Exam guide

Paper structure

From 2023 (current syllabus):

• Overall totals: AS is out of 90 (P1 + P2). A Level is out of 180 (all four papers). These equal the raw marks, so every mark counts the same.
• Paper 2, Question 1 usually has five or six parts, worth 1–2, 2, 4, 6 and 6 marks. The early parts ask you to compare, identify or calculate. The 4-mark part asks you to consider an effect. The two 6-mark parts ask you to assess.
• Each Paper 2 essay has two parts:
  • (a), 8 marks: explain, then consider. Marks are split 3 knowledge, 3 analysis, 2 evaluation.
  • (b), 12 marks: assess.
• Paper 4, Question 1 has four parts, building from about 2–3 marks (define or explain) up to 7–10 marks (evaluate or discuss, using the article).
• Paper 4 essays are single 20-mark questions with no sub-parts. Most begin with "Evaluate" and often ask for a diagram.

What changed from 2022 to 2026:

• 2022 (old syllabus):
  • Paper 2 was 40 marks in 1 h 30 min. It had the data response (20) plus one essay chosen from three (8 + 12).
  • Paper 4 was 70 marks in 2 h 15 min. It had the data response (20) plus two essays chosen from six, each worth 25 (often split 12 + 13).
  • The essays were not split into micro and macro sections.
• 2023 onwards (new syllabus): both essay papers moved to the Section B / Section C layout shown above. Paper 4 essays became 20-mark questions with no sub-parts.
• A fourth time-zone variant (components 14, 24, 34, 44) was added from June 2025. In 2022 only Paper 14 existed. This does not change the paper format.
• The multiple-choice papers did not change. Both are still 30 items, in 1 h (P1) and 1 h 15 min (P3).

Topic weights

Topics follow the syllabus: six AS areas, and the same six headings again at A Level (shown as "A Level" below). Shares are of all tagged marks across the 36 papers. Essay options are weighted by how often a candidate answers them (see Method).

• AS papers are evenly spread. Each of the six AS areas has 14–20 % of the AS marks.
• The A Level papers lean towards microeconomics. Theory of the firm and consumer, market failure and labour markets take about half of the P3/P4 marks.
• International A Level topics are next, at about a quarter. These cover development, living standards, multinational companies (MNCs), globalisation and exchange rates.

Top subtopics, by overall share:

Bankers

These came up in every session, or in all but one:

• Labour markets (all 9 sessions).
  • Paper 3: marginal revenue product (MRP), economic rent vs transfer earnings, trade unions, monopsony, the backward-bending supply curve.
  • Paper 4 essays on wage determination: 2022 MJ, 2022 ON, then three sessions in a row from 2025 MJ to 2026 MJ (productivity, chief-executive pay, trade unions).
• Market failure and the policies to correct it (9). Externality diagrams (MSC/MSB), taxes, tradable permits, regulation, property rights, nudges and privatisation. A Paper 4 Section B essay on this came up in 2023 MJ, 2024 MJ, 2024 ON, 2025 MJ and 2025 ON.
• Market structures (9). Perfect competition, monopoly, oligopoly and cartels, contestable markets, price discrimination and minimum efficient scale. This is in every Paper 3, and in Paper 4 essays or Question 1 in most sessions.
• Economic development and living standards (9). GDP and GNI against HDI, MPI and MEW, characteristics of low-income countries, and population data. A Paper 4 Section C essay on measuring living standards came up in 2022 MJ, 2023 ON, 2024 ON and 2026 MJ.
• MNCs, foreign direct investment (FDI), aid and globalisation (8). Paper 4 essays: 2022 ON, 2023 ON, 2024 MJ, 2025 MJ, 2025 ON.
• Production possibility curves (9). Every Paper 1, plus diagram parts in Paper 2 and Paper 4, Question 1.
• AD/AS analysis (9), especially the causes of inflation. Inflation or deflation is a Paper 2 Section C essay in four of the seven sessions since 2023 (2023 MJ, 2023 ON, 2025 MJ, 2025 ON).
• Elasticities (PED, YED, XED, PES). At least one is in every Paper 1, and a Paper 2 Section B elasticity essay ("which elasticity is most useful to a firm") came up in 2022 MJ, 2023 ON, 2024 ON, 2025 MJ and 2025 ON.
• Indifference curves and budget lines, or marginal utility (9 sessions in Paper 3). Paper 4 essays came up in 2022 MJ, 2023 ON, 2024 ON and 2026 MJ.
• Circular flow, multiplier and output gaps (9), mostly calculations in Paper 3.
• Consumer and producer surplus (9), mostly Paper 1 diagram items, plus Paper 2 essays in 2023 MJ and 2025 ON.
• Fiscal, monetary and supply-side policy and their effectiveness (9). Supply-side essays came up in 2022 ON, 2024 MJ, 2024 ON and 2025 ON. Monetary policy essays came up in 2022 MJ, 2022 ON, 2023 MJ and 2024 MJ.

