economics hsc essay

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A State-Ranker’s Guide to Writing 20/20 Economics Essays

So, you want to know how to improve your preliminary and HSC economics essay...

1. Introduction to this Guide

So, you want to know how to improve your preliminary and HSC economics essay writing? Look no further! In this guide, I’ll be covering key tips to help YOU smash the structure, amaze with your analysis, conquer the contemporary, and ultimately master the mystery of maximising your marks.

My name is Cory Aitchison, currently one of the Economics tutors at Project Academy . I completed the HSC in 2018, achieving a 99.95 ATAR as well as two state ranks — 6th in economics and 12th in chemistry. Graduating from Knox Grammar School, I also topped my grade in economics and was awarded Dux of the School for STEM. Believe it or not, at the beginning of Year 11 I initially struggled with economics due to the transition in conceptual thinking required in approaching economic assessments in comparison to my other subjects such as English. However, through Year 11 and Year 12, I built up key tips and strategies — that I’ll be sharing with you in this guide — to help me not only consistently achieve top marks in my internal assessments, but to ultimately go on to achieve the results I did in the HSC.

2. The Correct Way to Write

First off, you need to understand something: HSC economics essays are NOT english essays! They aren’t scientific discussions, nor geography reports, nor historical recounts. They’re unique and often quite different from other essays that you might’ve done previously in high school. The style of writing and approach to answering questions can be confusing at first, but follow these tips and you’ll be ready in no time:

Phrasing should be understandable and concise

Unlike some subjects where sophisticated phrasing is beneficial to getting marks, HSC economics essays should emphasise getting your point across with clarity. This means don’t run your sentences on for too long, be aware of any superfluous words, and make sure you actually understand yourself what you’re trying to say in a sentence.

For example:

GOOD: “An increase in interest rates should lead to decreased economic growth.”

NOT GOOD: “As a result of a rise or increase in interest rate levels from their previous values, the general state of economic activity in the domestic economy may begin to decrease and subsequently indicate the resultant situation of a decrease in economic growth.”

“Understandable” does not mean slang or lacking in terminology

Just because you want to get a point across, doesn’t mean you should resort to slang. In fact, using economic terminology is a strong way to boost your standing in the eyes of the marker — if you use it correctly! Always make sure you use full sentences, proper English grammar, and try and incorporate correct economic terms where possible.

GOOD: “This was a detrimental outcome for the economy.”

NOT GOOD: “This was a pretty bad outcome for the economy.”

GOOD: “The Australian Dollar depreciated.”

NOT GOOD: “The Australian Dollar decreased in value.”

Analysis should be done using low modality

Modality just refers to the confidence of your language — saying something “will” happen is strong modality, whereas saying something “might” happen is considered low modality. Since a large portion of economics is about applying theory, we have to make sure that we are aware that we are doing just that — talking about the theoretical, and so we can’t say for sure that anything will happen as predicted.

Some useful words include:

May, Might, Should, Could, Can theoretically

Don’t use words like:

Must, Will, Has to, Always

3. How to use Statistics

“What’s most important is that this contemporary is used to bring meaning or context to your argument…”

Using contemporary (statistics) can often seem straightforward at first, but using it effectively is usually harder than it looks. Contemporary generally refers to applying real-world facts to your analysis to help strengthen (or weaken) the theoretical arguments. This can include many different statistics or pieces of information, including:

• Historic economic indicators, such as GDP, inflation, GINI coefficients, exchange rates, or unemployment rates
• Trends or economic goals, such as long-term GDP growth rates, or the stability band for inflation
• Names of economic policies, such as examples of fiscal or microeconomic policies
• Specifics of economic policies, such as the amount spent on infrastructure in 2017

Whatever statistics you deem relevant to include in your essay, what’s most important is that this contemporary is used to bring meaning or context to your argument — just throwing around random numbers to show off your memorisation skills won’t impress the marker, and in fact might appear as if you were making them up on the spot. Rather, your use of contemporary should actively improve your analysis.

