** Economics 2014 - All levels - predictions, discussion **

Smash The House

Anyone find the SAQ a bit easy? I managed to answer all of them, they're probably not all right but still.

Didn't like the look of the land question.
imperfect and oligopoly was nice.

Don't know what grade I'll get, kinda hard to know

a0ifee

Just realised in my macklemore (:P) market supply & demand curve I don't think I put that P1 was 65 and that Q1 was 80.000 on my diagram...I mentioned it in my explanation will I lose a lot do you think?

I had to speed through it so I'm worried I forgot stupid things

Silver Sniper

a0ifee wrote: »

Just realised in my macklemore (:P) market supply & demand curve I don't think I put that P1 was 65 and that Q1 was 80.000 on my diagram...I mentioned it in my explanation will I lose a lot do you think?

I had to speed through it so I'm worried I forgot stupid things

I did that too.. Hope we don't lost too many marks

mcratsix

I thought the short answer qs were actually the hardest part of the paper. The elasticity and market q were very easy. In the land q, I think the bit that asked what the firm should consider before deciding to locate within Ireland might have caught some people out. Since it was within Ireland, you couldn't really use our low corporate tax rate or our membership of the EU or the fact that we use the euro and speak english, coz all of Ireland has these things obviously. Other than that the paper was fine, the NI q was nice, lots of easy calculations. Overall, I think this paper was easier than last year but I don't see why people think it'll be marked so hard. If you give correct examples and drew the right graphs etc, they csnt just take marks off for no reason.

thelad95

The cushiest paper in a long long time. Dare I say it, it was suited to people with good bullshítting skills. Happy enough though, disappointed with the lack of Trade on the paper. The SQ's compared to last year were very accessible to everyone I think. What is their obsession with Macklemore? Thrift Shop last year and Demand/Supply this year..? :rolleyes:

a0ifee

mcratsix wrote: »

I don't see why people think it'll be marked so hard. If you give correct examples and drew the right graphs etc, they csnt just take marks off for no reason.

it's paranoia :P

thelad95

mcratsix wrote: »

I don't see why people think it'll be marked so hard. If you give correct examples and drew the right graphs etc, they csnt just take marks off for no reason.

MightyMandarin

mcratsix wrote: »

I think this paper was easier than last year but I don't see why people think it'll be marked so hard. If you give correct examples and drew the right graphs etc, they csnt just take marks off for no reason.

The A1 rate was <2% last year, mostly due to the hard paper. This year's paper was a lot easier, meaning that in theory the A rate should rise too. But the new course and the politics of it all, will stop the A1 rate going a lot higher than last year. You may think they can't take marks off for no reason, but my Economics teacher used to correct exams and told us, in his first year, his A rate was too high, but he had corrected according to the marking scheme, his superior told him to dock 10 marks for those who didn't underline points in red pen or if the work wasn't neat. They'll find places to dock marks, even if it's one word wrong in a definition, unfortunately. We fit the bell curve, the bell curve doesn't fit us, it's just the way it is.

thelad95

MightyMandarin wrote: »

The A1 rate was <2% last year, mostly due to the hard paper. This year's paper was a lot easier, meaning that in theory the A rate should rise too. But the new course and the politics of it all, will stop the A1 rate going a lot higher than last year. You may think they can't take marks off for no reason, but my Economics teacher used to correct exams and told us, in his first year, his A rate was too high, but he had corrected according to the marking scheme, his superior told him to dock 10 marks for those who didn't underline points in red pen or if the work wasn't neat. They'll find places to dock marks, even if it's one word wrong in a definition, unfortunately. We fit the bell curve, the bell curve doesn't fit us, it's just the way it is.

While neatness and definitions being wrong will definitely warrant losing marks, they're not this cruel.

That was the kind of paper that will see a lot of A's. I remember in 2012 (an easy paper as well), many people came out thinking they had A1's in the bag and ended up with B1's and B2's. Unfortunately you are not just marked on your own merits but the merits of others. However, I have an interesting little stat. I could be wrong but according to my Biology teacher who has been correcting papers for the last 30 years, re-check results fall outside the bell-curve, so if you were entitled to an A, but lost marks for something stupid to fit the bell-curve, you may get your A back if you get it re-corrected. I could be wrong though.

jazz101

JackH14 wrote: »

Did Anyone do Q8?