Rarely tested

• Government failure. It appeared as a named idea in only one item (2025 MJ Paper 3). It is often useful as an evaluation point, though.
• Functions of the price mechanism (2 sessions) and functions and characteristics of money at AS (2 sessions, plus a weakly answered 2022 ON essay).
• Scarcity and opportunity cost as stand-alone items (4 sessions). The ideas mostly appear inside PPC questions.
• AS macroeconomic policy objectives as a separate item (3 sessions).
• A Level policies to correct balance-of-payments disequilibrium (5 sessions, mostly multiple choice). No Paper 4 essay has been set on it since 2023.
• Phillips curve and Laffer curve. These appear only as Paper 3 multiple-choice items: diagram labels, data interpretation and shifting curves.
• Cost-benefit analysis. It came up a handful of times in Paper 3, and never as an essay.
• Quantity theory of money. It appeared once as a full Paper 4 essay (2026 MJ) and occasionally in Paper 3.

Trends

• The 2023 syllabus change shifted marks towards evaluation.
  • Paper 2's 4- and 6-mark data parts now require a judgement.
  • Essay (a) parts carry 2 evaluation marks.
  • Paper 4 essays are single 20-mark "Evaluate" questions.
  • One-sided answers are now capped at about mid-Level 2.
• Government micro intervention has grown.
  • At AS it rose from about 5 % (2022–23) to 9 % (2025–26) of marks: maximum and minimum prices, subsidies, buffer stocks, merit goods.
  • At A Level it rose from about 9 % to 12 %, with a labour-market or market-failure essay in every Paper 4 Section B since 2023 except 2023 ON.
• A Level price-system theory has fallen. Its share dropped from about 19 % to 10 %, mainly because the old Paper 4 offered many more firm-theory essays.
• Newer syllabus content is now examined regularly:
  • the Gini coefficient and inequality (2024 MJ, 2024 ON, 2025 MJ);
  • the circular flow in an open economy (2024 MJ, 2026 MJ);
  • the MPI (2023 ON);
  • moral hazard, nudge theory and universal basic income in Paper 3;
  • the quantity theory of money (2026 MJ).
• Paper 2, Question 1 is almost always a commodity-dependent or emerging economy, for example oil (Russia, Nigeria, petrostates), maize, copper (Chile), South Africa, cocoa (Ivory Coast) and nickel (Australia). Expect PED, price controls or subsidies, the exchange rate and diversification.
• Paper 4, Question 1 alternates between micro contexts (oil cartel, traffic congestion, electric vehicles, carbon emissions, commodity traders) and macro or international ones (Guyana, the Belt and Road Initiative, US migration, US tariffs and interest rates).
• Paper 4 Section C has leaned towards development and globalisation. MNCs and globalisation came up in four of seven sessions since 2023, and living-standard measures in three.

Question styles

• Multiple choice (P1, P3):
  • many items use a diagram, such as surplus areas, tax incidence, PPC shifts, cost curves, externality gaps or Lorenz curves;
  • many are calculations, such as elasticities, tax revenue, multipliers, marginal or average product, real values and GNI;
  • there are regular negatively worded stems ("which is not…", "least likely…") and "definitely" stems.
• Paper 2 data response:
  • "Compare" or "identify" for 1–2 marks: use the two dates given, and manipulate the data rather than copying it;
  • "Explain / with the help of a diagram" for 2–4 marks;
  • "Consider" for 4 marks;
  • "Assess" for 6 marks.
• Paper 2 essays:
  • (a) "Explain … and consider …", often "with the help of a diagram(s)";
  • (b) "Assess whether / the extent to which …". In 2022 this was "Discuss". Typical shapes are "is X the best way to…", "is X always…" and "which is more useful/damaging".
• Paper 4 data response: define or explain (2–3 marks), then analyse or consider with a diagram (4–7), then evaluate or discuss using the article (7–10).
• Paper 4 essays: "Evaluate …", sometimes "Assess", "Consider" or "Evaluate this statement" after a provocative claim. Many require a diagram. Several ask about two policies, two market structures or two groups, and you must cover both.