GOOD: “Following a period of growth consistently below the long-term trend-line of 3%, the depreciation of the AUD to 0.71USD in 2017 preceded an increase in economic growth to a 10-year high of 3.4% in 2018.”

NOT GOOD: “Economic growth increased by 1 percentage point in 2017 to 2018”

NOT GOOD: “GDP was $1.32403 trillion in 2017”

GOOD: “The 2017 Budget’s Infrastructure Plan injected $42 billion into the economy — up 30% from 2016’s $31 billion, and 20% higher than the inflation-adjusted long-term expenditure.”

NOT GOOD: “The 2017 Budget’s Infrastructure Plan injected $42 billion into the economy”

That in mind, don’t think that these statistics have to be overly specific. As long as the general ideas gets across, it’s fine. You don’t need to say “$1,505,120” — just “$1.5 million” will suffice.

Ask yourself: if I get rid of the contemporary from my paragraphs, does the essay still have enough content?

Further, don’t get roped into the “contemporary trap” — where you fall into the mindset that “if I memorise all these statistics, my essay will get good marks”. Including numbers and contemporary at the expense of having a robust theoretical explanation and analysis will definitely be detrimental in getting you top marks. Particularly in trial exams and the HSC when you’ve got all these numbers floating in your head, it can be tempting to try and include as many as you can (often just because you can!). To avoid this, always try and focus your arguments on analysis and syllabus content first, contemporary second. Ask yourself: if I get rid of the contemporary from my paragraph, does the essay still have enough content?

4. Must Have Insightful “However”s

If you really want to extend your analysis and show the marker that you know your stuff, including insightful “however”s is a strong way to do it. What I mean by this is that for each of your paragraphs, try and include a counterpoint that highlights the flexible nature of economic theory. There are broadly two kinds of “however”s:

Theoretical “However”s

These are counterpoints that are based on theory — often there will be theoretical limitations for many of the concepts you come across in economics. It’s always important to include these limitations as it reinforces your knowledge of the actual content of economics.

“Although the Budget and fiscal policy can be effective at stimulating economic growth, it is also restricted by the “implementation time lag” limitation since it is only introduced annually.”

Contemporary “However”s

These are counterpoints that are based on contemporary — highlighting how although something should happen theoretically, this isn’t usually what is observed in reality. This can be particularly powerful in that it combines your knowledge of theory with your analysis of contemporary.

“Despite the expansionary stance that the RBA adopted in 2012–2016 for monetary policy, Australia’s annual GDP growth rate has remained below the trend rate of 3% — against the theoretical expectations. This could be attributed to factors such as …”

5. How to Interpret the Question

When you first look at a question, before you even put pen to paper, you need to come up with a plan of attack — how can you ensure that you answer the question correctly, and give the markers what they want? There are three main points to look for when interpreting essay questions:

Knowing your verbs

As you may (or may not) know, NESA has a bank of words that they like to pull from when writing questions, and these words impact how they want their question answered. These verbs should help steer your analysis onto the right path. For example:

Explain: “Relate causes and effects”

To answer these questions, you have to demonstrate a thorough understanding of how theory and events impact each other and the economy. This verb particularly emphasises the idea of a process — you need to be able to make clear links as to how each step leads to the next, rather than just jumping to the outcomes.

Analyse: “Draw out and relate implications”

These questions usually wants you to investigate the connections between different aspects of economic theory. Generally this involves showing a holistic understanding of how different areas (such as micro- and macroeconomic policies) come together to make a cohesive impact on the economy. It usually helps to think back to the syllabus and how the points are introduced when figuring out which ideas to link together.

Assess/Evaluate: “Make a judgement based on value/a criteria”

These require you to not only critically analyse a topic but also come to a conclusion given the arguments you provided. This type of question usually gets you to make a judgement of the effectiveness of some economic theory — such as the ability for economic policies to achieve their goals. Make sure you actually include this judgement in your answer — for example, say things like “strong impact”, “highly influential”, “extremely detrimental”.

