for 5 years between Junior & Leaving Cert, and will be taking up Economics with Accounting also as part of my repeat subset (very business-oriented selection). I've glanced through the exam papers and it doesn't look overly complicated, even to self learn. I don't really have much choice when deciding to drop Irish & German (passed'em).

A7XGirl

Could I use the Rapid Revision book to grasp the basics?

Exo

How can you revise something you haven't learned yet! Not a good way to approach it. You'll be scraping results that way unfortunately.

yournerd

I have lots of notes if yu need anything

seanielc2014

im also just after taking it up in 6th year .. any idea of what the key chapters are ?!

yournerd

seanielc2014 wrote: »

im also just after taking it up in 6th year .. any idea of what the key chapters are ?!

National Income
Banking
Elasticity
Demand
Supply

thelad95

seanielc2014 wrote: »

im also just after taking it up in 6th year .. any idea of what the key chapters are ?!

Learn the 4 micro sections off by heart and back to front then choose 2 macro sections. Personally, I think national income and trade are the most approachable sections. This should have you well covered in the long questions. For the short questions there will usually be 3/4 micro and 3/4 macro and then one or two which you cant study for eg 'List the possible effects of the government bringing in a water tax.' or something along those lines. This is how I approached it last year and got a B2 on what was an extremely tricky paper. I am repeating this year and will be hoping for an A

oncex

aimzLc2 wrote: »

I definitely think its achievable , i took it up in a year and got a B , it is not a very difficult subject!
Every year there will be at least 3 micro long questions , if you like micro study all the micro off by heart and know it perfectly , then you can just pick a few of the most common macro to study for a fourth long question such as money and banking/international trade/ national income.If you are lucky four micro may come up.

If you prefer macro ,you could nearly get away with just learning all the macro perfectly and do 4 long macro questions
Remember though that the short questions will be a mix of micro and macro so learn all definitions from both and practice all the exam paper questions.

Some year they have mixed micro and macro in one or two of the long questions so be prepared , obviously you should study the whole course but start with the above and then do as much of the rest as you can.

Aimz did you take it up in your repeat year? And did you study it by yourself?

jazz101

You're going to have to tear through that Positive Economics textbook, but fear not, there's less than 30 chapters in it and I average about a chapter every two days doing half an hour to 40 minutes of economics study a night.

It's interesting and not very difficult. Don't get caught up in what is vital and what isn't, and don't leave anything out. There's a lot of overlap that you need to pad out long answers in the "less vital" chapters.

aimzLc2

oncex wrote: »

Aimz did you take it up in your repeat year? And did you study it by yourself?

yes i did. no.. i had a great teacher

seanielc2014

orite lad sound for that ha bit nervous but il chance it anyway .. sound again

Exo

*abandon ship*

I can't do it, three weeks on - it's ridiculous. I've taken it up in 6th as a repeat and it's a dreadful subject coming from Business - it's like Business on steroids. The level of complexity is shattering! I've decided to trade it in with Geography, seems like the wiser option.

Aiming for a C3 in Economics would be far more difficult than aiming for a B1 to an A1 in Geography (something largely theoretical). Weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

aimzLc2

Exo wrote: »

*abandon ship*

I can't do it, three weeks on - it's ridiculous. I've taken it up in 6th as a repeat and it's a dreadful subject coming from Business - it's like Business on steroids. The level of complexity is shattering! I've decided to trade it in with Geography, seems like the wiser option.

Aiming for a C3 in Economics would be far more difficult than aiming for a B1 to an A1 in Geography (something largely theoretical). Weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

wow .. i really disagree , i thought coming from business some stuff made sense faster.. yes it was difficult at the start and you might be overwhelmed but everyone in my repeat class got the hang of it after a while ,i'd really encourage you not to take up geography now ,its a huge course but i think you have already made up your mind.Everyones different though so i hope geography turns out better for you!

Exo

aimzLc2 wrote: »

wow .. i really disagree , i thought coming from business some stuff made sense faster.. yes it was difficult at the start and you might be overwhelmed but everyone in my repeat class got the hang of it after a while ,i'd really encourage you not to take up geography now ,its a huge course but i think you have already made up your mind.Everyones different though so i hope geography turns out better for you!

If the exact terminology isn't there, say goodbye to chunks of marks (it's Business on extreme steroids). The guy is an examiner and laid out everything that scores the marks and it's insanely difficult to comprehend in 6th as a repeat subject. Time is limited. If you disregard every other subject then it's doable to achieve the maximum.

Economics is more extensive than Geography, last time I checked - and there's some logic to Geography (JC sections, general knowledge etc.) .. Economics on the other hand needs to be understood in its entirety, learning definitions isn't the solution to getting top grades. Unless you just want to pass it for the sake of the subject.

aimzLc2

Exo wrote: »

The guy is an examiner and laid out everything that scores the marks and it's insanely difficult to comprehend in 6th as a repeat subject. Time is limited. If you disregard every other subject then it's doable to achieve the maximum.

All you need to do is look at marking schemes from every past year that will show you exactly what scores the marks(this is the same in every subject) and you will soon learn that the questions in economics are regularly repeated- you will begin to see patterns
Time is not limited ,we had plenty of time in the repeat year to finish the course and extra time for revision ,it is a fairly short course compared to other leaving cert subjects.All you need to do is spend equal time on it as your other subjects.

Exo wrote: »

Economics is more extensive than Geography, last time I checked - and there's some logic to Geography (JC sections, general knowledge etc.) .. Economics on the other hand needs to be understood in its entirety, learning definitions isn't the solution to getting top grades. Unless you just want to pass it for the sake of the subject.

You only need to answer 4 out of 8 long questions! that gives you such a choice , it definitely does not need to be understood in its entirety , i left out plenty of macro topics and managed a B ,so did others in my class.If you know anything about business, definitions will not get you top grades there either ,you need solid points expanded for each answer -you can use this same bullet point layout for economics