!! Economics 2015 ... predictions, guesses and discussion.

Codswapple

I think maybe Oligopoly and perfect competition, kinked demand curve hasnt been asked since 2011 and perfect competition hasnt been up for a while.
I think enterprise for factor of production.
But study everything because nothing is guaranteed!

DarraghF197

Codswapple wrote: »

I think maybe Oligopoly and perfect competition, kinked demand curve hasnt been asked since 2011 and perfect competition hasnt been up for a while.
I think enterprise for factor of production.
But study everything because nothing is guaranteed!

Sorry just realised youre looking for home economics nevermind.

On the topic of Economics, I wouldn't be surprised if they left out factors of production and put in Costs instead. It seems that everyone just learns off the micro section, and the chiefs probably want that changed a bit and put in three questions instead.

Kremin

DarraghF197 wrote: »

On the topic of Economics, I wouldn't be surprised if they left out factors of production and put in Costs instead. It seems that everyone just learns off the micro section, and the chiefs probably want that changed a bit and put in three questions instead.

How do people who skip the entire macro section do the short questions o_O? Imo Banking and National Income are pretty great questions.

RoRo979

Kremin wrote: »

How do people who skip the entire macro section do the short questions o_O? Imo Banking and National Income are pretty great questions.

international trade is easy aswell, NI, trade, money and banking + inflation theres macro done

DarraghF197

Kremin wrote: »

How do people who skip the entire macro section do the short questions o_O? Imo Banking and National Income are pretty great questions.

I do Economics outside school and just do grinds and had only studied micro for the mocks. Had no problems with the short questions. However I'll be studying all micro and national Income, Internatonal trade and the Economists for the LC.

oktplz

Does anyone's teacher give them a fact sheet of all the latest economic figures? Or where do you guys source them? Struggling majorly to get up to date facts on everything! What stats is it good to know?

Kremin

oktplz wrote: »

Does anyone's teacher give them a fact sheet of all the latest economic figures? Or where do you guys source them? Struggling majorly to get up to date facts on everything! What stats is it good to know?

cso.ie is good as its all irish, honestly from now until the leaving cert just look at the economic news

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy

oktplz

Kremin wrote: »

cso.ie is good as its all irish, honestly from now until the leaving cert just look at the economic news

http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy

perfect, thanks a mil! I'll take a look at that now.

Kremin

http://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/er/cpi/consumerpriceindexmarch2015/#.VVNHhPlVhBc
Probably a good idea to know why deflation is a negative economic variable and how the EU/Ireland are trying to combat it.
Feel like a question on inflation will come up this year.

Avengergirl

Hi all, I'm new here so I hope this hasn't been asked recently ( can't find it if it has)
I am sitting the higher level Economics paper in June and I'm in a panic now as this is really the last couple of weeks I can study it before concentrating all on Maths and English.

My teacher is useless...she hasn't a clue and confuses us when she tries to explain...I got the C1 in the mocks but everyone said it was marked too easy ( it was sent away) and this makes me feel even more nervous. We use the new text book which is good but very long and I'm using examinations.ie for solutions.

Are there any good websites for revision?

I would appreciate some solid advice and if there are any resources online that I could use. I'm hoping to do 3 micro and 1 macro so any predictions would be gratefully appreciated.
Thanks everyone.
Avengergirl

Peregrine

+1 on keeping up with the economic news. I think the Times only lets you read 10 free articles per week now (per device) so don't click random articles If you're committed enough to subscribe online for a month, you might aswell ditch the Times and subscribe to the Business Post.

Blue giant wrote: »

A bit like in England where the Tories won by a majority despite being almost level with labour in the polls.