Discuss: “Provide points for and/or against”

Similar to assess, discuss wants you to provide arguments towards and against a particular topic. Although it doesn’t require a specific judgement to be made, it does place greater emphasis on showing a well-rounded approach to the argument — providing relatively equal weightings towards both the positive and negative sides of the discussion.

Linking to the syllabus

When trying to understand what the question wants from you, I found the best way to approach it is to consider what points in the syllabus it is referring to (To do this, you need to have a solid understanding of the syllabus in the first place). Once you’ve located it, try drawing upon other topics in the vicinity of that dot point to help you answer the question.

For example, if the question mentions “trends in Australia’s trade and financial flows”, then you know from the syllabus that you probably need to talk about value, composition and direction in order to get high marks. Further, it may also be worth it to bring in ideas from the Balance of Payments, as this is the next dot point along in the syllabus.

Digging into the source

For essay questions that provide a source for you to include in your answer, this is another goldmine from which you can discern what the marker really wants. If the source mentions microeconomic policy, it probably wasn’t on accident! Even if it may not be obvious how to link that to the question immediately, try and draw upon your knowledge and implications and see if there’s a different angle that you might be missing.

6. Putting it All together — Structuring your essay

My essays usually consisted of four main parts: an introduction, a background paragraph, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

Introduction

Your introduction should not be long. I rarely wrote an introduction longer than three sentences.

First sentence: Answer the question (thesis)

Try and answer the question, while including the main key words of the question in your answer. Don’t directly restate it — instead, try and add meaning to it in a way that represents what you’re trying to get across in your essay.

For example: if the question was “Assess the impact of microeconomic policy in improving economic growth in Australia”, my first sentence might be “Microeconomic policy has had a significant impact in increasing aggregate supply and thus long-term economic growth in Australia since the 1960s”.

Next sentences: Introduce your arguments/paragraphs

In this part, it’s fine to almost list your paragraphs — there’s no need to do a whole sentence explaining each. That’s what the paragraphs themselves are for.

For example: using the same question as above, my next sentence might be “Although trade liberalisation may have been detrimental for short-term growth in manufacturing, policies such as competition policy and wage decentralisation have been highly effective in fostering economic growth in Australia”.

Background Paragraph

The aim of a background paragraph is threefold: to get across the main theory that underpins your argument; to establish the economic context for your argument; and to show the marker that you “know your stuff”.

For example, if the essay was on monetary policy, you may want to describe the process of Domestic Market Operations (how the reserve bank changes the cash rate) in your background paragraph, so that you don’t need to mention it each time you bring up changing stances. Further, it may be good to showcase the current economic climate — such as GDP growth rate and inflation — to give context to your analysis in your essay.

Some ideas for what to include in this paragraph include:

• Key theory such as DMOs or the rationale for macroeconomic policies
• Economic indicators that provide context to the time period that you’re working in, such as growth rates, inflation, unemployment rates, exchange rates, cash rates, etc.
• A brief description of the recent Budget (if talking about fiscal policy), including the stance and outcome

Bear in mind that this paragraph shouldn’t be too long — it isn’t the focus of your essay! Instead, aim for around 100–150 words at most. At this point in your essay, it may also be good to include a graph (more on this later).

Body Paragraphs

There’s no set rule for how many body paragraphs to include in your essay — I generally aim for at least 4, but there’s no real limit to how many you can (or should) write! Unlike english essays, it’s totally acceptable to just split a paragraph in two if you feel like the idea is too large to be written in one paragraph (as long as each paragraph makes sense on its own).

When writing a paragraph, I usually follow this structure:

Topic sentence

This is where you answer the question, and outline your argument or idea for this paragraph. If you are doing a discuss/assess/evaluate essay, try and make your judgement or side obvious. For example: “Trade liberalisation has been detrimental in its impact on economic growth in manufacturing industries”.