Common mistakes

From the examiner reports (2022 MJ, 2022 ON, 2023 MJ and 2024 MJ):

• Asserting instead of explaining. For example, stating "shortages" or "illegal markets" under a maximum price, or quoting the Marshall–Lerner condition, without saying why it happens. Unexplained points earn little or nothing.
• Summarising is not evaluation. You need a weighed judgement that answers the question, and a justified conclusion.
• Answering a different question:
  • writing about alternative policies when the question asks only about one (tariffs, subsidies, monetary policy);
  • leaving out the comparison when the question says "the best way";
  • ignoring a context such as "low-income country", "cost-push" or "few natural resources".
• "All I know about…" answers. Examples: describing every PPC position, or every determinant of PED, instead of the specific point asked.
• Data misreads:
  • using the wrong figure or table;
  • ignoring the word "changes";
  • thinking falling inflation means falling prices;
  • confusing real and disposable income;
  • saying a budget deficit "worsened" (a value judgement) instead of "increased".
• Goods classification. Students assume anything the government provides is a public good, and mix up non-excludable with non-rival. For example, free school lunches are still private goods.
• Diagram errors:
  • axes labelled P and Q on a PPC;
  • shifting the PPC inwards for unemployment instead of showing a point inside the curve;
  • drawing a new minimum price when the question is about raising an existing one;
  • not showing how a subsidy is shared between buyers and sellers;
  • putting AD/AS labels on a labour-market diagram;
  • drawing diagrams that the text never mentions.
• Concept gaps:
  • purchasing power parity;
  • minimum efficient scale;
  • the meaning of a rising Gini coefficient;
  • narrow vs broad money;
  • protectionism (the aim) vs its tools;
  • terms of trade vs balance of trade;
  • linking demand-pull inflation to AD outrunning AS capacity;
  • actual vs potential growth.
• Multiple-choice traps:
  • a price change moves along the demand curve, it does not shift it;
  • a straight-line supply curve through the origin has PES = 1;
  • a maximum price below equilibrium does not raise consumption;
  • marginal vs average utility;
  • the long-run shutdown point is at ATC, not AVC;
  • the conditions for a liquidity trap;
  • missing a bold not in the stem.

Grade thresholds

Variant-2 route. Component thresholds are raw marks (A / B / C). The AS (12 + 22) and A Level (12 + 22 + 32 + 42) thresholds are on the weighted totals.

What the thresholds show:

• Multiple choice: an A needs about 22–25 out of 30 on both papers, roughly 75–80 %.
• Paper 2: since 2023 the A boundary has been only about 22–26 out of 60, roughly 40 %, because analysis and evaluation marks are hard to earn. In 2022 it was 18–21 out of 40.
• Paper 4: an A has needed 35–43 out of 60 (about 60–70 %).
• AS overall: an A has been about 46–49 out of 90 since 2023 (about 53 %).
• A Level overall: an A has been about 104–117 out of 180 (58–65 %), and an A* about 116–135.
• June 2024 and June 2026 had the lowest A Level boundaries (A = 104 and 106), suggesting harder papers.

Revision priorities for Oct/Nov 2026 and 2027

1. Market failure and policy (A Level). Externality diagrams with MSC/MSB and the deadweight loss, and the strengths and weaknesses of taxes, subsidies, regulation, permits, property rights, nudges and privatisation. Expect an "evaluate two policies" essay.
2. Labour markets. MRP theory, monopsony, trade unions, minimum wages, economic rent, and wage differences (for example chief executives vs staff, or productivity). A labour essay has come up three sessions running.
3. Market structures. Perfect competition vs monopoly diagrams (MC through minimum AC, profit at MR = MC), contestability, price discrimination, minimum efficient scale, and firm objectives (sales vs revenue maximisation).
4. Consumer theory. Indifference curves (income and substitution effects for normal, inferior and Giffen goods) and marginal utility. Its Paper 4 essay has appeared every two or three sessions, most recently in 2026 MJ.
5. Development and globalisation. Living-standard measures (GDP/GNI vs HDI, MPI, MEW), MNCs and FDI in low-income countries, aid, debt and globalisation. Always apply them to the country type named in the question.
6. AS microeconomics for Paper 2.
   • Elasticities and their usefulness to firms.
   • Consumer and producer surplus.
   • Price controls, subsidies with incidence diagrams, and buffer stocks.
   • Merit, demerit and public goods (know the exact definitions of rivalry and excludability).
7. AS macroeconomics.
   • The causes and effects of inflation and deflation, with AD/AS.
   • The current account and how to correct it.
   • Exchange-rate and terms-of-trade effects.
   • Supply-side vs fiscal vs monetary policy, with real limitations.
8. Paper 3 calculations. Practise multipliers, output gaps, money and liquidity preference, the natural rate of unemployment, and Phillips and Laffer curve items.
9. Exam skills.
   • In data parts, use the exact dates and figures given.
   • Explain every link in a chain of reasoning.
   • End every 6-, 12- and 20-mark answer with a judgement that answers the actual question ("best", "always", "more beneficial").
   • Draw fully labelled diagrams and refer to them in your text.