In fairness, the UK election polls were pretty accurate. They only look at percentage of votes. Votes don't always convert to seats and seats win elections. I think the polls had both Labour and Tories at 34% each and in the end, I think Tories got 36% and Labour 31% (roughly) but Tories still got more than 50% of the seats. UKIP for example got 12% of votes but only one seat out of 650 and the Lib Dems 8% and 8 seats. There wasn't really much lying going on there.

juru

Rapid revsion is an excellent revision book that splits course into macro and micro.Studyclix on line has a good forum and advice,spark notes has all teh headings and definitions. good luck

qweerty

I found looking at marking schemes to be by far the most useful strategy. To emphasise, I don't mean that going through marking schemes is a useful way of revising once you've learnt the material. I mean that I found it more beneficial to learn from the marking schemes than from the text book.

thelad95

A1 LC Economics student here. Learn all the micro chapters inside out, do Trade, National Income and Govt policy. Have a general knowledge of the rest and know definitions from everywhere.

Go to CSO.ie and get relevant statistics like inflation rates, unemployment rates etc.

For long q's, learn the headings to each answer but don't try rote learn the explanation, you will drive yourself insane

Mostly, just try understand and not rote learn. PM me if you want any help.

oktplz

One of the economic objectives of the goverment is to achieve equilibrium balance of payments - where imports are roughly equal to exports. But on the cso website, it says ireland has been in surplus of 3425000 euro. Am I reading the right stat or are we totally living beyond our means?

Kremin

oktplz wrote: »

One of the economic objectives of the goverment is to achieve equilibrium balance of payments - where imports are roughly equal to exports. But on the cso website, it says ireland has been in surplus of 3425000 euro. Am I reading the right stat or are we totally living beyond our means?

It's because we have so many foreign companies here exporting through us, that and we are heavily heavily dependant on exports anyway.
Ireland is ranked the 3rd most globalised country in the world.

randylonghorn

Wouldn't a balance of payments surplus of circa €3.5m be pretty damn near equilibrium? ... and on the right side of the line too?




#notaneconomist

thelad95

Yeah Randy is pretty much right. On a macro scale, 3 million is pocket money.

randylonghorn

YAY!!! Gimme my A1!! :pac:

Peregrine

Can you check your units, oktplz? It's probably in thousands of euro. €3.whatever billion sounds more right(assuming its monthly and not annual). Anyway, BOP is rarely equal.

RoRo979

thelad95 wrote: »

A1 LC Economics student here. Learn all the micro chapters inside out, do Trade, National Income and Govt policy. Have a general knowledge of the rest and know definitions from everywhere.

Go to CSO.ie and get relevant statistics like inflation rates, unemployment rates etc.

For long q's, learn the headings to each answer but don't try rote learn the explanation, you will drive yourself insane

Mostly, just try understand and not rote learn. PM me if you want any help.

other user has summed it up really,
do all micro questions, we will assume 3, that leaves one macro to do im covering: trade, national income, money and banking, economists, inflation and economic growth. Im expecting to be able to do 2 macro and have a choice on the day

oktplz

Nim wrote: »

Can you check your units, oktplz? It's probably in thousands of euro. €3.whatever billion sounds more right(assuming its monthly and not annual). Anyway, BOP is rarely equal.

Ah yes I understand it now, it was on thousand euros and that for some reason was just not clicking with me tonight :P thanks guys

Avengergirl

This is a fantastic forum...I swear I've learned more here since I've posted than I learned all year in Economics class.. thanks so much. Went into town yesterday morning to see if they had the rapid revision book but she said they're sold out but will try to order me one. I'm sure someone in school has it if I'm stuck.

Micro is coming together but the macro just seems daunting...

thelad95 and RoRo79....where do you start with an inflation question? and since it's negative ( just checked the CSO ...thanks for the tip) what could they ask? Consequences of a low inflation ( is that deflation)...seems like college stuff..

Not sure if you have been chatting about the water charges..I got 4 out of 16 on a section A consequences question in my mock and I really cant see where I went wrong...still make sense to me...any advice anyone?

Thanks!

RoRo979

Avengergirl wrote: »

This is a fantastic forum...I swear I've learned more here since I've posted than I learned all year in Economics class.. thanks so much. Went into town yesterday morning to see if they had the rapid revision book but she said they're sold out but will try to order me one. I'm sure someone in school has it if I'm stuck.