These sentences are where you bring together the theory and contemporary to build up your argument. Remember, the theory should be the focus, and contemporary a bonus. Try and weave a “story” into your analysis if you can — you should be showing the marker how everything fits together, how causes lead to effects, and ultimately bringing together relevant economic concepts to answer the question. Feel free to also include graphs here when they help strengthen your argument.

Fit in your “however” statements here. For discuss questions, this however section may take up a larger part of the paragraph if you choose to showcase two opposing arguments together.

Link your argument back to your overarching thesis, and answer the question. Following on from your “however” statement, it can often be a good idea to use linking words such as “nevertheless”, “notwithstanding”, or “despite this” to show that taking into account your arguments presented in the “however” statement, the overarching idea for the paragraph still remains.

Like the introduction, your conclusion should not be overly long. Rather, it should briefly restate the arguments made throughout your essay, and bring them all together again to reinforce how these points help answer the question.

Aggregate Demand / Supply Graph

Graphs are a great way to add extra spice to your essay — not only does it help strengthen your explanations of economic theory, it also makes it look like you wrote more pages than you actually did! Graphs, such as aggregate demand graphs, business cycle graphs, and Phillips curves, can be great in reinforcing your ideas when you mention them in your essay. They usually come either in background paragraphs or body paragraphs, and it’s usually best to draw them about a quarter to a third of the page in size. It’s also good practice to label them as “Figure 1” or “Graph 1”, and refer to them as such in your actual paragraph.

Although they can be beneficial, don’t try and force them either. Not all essays have appropriate graphs, and trying to include as many as you can without regards for their relevance may come across negatively in the eyes of the marker.

8. How to Answer Source Questions

If your essay question involves a source, try and refer to it multiple times throughout your essay. For example, this can be in the background paragraph and two of your body paragraphs. Rather than just adding in an “…as seen in the source” to one of your sentences, try and actively analyse it — show the marker that you understand why they included it, and how it actually helps strengthen your arguments.

9. Plan You Essay

Don’t be afraid to use the first page of your answer booklet as a planning page. Taking a couple minutes before you answer the question to lay out your scaffold for body paragraphs is a great first step to helping ensure that you actually end up answering the question to the best of your abilities. It also serves as a great reminder to keep checking as you finish each paragraph to ensure that you actually wrote what you intended. Just make sure to make it clear to the marker that those scribbles on the page are just a plan, and not your actual essay!

10. How to Prepare for Essays in the Exam

I find it much better to prepare paragraphs and ideas that you can draw upon to help “build up” a response during the exam itself.

Don’t go into the exam with a pre-prepared essay that you are ready to regurgitate — not only are there too many possibilities to prepare for, but it’s also unlikely that you’ll actually answer the question well with a pre-prepared response.

Instead of memorising sets of essays before the exam, I find it much better to prepare paragraphs and ideas that you can draw upon to help “build up” a response during the exam itself. What I mean by this, is that in your mind you have a “bank of different paragraphs” and ideas from all the topics in the syllabus, and when you read the exam, you start drawing from different paragraphs here and there to best formulate a response that answers the question. This allows you to be flexible in answering almost any question they can throw at you.

On top of this, ensure you have a solid foundation in both the theory and contemporary — knowing what statistics or topics to include in your essay is useless knowledge unless you have the actual content to back it up.

Now that you know the basics of how to write a good HSC economics essay, it’s time to start practising! Have a go, try out different styles, and find what works best for you. Good luck!

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The Ultimate Guide to HSC Economics Essays

• August 2023
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Struggling to write essays in the HSC? This is the ultimate guide to writing an A-range (17-20) essay in the HSC! Essays comprise 40% of your Final HSC Economics Exam, so getting a good grasp on them is paramount. You are required to respond to two essays in the HSC, Section III and Section IV. Each essay is worth 20 marks each. Section III consists of two stimulus-based essays . You are required to pick ONE of them and respond to it. Section IV consists of two non-stimulus-based essays. You are required to pick ONE of them and respond to it.

General Guide to Essays

Planning your essay.

