- Ib Economics Paper 1 Model Answers
- Ib Economics Paper 1 Sample Answer
- Ib Economics Paper 1 Sample Answers 2019
Ib Economics Paper 1 Sample Answers Pdf. Taking the IB Economics exam will be nerve-wracking no matter what. However, taking practice tests with past papers beforehand will be a huge advantage since you'll know the test format and be. IB Past Papers ibresources.org is a student-led initiative to list and rank the top online IB. IB Economics SL Paper 1—1 hour 15 minutes. IB Economics SL Paper 2—1 hour 45 minutes. IB Economics HL. IB Economics HL Paper 1—1 hour 15 minutes. IB Economics HL Paper 2—1 hour 45 minutes. IB Economics HL Paper 3—1 hour 45 minutes. In this time frame, you need to finish: IB Economics SL. SL Paper 1: Choose and answer one of three.
Paper 3 Practice Exam Questions (Ellie Tragakes) Economics for the IB Diploma (Ellie Tragakes) answers for quantitative exercises: Microeconomics (Chapter 1-7)- Answers Macroeconomics (Chapter 8-12)- Answers International Trade (Chapter 13-15)- Answers IB Economics- Practice Questions for Paper 3 How to answer a 10 Mark Question for Paper 1. Tips for writing IB economics paper 1 All questions on the paper are divided into two parts. Part (a) is worth 10 marks and part (b)15 marks. Remember that you will get five minutes reading time before you can start writing. This is gives you an ideal.
So this article will serve as a kind of extension to a previous article I wrote which you can access through this link.
Economics. Boring to study (debatable). Very useful later in life. Today we’re focusing on IB Economics Paper 1 tips. This is gonna be more technique based.
As with all the techniques I’ve been posting about up until now, you want to make sure that you know your content fairly well enough.
If you’re going to do well for Econ, you DEFINITELY need to know your stuff before you walk into that exam. Now, let me just say that the IB Economics Paper 1 exam is A LOT easier if you have a method for doing it.
The advice I’m going to share today entirely revolves around your structure first. We’ll get into the analysis part at a later stage. So let’s get into it.
Structure/Plan Of Action
Planning is a general theme to pretty much all my articles. There will be no exception for this IB economics paper 1 tips article. Planning is key and I know it’s a cliché to say this but when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Simple as that.
Don’t worry too much about that though. This is a pretty simple structure to follow so you won’t need to worry too much. It’s not very technical. Pretty much “IB Economics Paper One For Dummies” if you know what I’m sayin’.
So. How should you go about planning? With this, fool proof, examiner-friendly acronym that I credit my former Economics teacher for brining to our attention. It’s called DEED in the case of the 10 mark question and DEEDE in the case of the 15 mark question.
“Ok. Great. Fantastic. Stupendous, Rhys. Yeah I TOTALLY get what the acronym is supposed to mean”
Whoa calm down not so fast. I’m not done explaining it yet.
So What’s DEED and DEEDE Stand For?
First of all, I have to clarify that you use DEED for the 10 mark questions only. This is because for the 15 mark question, you need to add an evaluation. DEED basically stands for this:
D – Definitions
E – Explanation
E – Examples
D – Diagram
And since you know the 15 mark question needs to include and evaluation part to it, you know the final E in DEEDE is going to be:
E – Evaluation
Now you’re going to want to remember this acronym for the test and format your answer entirely around that format. Trust me. It’s foolproof if you’ve nailed your analytical writing.
So how would you go about answering a 10 mark question using the DEED format? For this, we’re going to look at an example from an actual past paper (Please don’t sue me IBO if you’re reading this)
This is the Microeconomics Question from the IB Economics November Past Paper:
For 10 marks:
“Explain why a government might decide to impose an indirect tax on the consumption of cigarettes”
For 15 marks:
“Discuss the possible consequences of the imposition of an indirect tax on cigarettes for the different stakeholders in the market”
We’re going to break down these two questions with the handy IB Economics paper tips I have in mind in the next two sections.
How To Structure Your 10 Mark Questions – IB Economics Paper 1 Tips
So remember DEED? Yeah. We’re gonna apply it now so don’t get TOO excited.
Definitions
Let’s start off with the easiest one (assuming you’ve done your content revision well). This is the part where you define all the theories or economic terms that you’ll be writing about.
So in the 10 mark question above, you may choose to define what an indirect tax is and also what demerit goods are (because cigarettes are demerit goods). Simple as that. Two definitions defined. Next.
Explanation
You could also write your example here if you wanted. It doesn’t really matter which route you take. So long as you’re clear, your answer flows well, and your explanation and examples are good obviously.