Micro is coming together but the macro just seems daunting...

thelad95 and RoRo79....where do you start with an inflation question? and since it's negative ( just checked the CSO ...thanks for the tip) what could they ask? Consequences of a low inflation ( is that deflation)...seems like college stuff..

Not sure if you have been chatting about the water charges..I got 4 out of 16 on a section A consequences question in my mock and I really cant see where I went wrong...still make sense to me...any advice anyone?

Thanks!

deflation i believe is on our syllabus and i would definately learn it, just stuff like lower cost of living and whatnot.

as for the water charges i completely forget the question but i assume it was 2 arguments in favour/against or social cost/benefit. Off the top of my head i would do:-

in favour
1) increased government revenue
2) more efficient use of scarce recources

against:
1)public unrest
2)large initial capital investment.

of course elabrate on these on the day but is self explanitory imo

Avengergirl

Thanks RoRo979...I'm sure I had something like this for my water charges answer too but maybe not...didn't think of the public unrest bit, thanks for that though as it will be easy to explain.

If it was social costs and social benefits you could still use the public unrest, right?... but what other points? and as for social benefits....environmental benefits...but what else? thanks..

I'm going to jump into the inflation chapter now and try to prepare a question on deflation/inflation.. if I can translate it at all!!

Codswapple

Avengergirl wrote: »

Thanks RoRo979...I'm sure I had something like this for my water charges answer too but maybe not...didn't think of the public unrest bit, thanks for that though as it will be easy to explain.

If it was social costs and social benefits you could still use the public unrest, right?... but what other points? and as for social benefits....environmental benefits...but what else? thanks..

I'm going to jump into the inflation chapter now and try to prepare a question on deflation/inflation.. if I can translate it at all!!

Just to add more points about water charges;
Advantages-
pressure to improve the service so better water quality
Govt planning- as it's a fixed changed
Use if the revenue collected- help to achieve the govts social aims
May force businesses to invest in new technologies that would reduce water consumption( not a great point but just if you remember it on the day)
Doesn't act as a disincentive to work
Temporary employment to install water meters, could argue this as a neg.

Negatives- what the other poster said and;
Government popularity amongst votes, resulting in a vote of no confidence ( basically something more to add ontop of social unrest)
High set up cost of installing water meters
Annual increases and risk of privatisation of irish water

Kremin

Avengergirl wrote: »

This is a fantastic forum...I swear I've learned more here since I've posted than I learned all year in Economics class.. thanks so much. Went into town yesterday morning to see if they had the rapid revision book but she said they're sold out but will try to order me one. I'm sure someone in school has it if I'm stuck.

Micro is coming together but the macro just seems daunting...

thelad95 and RoRo79....where do you start with an inflation question? and since it's negative ( just checked the CSO ...thanks for the tip) what could they ask? Consequences of a low inflation ( is that deflation)...seems like college stuff..

Not sure if you have been chatting about the water charges..I got 4 out of 16 on a section A consequences question in my mock and I really cant see where I went wrong...still make sense to me...any advice anyone?

Thanks!

There was a few pages on inflation and deflation in our books so I'm sure they can ask it if they want.

Just think about it logically, if prices start falling you think it would be a good thing, but people start predicting and saying "Well, it feel by 1€ today so it might be even cheaper in a week!" thus spending is decreased.

Whereas if there's inflation people buy now anticipating price rises in the future.

expiiplus1

What is the difference between a social cost/benefit and an economic benefit? I understand the difference between a private/social benefit, but I'm finding it hard to wrap my mind round this one (especially since I'm of the view nearly everything boils down to economics). Thanks!

Kremin

expiiplus1 wrote: »

What is the difference between a social cost/benefit and an economic benefit? I understand the difference between a private/social benefit, but I'm finding it hard to wrap my mind round this one (especially since I'm of the view nearly everything boils down to economics). Thanks!