In the HSC, your first writing booklet will consist of 8 pages, the first being the cover sheet, leaving 7 pages of writing lines. On your first page , plan out our response! In your plan, write down what you aim to explain/discuss/evaluate for each paragraph. But why the first page of the writing booklet? Doesn’t that take up a full page of my writing space? Although it may take up a page of potential writing space, you can always ask for more writing booklets! If you know you’ll write more than 6 pages, ask for extra writing booklets while you do your plan! Put your hand up and wait for the invigilator to give you extra writing paper. Additionally, planning on your writing paper makes it easier for the marker! This is because you show the marker on the first page exactly what you will be talking about in your essay, so as they read it, it makes it easier for them to follow along. The plan also provides a structure to follow so you won’t have a disjointed and unstructured essay! Let’s take a look at Question 26 from the 2022 HSC Economics Exam! (Unfortunately, part of the stimulus is unavailable, however, we still have plenty to work with!)

When choosing your essay question, you should first break down the question and work out exactly what it asks! The first thing to note is the directive term for the one above . In this case, the directive term is analyse. What does this directive term mean? According to NESA, analyse means:

Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate implications

So, for this question, we need to find the relationship between labour market policies and something else and the implications (effects) on economic growth and the distribution of income. For instance:

Labour market decentralisation results in wages being tied to productivity in the Australian Economy. An implication of this is that it results in a more inequitable distribution of income in Australia, as those who are less skilled have lower productivity and thus will receive lower incomes compared those who are more educated and have higher productivity.

Ensure you know your directive terms and how to respond to all questions, short answers and essays! You can find a list of common economics directive terms in the following document below.

When planning your response, also ensure that it is cohesive and logical. Basically, ask yourself if your plan will make sense to someone else if you show it to them and it is easy to understand! As we can see below, this is also stated in the marking criteria for every essay question.

Writing Your Introduction

There are a few things you should do in your introduction.

• Answer the Question! I’ve found that students frequently forget to answer the question, so your first sentence (your “thesis) should directly address the question! For instance, using the above question, we could say “Historical and recent labour market policies have had many mixed implications on economic growth and the distribution of income and wealth in the Australian economy”. It doesn’t have to be complicated, just make sure it answers the question!
• Define your key terms! For the question above, we would want to define labour market policies and the distribution of income, wealth, and economic growth!
• Signpost your key arguments! Write down the main points you will discuss in your body paragraphs, which should come from your plan.
• Link to stimulus (for Section III)! If it is a Section III essay, you should always link to the stimulus in each paragraph. How do we do this? Just say something like “as seen in the stimulus!”

Writing Your Body Paragraphs

Ideally, you should aim for 6-8 points (6-8 body paragraphs) in your essays. However, this isn’t a strict rule. Some students like to break up their paragraphs so they have multiple small ones, whilst others prefer one big paragraph! However, as seen above, you need to demonstrate comprehensive understanding to achieve a 17-20 essay, so we aim for 6-8 points! For each body paragraph, we want to use the PEEL structure. Your classroom probably has a poster of this with a banana on it! Essentially, you want to in each body paragraph.

• Point: Tell the marker what this paragraph is going to be about. This is your topic sentence! For instance, “labour market decentralisation has resulted in negative implications in the equitable income distribution.” It doesn’t have to be fancy, as long as it tells the marker exactly what you will talk about in your essay and it answers the question!
• Explain: Explain to the marker what your point is. You may not necessarily always “explain”. It might be evaluate or discuss, but the general gist is to elaborate on our topic sentence.
• Example: Provide relevant examples and statistics to back up your arguments. Statistics are always your best friend. Ideally, you should have a bunch of statistics to use for all your essays!
• Link: Essentially, restate the point of your paragraph. “Link” back to the question! If necessary, link to the stimulus as well.

Now, you don’t have to follow this structure to the T. However, it provides a great start for your paragraphs! Ensure that in your body paragraphs, what you’re writing is succinct and clear! Use proper economic terminology! The following shows an example of proper and improper use of economic terminology.