For the explanation, you’d have to get analytical and explain the theory of a government implementing an indirect tax on cigarettes. So how does the theory work? How does implementing an indirect tax help a government raise revenue and reduce the overall consumption of cigarettes?
That’s basically what the explaining part is about. Explaining the theory, how it works, what it’s affects are and potential flaws (you don’t actually need to mention the disadvantages of the theory unless it’s a 15 mark question).
Example
In this part of your answer, you need to basically give an example supporting your explanation and the theory you used. It can be a real life example that you know of or you could make up a hypothetical one .So you could basically go:
“For example, the government of country Y decided to implement an indirect tax on cigarettes to reduce the negative effects of passive smoking on non-smokers. As a result….”
That’s probably not such a good example. You should check with your teachers about it but yeah. That’s the general gist of how you would approach the example stage of your 10 markers. Remember. It doesn’t need to be a real world example. It can be hypothetical but you have to explain it well.
Diagrams
This is probably the easier part of the entire 10 marker. You could get some very easy marks, I’m talking 2 or 3 marks even, for drawing the diagram correctly, labelling the diagram correctly, and titling it correctly.
Points for diagrams are literally the easiest marks you can get in the IB Economics Exams. Trust me. It’s so easy to pick up marks here that you BETTER remember to include them. I know I’m blabbing on about their importance but let’s take a look at a markscheme shall we?
Now before I get into anymore detail, let’s PRAY my site doesn’t get flagged by the IBO for just giving you a sneak peek at a markscheme…
So. Notice anything different between boundaries 2 and 3?
No? Look again. It clearly says “Where appropriate, diagrams are included”. Same goes for boundary 4. You see how hard it’s going to be for an examiner to give you a mark higher than a 6 if you don’t include a diagram?
See why that’s important? 4 marks. Poof. Gone. Include your diagrams folks because it’ll make all the difference. You could have the best theory and explanations and still land a 6 instead of a 10. Diagrams are easy marks unless you forget to include them.
So. Moving on to the 15 marker.
How To Structure Your 15 Mark Questions – IB Economics Paper 1 Tips
This time we’re adding that extra E to DEED. Let’s get right into it. Here’s the question in case you forgot:
“Discuss the possible consequences of the imposition of an indirect tax on cigarettes for the different stakeholders in the market”
Definitions
Looks like indirect tax comes up again as a possible term to define. Guess what though? No worries! All you gotta do is say “Please refer to part a) for the definition of an indirect tax.” Bam. Done. Moving on.
You can move on to the next definition which is likely ‘stakeholders’ or ‘the market’. Before we move on let’s just clear things up. You don’t need to define a term that’s already been defined in the 10 marker.
You can just refer the examiner to the same definition. Gives you more time to spend on everything else (by the way we’re going to get into time management after this 15 mark section don’t worry).
Explanation
This is where you use that thing in your skull called a brain to really impress your examiners. Keep in mind examiners mark you based on how relevant your answer is to the question. SO. Your theory has to revolve around the question.
Basically you have to ask yourself “Ok so it’s asking for possible consequences on stakeholders in the market…Right so I have to think about how the indirect tax affects different stakeholders”
In these cases, it’s always good to include 3 stakeholders to really show off your writing skillzzzz. So for example in this question, the three that you would pick that would make sense would be the government, consumers, and producers of cigarettes.
Ib Economics Paper 1 Model Answers
Your explanation revolves around telling the examiner how the indirect tax affects all three stakeholders.
Example
Like earlier, you gotta include your examples. They can be hypothetical or real life examples that have to essentially indicate the effects of the theory you just explained in real life.
So in this case, off the top of my head, you could go:
“The government of country Z for example decided to implement indirect taxes on alcohol. While the end result was an increase in revenue, the addictive nature of alcohol meant that country Z was unable to lower consumption for the demerit good” (In this example I’m just gonna assume demerit good was define earlier)
Probably a crap example but you get the idea.
Diagrams
Now remember children. You should never ever miss skip your daily dose of healthy diagrams or the big bad examiner will tell you off and you’ll fail your exam and you’ll fail your subject and you’ll fail IB and end up homeless and poor and starving and, and, and….. Need I say more? 😀
Ok so I’m gonna assume most of you rolled your eyes at that one. Hey man. Just so you know, I do try to make these posts as unboring as possible. Yeah I know unboring isn’t a word but I’m using it. Sue me 🙂
RIGHT enough crappy comedy. Diagrams, easy marks, draw them correctly and you’ll be alright. You get the picture. Moving on.
Evaluation
Here we go ladies and gents. The final frontier for the economics paper. Evaluation is probably what chokes up a lot of IB Economics students. For the 15 mark questions, this part makes all the difference between a 6 and a 7.