My understanding of it: may be wrong but...
I think they're costs that arent to do with money, as in say... a new road was being built.. costs would be pollution, increasing global warming, destruction of landscape, possible loss of cultural heritage etc.

Codswapple

Would anybody be interested in sharing topical parts of your notes just small parts nothing major and its handy maybe just to look the night before the exam?!

Interest rates- the cost of borrowing/return on saving. Controlled by ecb under their monetary policy power. Currently at a historic all time low of 0.5%

Affects of low interest rates:
Borrowing is encouraged
Saving isnt encouraged
Lower mortgage repayments for those on trackr mortgages
Lower cost of repaying the interest on national debt
Lower government revenue through DIRT-currently 41%

Avengergirl

Thanks Kremin...that's a good tip for thinking about inflation/deflation. That's a good idea Codswapple...Here's a good one I got from a friend who got it from someone else...

Consequences of an increase in inflation (SWEETS)

Fall in the Standard of living
Increase on Wage Demands from trade union
Decrease in Employment levels
Exports fall as our goods become more expensive
Decrease in Tax Revenue as less people working
Savings fall as incomes fall

And of course it works the other way for a decrease in inflation

expiiplus1

To what extent are you allowed to develop point on top of point in the exam? Could you go from a question about effects of economic growth like this:
Increased demand
Inflation
Increased government spending on capital projects
And there you have three of your four points.

RoRo979

expiiplus1 wrote: »

To what extent are you allowed to develop point on top of point in the exam? Could you go from a question about effects of economic growth like this:
Increased demand
Inflation
Increased government spending on capital projects
And there you have three of your four points.

They are all valid points imo, i wouldnt go past 2 points e.g
1) increased demand for goods/services
2) demand-pull inflation ( i would stop here and new point, but will continue anyway)
3) wage increase demands/ cost of living claim: ( this point is relevant for inflation, but nor much so for economic growth)

expiiplus1

I noticed we were a bit low of the negatives of water meters; So here goes:
Increased business costs (since demand for water is so inelastic in the short run(
This results in cost - push inflation
Unemployment (as firms seek to lower costs other ways)


Anybody got notes on QE or Greece?

RoRo979

on the flip side employment: temp jobs installing and revenue gvt received could be used to hire more workers in civil service.

up Cost of living:
Up wage demands:
Decrease exports: our exports now more expensive

Anybody got notes on QE or Greece?

whats QE and why would knowing Greece help?

expiiplus1

Quantitative easing. It's a technique used to fight deflation across the Eurozone by the ECB. Think open market operations on steroids in order to increase the money supply.

nathan99

GNP has been bigger than GDP for the first time so that could be a possible question

expiiplus1

Are you absolutely sure on that?
According to the CSO:
GDP 2014 Q4: 45,619m
GNP 2014 Q4 39,336m
I do believe that GNP increased by 5.1% versus 4.8% for GDP. Is that what you meant?

Kremin

expiiplus1 wrote: »

Quantitative easing. It's a technique used to fight deflation across the Eurozone by the ECB. Think open market operations on steroids in order to increase the money supply.

Is quantitative easing not used to generate inflation and reduce deflation?

Edit: NVM read your post again, PROTIP: DONT REPLY TO POSTS AT 2am, YOUR BRAIN SHUTS DOWN.

Avengergirl

Oh God....I haven't done a thing in Economics in over a week....I hope my last minute cram session will be enough. :-=/

if832uspx4eogt

I have one week to cram all this course in, can't wait!

expiiplus1

My problem is the bloody statistics - they just keep changing!

Any particular hopes for questions? I'm hoping for four micro, though I've done everything except the EU - and followed the news - so I'm pretty adjustable.

randylonghorn

expiiplus1 wrote: »

My problem is the bloody statistics - they just keep changing!

There's a little man in the Bureau of Muggle Statistics casting spells to make people lose and get jobs just to annoy you, expii!! :cool:

DarraghF197

expiiplus1 wrote: »

My problem is the bloody statistics - they just keep changing!