The introduction of the Fair Work Act (2009) had positive implications on the distribution of income in the Australian economy. The JobTrainer Fund consisted of $2 billion dollars from the Federal and State Governments to improve Australia’s labour productivity by training jobseekers and young Australians in free or low fee programs.

The new labour policy led to income distribution to become bad. They spent $2 billion in Jobtrainer to make Australians more skilled so that we can produce more things. You might think who on “who on earth writes like this!” but I’ve seen it before!

For the question above, what are some possible points we can discuss?

• Labour market decentralisation
• Fair Work Act (2009)
• Youth PaTH Program
• Jobs and Small Business Package
• VET Training Programs
• Changes to HECS
• Addition of 11th National Employment Standard
• Jobs and Skills Summit

As you can see, there are quite several points that we can use! You don’t have to use all of them; you’ll probably run out of time, but pick the ones you are most confident with!

Writing Your Conclusion

Your conclusion doesn’t have to be complicated; summarise everything you have discussed in a few quick sentences and answer the question again! In fact, if you’re running low on time, rewrite your thesis statement and move on to the next essay!

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Writing an HSC Essay on Economics? Everything You Need to Know About It

Table Of Contents

What is hsc and band 6, insight into essay on economics, how to write an hsc band 6 essay, 5 tips to follow for writing an economics essay.

• Why Seek Experts’ Help with Writing an Essay on Economics?

The Complete Guide to Writing a Band 6 HSC Essay on Economics

HSC Band 6 essay on economics is a nightmare for many students. Not because this task is impossible, but this subject is a bit tough for them. If you can also relate to this situation of facing anxiety and stress because of essay writing on economics, then read this blog to know more about HSC essay and prepare for it beforehand.

Higher school certificate or the HSC is a credential for students who complete their senior high school level studies in Australia. This has been in practice ever since it was first introduced, which is from 1967.

But do you know what these bands mean? If not, then these are the grading systems for HSC. And the marks equivalent to each brand are explained here:

• Band 6 = 90 - 100 marks
• Band 5 = 80 - 89 marks
• Band 4 = 70 - 79 marks
• Band 3 = 60 - 69 marks
• Band 2 = 50 - 59 marks
• Band 1 = 0 - 49 marks

These are the bands used to represent the non-extension courses in six different levels. But, if you are pursuing an extension course, then it is mainly divided into four categories which are as mentioned below:

• Band E4 = 45 - 50 marks
• Band E3 = 35 - 44 marks
• Band E2 = 25 - 34 marks
• Band E1 = 0 - 24 marks

Now, let us take an insight into an essay on economics. 

As we already know, economics is a subject that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Professors usually assign students to write an essay on economics to ensure that they gain enough subject knowledge, strengthen their foundations, and become efficient with this subject. This practice will help the student in the short and long run as well, which includes scoring the best grades in assignment to cracking an interview for the dream job.

If you are thinking of pursuing a career in this, then you need to satisfy the requirement of at least twelve preliminary level units and at least ten HSC level units. Here are some subjects that you need to learn during this course period:

English is the only mandatory subject for HSC certification. But, there are six of these from which you can choose one. And, other subjects include the following:

• Human society and Its Environment
• Aboriginal Studies
• Ancient History
• Business Studies
• History Extension
• Legal Studies
• Modern History
• Society and Culture
• Studies of Religion
• Mathematics
• Earth and Environmental Science
• Investigating Science
• Agriculture
• Creative Arts
• Music 
• Visual Arts
• Community and Family Studies
• Board Endorsed Courses
• Computing Applications
• Exploring Early Childhood
• Marine Studies
• Photography, Video and Digital Imaging
• Sport, Lifestyle and Recreation Activities
• Visual Design
• Work Studies
• Language courses
• Vocational Education and Training courses

These are some of the subjects that you need to choose from for pursuing this course. But, do you really know how to write a Band 6 essay? If not, then the below section is just for you! 

Writing a Band 6 HSC essay on economics is just a few simple steps away. We have listed down the steps for you. All you need to do is just follow them carefully.

