If we told you there was a guaranteed way to increase your chances to really inflate (pun intended) your NCEA Economics exam grades, would you take it? Of course, you would! That’s where past papers come in. Whether you are just starting out in NCEA Economics Level 1, you are getting to know the ropes in NCEA Economics Level 2 or you’re getting ready to head into the big bad world after NCEA Economics Level 3, we’ve got you covered. Past papers have been proven time and time again to be one of the best ways to revise, apply your knowledge and take a little test drive on the road to success. Today, we’re going to get into the specific top tips, tricks and secrets on how to show your upcoming economics exams who’s boss. If you want to know what may come up in your economics exam or your scholarship exam, be sure to check out our articles before you give these methods a go. And finally, if you are looking for help on your economics internals, or how to revise before we get stuck into these past exams, we’ve got you covered as well.
Sitting your NCEA Economics Exam
We know, it seems like the easiest option to just kick back and half-heartedly read your notes, maybe highlight a page here and there for extra decoration, and hope it somehow sinks into your brain, right? Or maybe you’re happy to ramp up the effort, spending hours upon hours writing out entire answers to potential questions that may or may not come up and furiously memorizing them. While these techniques all definitely do have their place, there could be an easier and more effective way.
Markers are often looking for your ability to think on your feet and apply detailed knowledge to answer their carefully curated questions on the day. This can be a bit tricky if you’re not sure exactly what parts of your economics courses you remember or will have enough of a handle on to confidently answer once they come up in an exam situation. So, what now, you have to trawl through every single thing you’ve learned this year under so much time pressure? Not exactly.
A Shortcut for NCEA Economics Revision
Before you splay your books all over the dining table, let’s try something a little different for your NCEA Economics revision. First and foremost, you’ll need to recreate exam conditions. And yes, it’s important you get this task out of the way first, before even touching your revision notes. Hear us out. By putting yourself to the test before you start revising, you’ll get a better understanding of what you actually need to revise and what areas you can answer pretty confidently. So how exactly do we recreate these exam conditions?
First thing’s first, the phone has to go. Phone, laptop, IPad, Samsung Galaxy Tablet, the cat, whatever it is that is going to distract you has to be placed on the back burner for just this tiny one hour. It’ll be easy (and worth it), promise. Feel free to study at a library, or somewhere else, if your home isn’t the quietest. If you are able to, it always helps to print past exam papers out, which you can get from the NZQA website. If you’re unable to do this, no worries, just make sure you have some spare paper or refill to write your answers on. Though it sounds trivial, physically writing out your answers in sufficient detail within the given time period will be a skill you’re glad you mastered when the time comes to enter that exam room.
The icing on the cake, set a timer, or keep an eye on a nearby watch. The whole point of this is to train your brain to also start to formulate answers in that time period, so when it comes to the exam day, you’ll be able to put the majority of your focus on the exam itself without worrying so much about time running out. Ready, set, go, let’s rock and roll.
While you go through these exam papers, you may find it hard to answer some questions. Or, maybe you’re exhausted, have a million and two other things, or, tbh, you just really can’t be bothered. We bring to you, a solution. Jotting down a few rough notes or bullet points of whatever comes to mind is a lower effort, less time-consuming way of working around these hurdles. While it unfortunately will never be as good as if you were to practice writing the answers in full, it is the next best thing, especially if you are under a time crunch. Plus, at least it’ll get some intellectual juices flowing and give you a pretty good idea of what you are working with.
How Past Papers Help
Now you’ve given that a go, well done! Give yourself a pat on the back! You deserve it. So, you’ll most likely have a better understanding of your grasp of the concepts now. What about those pesky areas that still need a bit of work? Now, it’s time to go over the course material. First, we do recommend going through what you have studied that may be examinable through the year. A read-through of material while making sure you understand it is fine, or you may want to make summary notes, flashcards or record yourself reading these out on your phone and play these back to yourself as you do other activities – whatever works for you. If you want some help on how exactly to revise, our NCEA Economics study guide may come in handy. Now, grab a different colour pen (or highlighter – yes, it’s finally time!) and get that past paper back in front of you again. Time to start beefing up your original answers (with that different coloured pen) with the assistance of your notes, so you can see what you already know, and what you could benefit from revising a little.
So how did you do? Here is one way to be able to tell yourself! Grab the assessment schedule (or model answers). It’s compare and contrast time! One of the huge benefits of marking your own work (besides the obvious, knowing how your answer stacks up), is you start to learn exactly what the markers are looking for, and slowly will start to tailor your answers according to this! You may also want to start noting down what Excellence exemplars did that you didn’t quite get down this time. By physically adding commentary like your markers would, you’re essentially training your brain to revisit these routes during your next attempt.
As you become more of an ace whizzing through these past papers, you’ll start to observe some common themes that begin to emerge in these exams. If you look at these through the most recent exams, you will start to see there are a few bad boys that always continue to crop up in all externals. While we, unfortunately, cannot make any guarantees regarding what will come up or not, we can say that it is well worth your time to focus on the questions that do often arise, with there being is a high likelihood that these will come up again.
This leads us to our next point. Rather than how the question is framed, look at what the question is asking instead. This basically means, what economic concept are you being examined on? Focus on understanding the concepts for revision purposes as well, rather than being too worried about what the exact exam question is asking itself. Of course, when you do head into your exam (and even when you do practice exams), you will be required to answer the specific question at hand. However, focusing on the economic concepts themselves will make sure you are able to apply this knowledge to whatever form the question at hand comes in!
Bonus Tips and Tricks
Once you’re done, it can be tempting to toss your study material aside for the night, kick your feet up and chuck on the latest show of whatever is good on Netflix. However, take a couple of seconds before you sign off for the day to read over what you have just done in preparation for your Economics NCEA exams. Trust us, your future self with thank you. The rationale here is that you will begin to understand what you did well, which areas could use a little improvement, and how exactly you improved in these areas as well through your expert harnessing of the assessment schedule as well as the model answers.
Reading over your adapted carefully crafted answers in past papers once you have done a couple serves as the perfect economics revision material as well. If you really want to go in all guns blazing, go through this entire process, and once you feel like you are ready, recreate those exam conditions again. Look at how much you’ve improved since your first attempt! You’re really ready now. Even we’re impressed.
Superprofs
But wait, what happens if you still have questions on how to best revise what you have learned through the year if you’re marking yourself fairly according to the assessment schedule or you’re just not achieving the standard you know you’re capable of? That’s where we come in. Here at Superprofs, we have a whole team of experienced, knowledgeable and friendly tutors whose sole purpose is to help you achieve the best you can. Book in to get a head start now.
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