So how do we approach this? Well look at the question again:
“Discuss the possible consequences of the imposition of an indirect tax on cigarettes for the different stakeholders in the market”
It’s not asking for an evaluation that goes “In conclusion, this theory creates revenue, reduces consumption and..” NO. DO NOT go down that path. LOOK at the question again. It says “Discuss” and “Possible consequences”.
Get it yet? It’s asking for a discussion where you compare the advantages and disadvantages. If you took another route and didn’t use advantages vs. disadvantages, then a discussion with the points you wrote.
Essentially your evaluation should look more like this:
“In relation to the consequences, producers and consumers see to lose more with this indirect tax as consumers will pay more for goods that were previously cheaper and cigarette manufacturers may see a decrease in demand for their product.
Alternatively, the consequences of cigarette consumption towards society in the form of passive smoking and health problems may remain as smokers may not react to the indirect tax as cigarettes are addictive in nature.
On the other hand, the immediate benefits of an indirect tax are an increase of revenue for the government which could increase government spending on the economy.
A reduction in cigarette consumption could also lead to a reduction in negative externalities of consumption in the economy as there would be a reduction in passive smoking etc. etc.”
You get the idea.
Probably not the best answer in the world but that’s along the lines you should be writing. Use key words from the question to indicate to the examiner that you know your stuff. Also, you DO need a conclusion so you’ll need to pick, in this case, whether advantages beats disadvantages or the other way around. So it would be something like:
“Overall, upon further analysis, while it’s true that there are potential drawbacks to multiple consumers for the implementation of an indirect tax on cigarettes, there are also numerous more advantages to be considered which could benefit society and the government in the long run”
That’s basically how you would answer that.
Time Management
Ok, ok, ok I’m sorry. Look I know you’ve done a ton of reading already. Don’t worry. This part will be shorter BUT IT’S STILL IMPORTANT. So read on folks.
Bare with me now. We’re almost at the end of the post. This last part has to do with managing your time in the exam. It’s crucial so stick around.
You have an hour and a half for the exam both SL and HL. You want to be making sure you’re allocating your time efficiently.
Which question deserves more attention? The 15 marker obviously. So let’s break it down into manageable amount of information:
1 hour and 30 minutes
45 minutes per question
Since the 15 marker deserves more attention, you need to give more time to it. Depending on how fast you write, you could split it into a 15 minute and 30 minute arrangement; 15 minutes for the 10 marker and 30 minutes for the 15 marker.
Personally, I was taught to allocate 17 or 18 minutes to writing the 10 marker and 28 or 27 minutes for the 15 marker. Either way you do it, make sure you’re arranging more time for the 15 marker. Also take into account reading time of 5 minutes.
Do a lot of practice before walking into that test. It’s a monumental help. Also, just as an FYI. Make your diagrams BIG and BEAUTIFUL. Ok not beautiful but just make them big. Bigger diagrams are easier to read, mark, and are generally more appealing to the eye, especially for an overworked examiner who’s got like 30 other papers to mark.
***IMPORTANT***
I may not have mentioned it explicitly with the other IB Economics paper 1 tips but I will now.
MAKE SURE that you make references to the information given to you. It’s not mandatory because you’re essentially referring to the information given to you on the paper but it’s good practice to explicitly reference of cite the info from time to time. This is applicable to both the 10 mark question and 15 mark question
Looking for some more studying tips? Here are some general, but effective, ones!
Ah yes Economics Paper 1. If you’re an Economics student, either SL or HL, you’ll know that it can be tough to score enough marks to get into those higher grade boundaries. So if that’s exactly how you’re feeling, fear not. There are ways you can score higher marks.
In this article I’m going to cover the following points:
- What DEED/DEEDE stands for
- Using DEED/DEEDE
- Practice makes perfect
- Getting your teacher’s help
You can also check out my other article on the Economics Internal Assessment to see how DEED is used there if you’re interested.
So let’s get into. Just how DO you nail Economics Paper 1?
What does DEED/DEEDE Stand For?
If you haven’t read my Econ IA then I’ll catch you up to speed real quick. If you have read it then you can skip to the “Practice Makes Perfect” section.
Now, for those of you who are new to the acronym, DEED or DEEDE, here’s what they mean:
D – Define
E – Example(s)
E – Explain
D – Diagram(s)
As for the other one, DEEDE is basically all of the above with the inclusion of the extra ‘E’ which stands for Evaluation because that’s essentially what the extra 5 marks are in the 15 mark questions.
Just to be clear, you can mix it up if you like. When you answer your 10/15 mark questions in Economics Paper 1, you don’t necessarily need to follow the DEED format. You can put your explanations before examples or define your terms at the very end. As long as it has a good flow that examiners can follow. That’s the important part.