1. Refer to Sample HSC Essays

The first step to drafting a perfect HSC Band 6 essay on economics is to refer samples on the same. When you go through the samples, you get an idea about how to prepare your essay and what to include in it and where. 

2. Plan Your Economics Essay

Now, based on the analysis you have done on the reference materials and keeping your requirements into consideration, prepare a plan for your economics essay. In simple words, decide what to include, make an outline, structure your document, and collect all the necessary materials for the essay writing process. 

3. Begin with The Introduction

The main thing to focus on now is the introduction part. This is what catches the attention of your professor in the first place. So, always make sure your introduction is worth a good read. You can make use of an interesting fact, attention-grabbing hook, or any stats that can make your professor curious to read your complete essay.

4. Implement DPEEL Strategy

The DPEEL stands for definition, point, explain, evidence, and link. This is a writing strategy that follows the concept to define the topic, then add to the point facts, followed by an explanation on the same. Then you need to provide evidence as to the support for the facts that you have mentioned in the essay and finally check if the overall content is linked together.

5. Prepare a Table of Key Points

Once you are done with this section, it is time that you prepare a table of the key points in your content. Make sure to collect all the important data and then organize it well. You can include topics like economic developments, key statistics, and more in this section.

6. Edit and Proofread Your Essay

The last step of this process is to proofread and edit your work. Make sure to read all your assignment thoroughly and then, look for any errors or mistakes in it. If you find any, correct them as soon as possible so that you can submit a flawless document to your professor.

Now, when you are writing an economics essay, it is obvious that you might not know everything about it. At such times, you need some experts’ guidance with it. If you are looking for the same, then the experts’ tips in the below section can help you with the process. Go, check them out now!

Here are some tips experts follow when it comes to writing an economics essay. We suggest you also look into these tips once and follow them so that it becomes easy for you to score your dream grades in your economics assignment. So, let us look into them now!

• Understand the question before you begin with the writing process.
• Use simple and small sentences to convey your thoughts.
• Make sure to provide an answer to the question in the topic.
• Evaluate factors like time lag, state of the economy, variables, impact, and supply-demand when it comes to solving economics essays.
• Double-check any formulas and theorems that you have used in your document.

Now, these are the tips that, when followed properly, can help you draft a perfect essay in less time. However, if you are still facing any trouble, then the solution to your struggles is in the below section. But, in case assignment writing is your concern, look into  A to Z of assignment writing: everything you need to know about it  before you begin with it.

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Study Techniques for HSC Economics

Tuesday 9th, March 2021

Giuliana De Bellis

Learning Content and Making Notes

Depending on how you learn, will depend on how you should go about approaching content in Economics. Personally, I hand-wrote notes in class based on my teacher’s presentations. I would then type up my notes into a document. Once a week I would read through these notes and cut out any unnecessary information. Closer to exams, I would read through my notes side by side with the textbook and ATAR Notes book, ensuring I wasn’t missing any information or had unnecessary detail. I would also add in extra notes I had collected from the news and other relevant sources.

Personally, I used the previous edition of these notes to solidify my knowledge in Economics. I highlighted my hardcopy and handwrote extra notes from the book. For students who note-take in class, I would recommend using this book as a supplement. For students who prefer making notes before content is covered at school, or don’t take notes in class this book contains enough notes to cover the syllabus comprehensively. You may find supplementing this book with a textbook may enhance your understanding of Economics.

This method of note taking allowed me to revise content at the same time. When I typed my notes, I would revise content from that day, then compiling my notes allowed me to revise every week-month. Alongside my extended readings from the news and other resources, this allowed for a wholistic study of Economics, where I had a deep understanding of the course. Like I mentioned at the beginning of this book, understanding the content is much more important than (and actually helps with) memorisation!

Now, I learn easily from reading and writing so this method worked for me, however, it won’t work for all students! So, here are a list of techniques you could try out to learn content and make notes for Economics:

* Make mind maps on topics, including mini diagrams to help you remember link

* Watch YouTube videos explaining concepts (even if they aren’t HSC-focused!