Any particular hopes for questions? I'm hoping for four micro, though I've done everything except the EU - and followed the news - so I'm pretty adjustable.

I think costs are such great questions! They're due up as well and literally the exact same things come up on them.

I've done all micro, national Income and international trade, as well as all the Economists and so on.

I did all four micro for the mocks, had them only covered, but I might switch to a macro topic, as they can get extremely mean on the marking schemes for questions such as the Markets.

Did a practice mock during the week and did well, I think I was fair on marking myself, maybe a small bit lenient towards myself at times I feel prepared for it, though. Just hope they marked my exam properly in the mocks as that was my only test I've ever got corrected in Economics!

Paddyg96

I have a full week to cram it all!!

Got 79 % in the mocks....If I spend 12 hours a day cramming and doing exam questions should I be on course for an a1??

DarraghF197

I'm a little confused about when to use the economic statistics. People say we should know them, but have they ever been asked? Is it just a sprinkle on top of your answer to make it look nicer?

Also, for, say, stating and explaining the effects of X, it's nearly always the case that it's 2 marks for stating and 3 marks for explaining. I was just wondering, if you have an OK explanation, will you get 2 out of three marks, or is it a hit or miss sort of thing? If so, should you be elaborating a lit on your explanations and writing a couple of lines explaining your point? Thanks in advance

Kremin

DarraghF197 wrote: »

I'm a little confused about when to use the economic statistics. People say we should know them, but have they ever been asked? Is it just a sprinkle on top of your answer to make it look nicer?

Also, for, say, stating and explaining the effects of X, it's nearly always the case that it's 2 marks for stating and 3 marks for explaining. I was just wondering, if you have an OK explanation, will you get 2 out of three marks, or is it a hit or miss sort of thing? If so, should you be elaborating a lit on your explanations and writing a couple of lines explaining your point? Thanks in advance

There is sometimes a question directly on economic statistics like comment on the last 12 months in ireland referring to unemployment, budget, inflation etc...

The question is crazy hard though, I wrote 2 pages for that one part for 20 marks and only got 13 because i didnt have enough stats and information in!

Adding stats into your answers elsewhere shows you didn't just learn off a bunch of answers and you have a very up to date economic knowledge and can understand economics in real life scenarios, which if you read the chief examiner report is what they're always looking for students to do.

the 2-3 split thing, honestly I don't know... Any valid explanation should be suffice as long as you aren't doing say

Title: Inflation will occur
Explanation: There will be inflation.

(repeating/rehashing titles in explanations)

That's my taking on everything anyway- if I'm wrong about anything please correct me !

DarraghF197

Perfect, that makes sense Kremin! Yeah I'll only be doing Micro and National Income and International trade, so I doubt I'd get that difficult of a question. And I have back up questions anyways.

I have mock papers and their marking schemes all have state at 2 marks and explain at 3. Going back over the mock I did and got corrected, the examiner seemed to give me either 0,2,3 or 5 for a point so it seems like the explanation is a hit or miss, which is good!

expiiplus1

If you give a well-reasoned point, even if it's not on the marking scheme do they have to give you full marks for it?

DarraghF197

expiiplus1 wrote: »

If you give a well-reasoned point, even if it's not on the marking scheme do they have to give you full marks for it?

I'm pretty sure you can. On some papers it says something like, "accept any other valid reason". It would be quite unfair if they didn't give you marks just because it wasn't on the marking scheme. It sort of promotes rote learning, and I hope examiners do realise this when correcting.

On my mocks I did anyways. For consequences of low interest rates. I talked about the low interest rates on bones. And how the bonds purchased from QE will have next to no demand because of the lack of return on them. I'm not sure if it was just marks I got because s/he thought my point was interesting or not! I think I made another point that it would increase the MEC, and when I checked on the marking scheme of the same question, that also wasn't on it.

RoRo979

Anything relevant will yield marks im sure. Always describe it with 2 sentences after and an example if possible.