mreditor16
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- Joined
- Apr 4, 2014
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- HSC
- 2014
A State Ranker's Guide to Economics (Part 1)
Introduction
So, after requests from some BOSers (e.g. enigma_1 and hawkrider) for a guide to Economics to be written by me, I have succumbed to their request. Haha And, also, before I begin, it has been many months since I did Economics, so if there are many mistakes, please point them out. And feedback and questions on anything related to what I say or economics in general will be most appreciated.
First of all, for those who may ask, my credentials. I completed HSC Economics in 2013 (note – I accelerated it, and finishing my remaining HSC subjects in 2014). I got 97 overall (giving me a state rank yay!) – with an internal of 94 and an external of 99 (which was a raw mark of 98).
Now, from this, leads to one quick (I hope) point, which I like to emphasise and is also relevant for a lot of other subjects. Keep attention to the weightings of each school assessment you have and how much losing one mark in each assessment will be of an impact, and keep that in mind when you approach your studies. For example, let’s look at what happened to me:
So I had four assessments:
• A Case Study Task – worth 25%
o This involved researching your case study country, finding latest statistics on them, and being able to bring in one page of stats to a 40 minute exam, and then writing an extended response to a case study essay question given on the day, with the assistance of the one page statistics sheet you brought into the exam.
• Half-Yearly – worth 20%
• Research Task – worth 25%
o This involved learning and researching two chapters from Topic 3 (Economic Issues) – Unemployment and Distribution of Income & Wealth. All statistics had to be revised and updated. Then, the content of these chapters would be tested in two short-answer questions.
• Trial – worth 30%
Now, that may look fine and rightly balanced. But think again:
• Case Study = 25% weighting = out of 20 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 1.25 overall marks
• Half-Yearly = 20% weighting = out of 70 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 0.29 overall marks
• Research Task = 25% weighting = out of 20 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 1.25 overall marks
• Trial = 30% weighting = out of 100 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 0.3 overall marks
Now just look at that. Doing bad in that Case Study and Research Task makes a massive massive difference, and performing poorly in those two assessments are hard to bounce back from.
In the first assessment, I approached it wrongly, and got 16/20 – below the average of just over 16. I did very well in three other assessments (top or very close to every time), BUT I could not make up for that loss I had made up at the beginning. And I ended up ranked 7th after all internal assessments, meaning I was allotted a moderated internal of 94. If I had done even a few marks better in the first one (e.g. 18), I would have easily got 1st in the school for internals, thus receiving my external mark of 99 as my internal, and thus coming 1st in the state.
So what I’m trying to say there is every assessment counts and when you approach each assessment (especially in regard to time management), keep in mind the weighting of each task, what each task is out of – and hence the impact of each assessment on your marks and thus internal rank. This applies to every subject, and as you can see what happened with me, two marks in one assessment was the difference between 94 internal & 97 overall vs. 99 internal and 99 overall. So every mark does count.
So let’s see what I did wrong with the first assessment (and what you can learn from it) and this will lead into my actual tips for Economics.
Introduction
So, after requests from some BOSers (e.g. enigma_1 and hawkrider) for a guide to Economics to be written by me, I have succumbed to their request. Haha And, also, before I begin, it has been many months since I did Economics, so if there are many mistakes, please point them out. And feedback and questions on anything related to what I say or economics in general will be most appreciated.
First of all, for those who may ask, my credentials. I completed HSC Economics in 2013 (note – I accelerated it, and finishing my remaining HSC subjects in 2014). I got 97 overall (giving me a state rank yay!) – with an internal of 94 and an external of 99 (which was a raw mark of 98).
Now, from this, leads to one quick (I hope) point, which I like to emphasise and is also relevant for a lot of other subjects. Keep attention to the weightings of each school assessment you have and how much losing one mark in each assessment will be of an impact, and keep that in mind when you approach your studies. For example, let’s look at what happened to me:
So I had four assessments:
• A Case Study Task – worth 25%
o This involved researching your case study country, finding latest statistics on them, and being able to bring in one page of stats to a 40 minute exam, and then writing an extended response to a case study essay question given on the day, with the assistance of the one page statistics sheet you brought into the exam.
• Half-Yearly – worth 20%
• Research Task – worth 25%
o This involved learning and researching two chapters from Topic 3 (Economic Issues) – Unemployment and Distribution of Income & Wealth. All statistics had to be revised and updated. Then, the content of these chapters would be tested in two short-answer questions.
• Trial – worth 30%
Now, that may look fine and rightly balanced. But think again:
• Case Study = 25% weighting = out of 20 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 1.25 overall marks
• Half-Yearly = 20% weighting = out of 70 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 0.29 overall marks
• Research Task = 25% weighting = out of 20 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 1.25 overall marks
• Trial = 30% weighting = out of 100 marks thus, every mark that you lose is 0.3 overall marks
Now just look at that. Doing bad in that Case Study and Research Task makes a massive massive difference, and performing poorly in those two assessments are hard to bounce back from.
In the first assessment, I approached it wrongly, and got 16/20 – below the average of just over 16. I did very well in three other assessments (top or very close to every time), BUT I could not make up for that loss I had made up at the beginning. And I ended up ranked 7th after all internal assessments, meaning I was allotted a moderated internal of 94. If I had done even a few marks better in the first one (e.g. 18), I would have easily got 1st in the school for internals, thus receiving my external mark of 99 as my internal, and thus coming 1st in the state.
So what I’m trying to say there is every assessment counts and when you approach each assessment (especially in regard to time management), keep in mind the weighting of each task, what each task is out of – and hence the impact of each assessment on your marks and thus internal rank. This applies to every subject, and as you can see what happened with me, two marks in one assessment was the difference between 94 internal & 97 overall vs. 99 internal and 99 overall. So every mark does count.
So let’s see what I did wrong with the first assessment (and what you can learn from it) and this will lead into my actual tips for Economics.
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