* Watch the ATAR Notes Lecture series for Economics

* Make flashcards with definitions, key concepts and formulas

* Record yourself speaking your notes, and play it back on repeat

* Attempt practice questions and past exam papers

Revising Content

To revise on content before exams, I would print my final notes, highlight key components, and handwrite a condensed cheat-sheet like version. In this process, I would also speak my notes out loud, have someone test me on the content, or better still, have group study sessions where you revise the content and discuss theory with your friends. Group study sessions are a highly effective form of revision! Often, our memory associates content with events, funny moments, quirks or anything of interest – so group study sessions can often assist you with understanding and remembering difficult concepts.

Essay Plans

When it came to prepare for Trials and HSC, my preferred method of practicing applications of my knowledge was the creation of essay plans. By the HSC, I aimed to have essay prepared for each sub-topic, e.g. for each economic issue in topic 3. I found essay plans were the most efficient way of preparing for these larger exams, as they wouldn’t take longer than 20 minutes to create (shorter than writing an entire essay), but allowed me to organise theory and create links in my mind – effectively applying my understanding of the content. It also allowed me to recall case studies and statistics, and practice analysis – which are tricker components of economics study.

I would set out these essay plans in dot-point form. My introduction would be 2-3 dot points. Paragraphs would have a topic sentence-like title, with theory, links and examples below. My conclusions would also be around 2 dot points. All up, an essay plan might be around 1-2 pages. I preferred writing my essay plans on A3 paper so I could visually see the progression of my essay on one page.

Studying with essay plans effectively allows you to practice for short answer questions too (as these are often in a similar format to body paragraphs) and recall information tested in multiple choice questions, effectively minimising the time you need to study, and maximising the development of your Economics skills.

Practice Papers

Many students attempt practice papers before they understand content. In my opinion, this can be bad for motivation and confidence levels. If you are nearing an exam (contrary to popular opinions), I think it is more important to take a step back, ensure you understand all the theory being tested, and then focus on practicing and applying your knowledge. Going to practice questions will give you exposure to typical exam-style questions and will build up your analytical skill, but without a foundational knowledge of the content FIRST , your efforts will not be as effective.

Furthermore, you may identify topics of weakness you should prioritise practicing over others, saving you time. I also recommend students to have everything they practice be marked, for this reason you may wish to start by practicing essays and short answer questions in the lead up to an exam and getting feedback on those with enough time for you to apply this feedback. Multiple choice questions can be done closer to exams as they can be self-marked.

Truthfully, I spent much more time understanding content and writing essay plans than doing practice papers. But again, this was what worked for me – you may find you learn best through practical tasks, and practice papers may help you more.

In the lead up to the HSC, I found my weakness lied in multiple choice questions, so I spent most of my ‘practice time’ grinding past HSC and Trial multiple choice questions, rather than essays or short answer questions. The main piece of advice I can give is to focus on which skill (e.g. multiple choice, short answer or essay questions) and topic (e.g. inflation) you are the least confident in to practice. Start here, and work towards those topics you are more confident in. Although this may feel uncomfortable when studying, it will maximise the efficiency of your study and result in the greatest boost of marks possible, as you are improving upon your weakest areas.

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Evaluate the effectiveness of the RBA’s expansionary monetary policy in achieving economic objectives in the Australian economy. Intro: The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) use of expansionary monetary policy to countercyclically stimulate growth at a sustainable level has been moderately effective in the past. Monetary policy has successfully achieved the economic objectives of economic growth to a relatively high extent, maintaining low unemployment, inflation and a sustainable rate of economic growth through its Domestic Market Operations (DMOs) which influence the cash rate in the overnight money market. However, it has been unhelpful to the goal of maintaining a fair distribution of wealth and income whilst not being useful for the objective of external stability. In more recent years, as interest rates become increasingly low, expansionary monetary policy has diminished in its effectiveness, raising questions on the policy mix required to achieve economic objectives

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