DEED and DEEDE are checklists for what your answer need to contain.
Using DEED/DEEDE In Economics Paper 1
‘Define’ means you need to define the terms you’re going to use in your answer. For example, if you were going to mention terms like ‘opportunity cost’ or ‘demand/supply’, you would need to define what these mean.
You need to remember that when you write Paper 1, you need to do so as if you’re explaining to someone who’s never ever studied Economics before.
‘Example(s)’ means you should give either real life examples or hypothetical situations. So for example (pun not intended), you could write something like:
“The opportunity cost for the government of country X in lowering income taxes on consumers could be reduced government spending as the government receives some of it’s revenue from taxes”
‘Explain’ means you need to elaborate on the theory in your answer. For example, let’s take a look at 10 marker from the November 2015 HL Economics Paper 1:
Explain why a government might decide to impose an indirect tax on the consumption of cigarettes
In this instance, the ‘Explain’ part of your answer would include mentioning things like increasing government spending and reducing consumption of cigarettes since they’re demerit goods. Remember that you should be writing as though you were explaining to someone with no knowledge in Economics.
So for example, a sample response might be:
“A government may impose indirect taxes to increase government revenue and therefore increase government spending, which could benefit the economy. It might also impose indirect taxes to discourage smoking and subsequent passive smoking, both of which are health risks to consumers.”
Something like that.
Ib Economics Paper 1 Sample Answer
The ‘Diagrams’ part is pretty self-explanatory. Depending on the question, you will need to draw an appropriate graph to go with your answer. For full marks, you need to focus on the details such as correct labelling and clarity so make sure to make the diagrams large.
As for the ‘Evaluation’ part of DEEDE, this is where you’re essentially doing a ‘advantages vs. disadvantages’ assessment. Be careful though. It’s not a simple as it sounds.
A question might ask you to ‘Discuss’, ‘Evaluate’, or any other relevant term. So you’ll need to be careful with how you word your answer so that’s it’s NOT just a blunt list of pros and cons that doesn’t sound like it’s answering the question at all.
Also be aware that the ‘Evaluation’ part is ONLY for the 15 mark questions in your Economics Paper 1.
For example, the 15 mark question following the 10 mark question before is the following:
Discuss the possible consequences of the imposition of an indirect tax on cigarettes for the different stakeholders in the market
Your response might look a little something like this. Remember that ‘Discuss’ is the keyword so make it sound like you’re discussing:
“The consequences of the imposition of such a tax will likely fall on producers and consumers of cigarettes. Producers will lose out as demand for their product will fall as a result of higher prices due to the tax. Consumers may also lose out because cigarettes are addictive and so may choose to continue paying higher prices.
On the other hand, the government may benefit as government revenue might increase leading to increased government spending, which would also benefit the economy. Second hand or passive smoking by consumers who don’t smoke could also decrease as a result of the tax which. Additionally, some smokers my be discouraged from the higher prices and could quit smoking completely”
Whether the above sample response is any good is up for debate but the point of me writing it is for you to get an idea of how you could format your answers.
Practice Makes Perfect
Oh wait you thought this was going to be simple? Nah. Sorry to disappoint but 90% of whatever grade you’re eventually going to get is going to come from practice.
That applies to pretty much all your subjects when it comes to exams. Economics Paper 1 is definitely something you’re going to have to do a lot of practice runs on so get a chunky stack of blank paper out and prepare for some long, arduous hours of work.
Try to prioritize polishing up your 15 markers. You’re pretty much getting a 2 for 1 deal since 15 markers are basically 10 mark questions plus an evaluation.
Since you’ve got an hour and 30 minutes for your exam and you need to answer two 10 mark questions as well as two 15 mark question, you need to use your time efficiently.
That’s 45 minutes per pair of questions. Remember, your 15 mark questions usually take more time so make sure to give more time for those.
A combo that worked for me was spending 18 minutes on the 10 marker and 27 minutes on the 15 marker. You can organize your own time however you like but try timing yourself when practicing. Your performance under pressure is key to a good answer.
Teacher’s Feedback
If possible, try to get some feedback from your teachers. They are immensely helpful for your Economics Paper 1 practice. They can spot areas that need improvement and what you’re doing well.
Even sending one or two over could give you a good idea of where you need to work on. Even if the feedback is harsh, take advantage of it. There can be some brutal teachers but trust me, they’re doing it for your own good. The harsher, the better. You kind of need that brutality.
Anyway I digress. The bottomline here is that any and all feedback is good feedback. Especially from teachers.
Ib Economics Paper 1 Sample Answers 2019
I wrote another article that kind of acts as an extension to this one. It has the same past paper questions but I go more in depth with DEED/DEEDE and long answer response structuring. Here’s the link.