For (a) I said that government budget deficit increases national debt as national debt is made up of many years of budget deficit. It was worth 20 marks and I expanded, but I could not think of 4 strong points. Just wondering what everyone else wrote.

I had that q as well, hardest one I attempted on the paper. I said that a budget deficit increases the national debt as loans have to be taken to support this new budget, and the cost of repaying the national debt increases due to interest repayments incurred with the new loans. It was my worst question though so I'm not even sure if that's right.

mcratsix

I know there's a bell curve but that just punishes people who's examples were a bit irrelevant, or if you didn't answer the question. Say in National Income, if you get your MPC calculation right, they can't just say it's wrong for no reason.

thelad95

mcratsix wrote: »

I know there's a bell curve but that just punishes people who's examples were a bit irrelevant, or if you didn't answer the question. Say in National Income, if you get your MPC calculation right, they can't just say it's wrong for no reason.

Absolutely you're right but they can certainly find ways elsewhere. For example the question on MNC's. Any reasonable point could get marks but if they have too many A's the you might only get 2 or 3 marks for a point not on the Marking Scheme.

kev44

Oh when the euro is appreciating in value is it increasing or decreasing in relation to the dollar?

matthew8

kev44 wrote: »

Oh when the euro is appreciating in value is it increasing or decreasing in relation to the dollar?

Increasing in value. You'd have been correct to say imports would increase and exports would fall since Irish goods lost competitiveness.

jazz101

Can anyone explain to me how Section A is worth 100 marks even though there are only 6 questions worth 16, and a few worth 17 marks each actually going for it?

Say your questions answered don't add up to 100 even though you got them all right, do they bump it up?

jazz101

Also, what market structure did you guys compare Lidl/Aldi and them too? I said Oligopoly. I assume it doesn't matter if you can back it up right?

matthew8

jazz101 wrote: »

Also, what market structure did you guys compare Lidl/Aldi and them too? I said Oligopoly. I assume it doesn't matter if you can back it up right?

It's been asked before and it's oligopoly although if you take it from a local point of view it can be imperfect competition. I don't think you get much at all if you get the first part wrong.

paddybarry

jazz101 wrote: »

Can anyone explain to me how Section A is worth 100 marks even though there are only 6 questions worth 16, and a few worth 17 marks each actually going for it?

Say your questions answered don't add up to 100 even though you got them all right, do they bump it up?

4*17=68 marks + 2*16=32 marks, which gives a total of 100 marks. If you fail to answer one of the four '17 mark' questions you drop a mark.

jazz101

matthew8 wrote: »

It's been asked before and it's oligopoly although if you take it from a local point of view it can be imperfect competition. I don't think you get much at all if you get the first part wrong.

Lovely stuff, thanks.

paddybarry wrote: »

4*17=68 marks + 2*16=32 marks, which gives a total of 100 marks. If you fail to answer one of the four '17 mark' questions you drop a mark.

Thanks. I studied it myself so I didn't know about that, luckily looking at the paper on examinations.ie I answered one of them by chance.

Silver Sniper

MightyMandarin wrote: »

The A1 rate was <2% last year, mostly due to the hard paper. This year's paper was a lot easier, meaning that in theory the A rate should rise too. But the new course and the politics of it all, will stop the A1 rate going a lot higher than last year. You may think they can't take marks off for no reason, but my Economics teacher used to correct exams and told us, in his first year, his A rate was too high, but he had corrected according to the marking scheme, his superior told him to dock 10 marks for those who didn't underline points in red pen or if the work wasn't neat. They'll find places to dock marks, even if it's one word wrong in a definition, unfortunately. We fit the bell curve, the bell curve doesn't fit us, it's just the way it is.

UH OH i have the most messy handwriting ever...

mcratsix

thelad95 wrote: »

Absolutely you're right but they can certainly find ways elsewhere. For example the question on MNC's. Any reasonable point could get marks but if they have too many A's the you might only get 2 or 3 marks for a point not on the Marking Scheme.

