Some Common Problems Encountered By Economics Students And How They Are Rectified

Michael had problems with understanding the cost and revenue diagrams for Unit 3 (Business Economics). Together, we identified that the source of the problem was a weak foundation in his knowledge of what each curve represented e.g. that the average revenue curve was effectively the demand curve facing the firm. After spending some time revisiting the basic definitions and derivations of each curve Michael felt much more at ease with drawing the curves. From here, he made very quick progress in putting the curves together and performing higher level analysis.

Tom`s scores on the multiple choice sections of past papers was often lower than he expected given his level of understanding. After going through a few MCQs with him I noticed that he tended to take longer answering the questions than he should have and subsequently running out of time. I decided to rectify this by pointing out that he may wish to spend a little more time thinking about each question; this would allow him to very quickly eliminate the wrong answers rather than hesitantly trawling through all of the options. His scores improved very quickly after this session.

Rebecca was having difficulty answering questions on externalities. Spending some time talking to her about where she might be losing marks I surmised that her understanding of market failure in general needed some improvement and that this prevented her from explaining the significance of externalities adequately. Revising the basic definitions carefully, we found a way to connect the concept of social efficiency with problems arising from the existence of externalities. As a result, the quality of her answers on externalities noticeably improved; and she scored a strong A in her AS exams.

Longer questions that require evaluation had eluded David ever since he began practicing past papers. His knowledge was secure, however he seemed unable to get above 18 out of 25 in essay questions. We looked at some of his answers and it was clear that his evaluations were not convincing enough to be merit-worthy. As well as revisiting basics of evaluation technique, we looked at some model answers and the marks schemes from which we abstracted some more advanced techniques which could be generalised. As a result, David felt much more comfortable evaluating in subsequent exam papers.

Amardeep was finding it difficult to study economics as he was losing interest in the subject. Discussing this matter further with him I ascertained that the manner in which economics was taught at his school was rather dry and abstract. Feeling it necessary to inject some relevance to his studies, over the next few sessions I brought in articles from the economist and broadsheet papers which covered issues that put the theories he was learning about into practice. As a result of discussing current affairs in this way it was possible to convey to Amardeep just how useful it is to have a knowledge of economics when following the news. In a matter of weeks Amardeep`s enthusiasm and appreciation of economics improved significantly. He scored the top grade in his class at the end of the year.