Ya I accept that, even though the system isn't really fair. Like let's say your paper deserves an a1, but yours is the last paper in a big pile, and if you're given an A1 then 10% of that markers papers will have got A1s, the marker will just take marks off to make it into an a2 to suit the bell curve, regardless of the papers merits. I dunno Ted.

paddybarry

Don't panic about marking schemes. If you are disappointed with the grade you receive, simply view the paper, compare it to marking scheme and if you feel that you were unfairly marked down, get it rechecked.

The system is very transparent. Ultimately, you will get the grade your paper deserves.

randylonghorn

MightyMandarin wrote: »

You may think they can't take marks off for no reason, but my Economics teacher used to correct exams and told us, in his first year, his A rate was too high, but he had corrected according to the marking scheme, his superior told him to dock 10 marks for those who didn't underline points in red pen or if the work wasn't neat. They'll find places to dock marks, even if it's one word wrong in a definition, unfortunately.

Ok, I find that difficult to believe (not saying you're fibbing Mandarin, but if your teacher genuinely had a supervising examiner who said that, he should have been contacting the ACE for the subject).

Yes, they can certainly get nit-picky about technicalities if students found the paper straightforward and a lot of them are scoring in the highest ranges, but "dock 'em if they didn't underline points in red pen!" just doesn't happen. Maybe 40 years ago ... how old is your teacher?! :pac:

MightyMandarin

randylonghorn wrote: »

Ok, I find that difficult to believe (not saying you're fibbing Mandarin, but if your teacher genuinely had a supervising examiner who said that, he should have been contacting the ACE for the subject).

Yes, they can certainly get nit-picky about technicalities if students found the paper straightforward and a lot of them are scoring in the highest ranges, but "dock 'em if they didn't underline points in red pen!" just doesn't happen. Maybe 40 years ago ... how old is your teacher?! :pac:

Mid-to late 20's, I say he exaggerated the red-pen thing a bit, but he warned us (particularly those going for A1s) that you should underline headings in red pen and skip a line between points etc. because if it comes down to ~10marks, those are the type of things which examiners will use to dock marks. It applied more to me at the time, especially after the mocks where I got an A1, but did nothing of the above and he said examiners would look at my paper to try to fit it to the bellcurve, ie bring me down to an A2 or less. Maybe it was a bit of scare mongering (it worked), but the meaning behind it was more or less true.

thelad95

I don't get people's obsession with neatness in exams. I did the exams last year with someone who ruled the margin on each page. The about of time wasted!!

matthew8

MightyMandarin wrote: »

Mid-to late 20's, I say he exaggerated the red-pen thing a bit, but he warned us (particularly those going for A1s) that you should underline headings in red pen and skip a line between points etc. because if it comes down to ~10marks, those are the type of things which examiners will use to dock marks. It applied more to me at the time, especially after the mocks where I got an A1, but did nothing of the above and he said examiners would look at my paper to try to fit it to the bellcurve, ie bring me down to an A2 or less. Maybe it was a bit of scare mongering (it worked), but the meaning behind it was more or less true.

That sounds like scaremongering. People talk about the bell curve, but it's not like they made a special effort last year to fill a quota of A1s so they mightn't be too strict, although I doubt they'd be happy with more than 6%. Even so, the short questions this year were a bit broad so if they want to interpret things differently that's a spot they can definitely do it.

By the way, what did people get for outcomes as a result of Ireland leaving the bailout? I guessed increased investment and increased GNP but when I looked up the outcomes from leaving the bailout all I found was articles on how the exit was merely symbolic and did not mean anything in particular :pac:

mcratsix

matthew8 wrote: »

By the way, what did people get for outcomes as a result of Ireland leaving the bailout? I guessed increased investment and increased GNP but when I looked up the outcomes from leaving the bailout all I found was articles on how the exit was merely symbolic and did not mean anything in particular :pac:

I said that investors will have more confidence in our economy, leading to more FDI and job creation etc.
2nd point was that the Irish gov will now have full control over their own budget, so they can stop imposing austerity and try to stimulate the economy instead.

neonmaria

I did 5 long questions even though I thought I may have messed up the last part of the national income question wasn't too happy with the short questions either