WJEC A-Level Economics Active Recall Guide
WJEC · A-Level
WJEC A-Level Economics Active Recall Guide
A question-and-answer revision guide for WJEC A-Level Economics, built to be worked in three passes rather than read.
- WJEC
- A-Level
- 17 topics
The 3-step active recall method
Re-reading notes is a futile process when your aim is to remember the information and successfully apply it in exam settings. Active recall is the method you use to ensure the information sticks for a long period of time.
But even active recall can be futile unless you have a structured way of implementing it. This is where the 3-step active recall method comes in, a structured method that is signature to the Levo Learning guides.
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Step 1
Answer up to 10 questions cold, closed book, even if you are unsure on the topic.
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Step 2
Answer the same questions again, but open book. Write the correct answer down even if it seems pointless.
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Step 3
Repeat as step 1 and answer the questions closed book again.
Worked across the WJEC A-Level Economics specification, one subtopic at a time.
The subject, and what is assessed
WJEC A-Level Economics is assessed by four units, two at AS and two at A2. AS Unit 1 lasts 1 hour 15 minutes and AS Unit 2 lasts 2 hours, each worth 20% of the A-Level.
A2 Unit 3 lasts 2 hours and A2 Unit 4 lasts 2 hours 30 minutes, each worth 30%. A2 Unit 4 covers all A-Level content and sets one essay in each of microeconomics, macroeconomics, and trade and development.
| Paper | Length | Weighting |
|---|---|---|
| AS Unit 1 | 1 hour 15 minutes | 20% |
| AS Unit 2 | 2 hours | 20% |
| A2 Unit 3 | 2 hours | 30% |
| A2 Unit 4 | 2 hours 30 minutes | 30% |
Memorisation, then application
Marks are given for applying content to the question that has been set, which cannot happen while the content is still being looked up. Step 1 shows what is actually held.
Step 2 puts the correct wording in front of you while the gap is still fresh. Step 3 repeats the cold test, and the difference between the first and third attempt is the part that has moved.
Every question in the guide is paired with its answer in the same document, so step 2 is done from the guide itself rather than from a separate set of notes.
What is inside the guide
Questions are grouped by topic and then by subtopic, following the WJEC specification. Open a topic to see its subtopics.
Scarcity and Choice5 subtopics
- Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost17
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choice15
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwards15
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: Advantages and disadvantages of specialisation15
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: Productivity11
Demand and Supply in Product Markets9 subtopics
- Factors influencing demand and supply in product markets: Product market13
- Factors influencing demand and supply: Main influences on demand and supply in product markets21
- The determination of equilibrium price: Equilibrium price and output, and disequilibrium12
- The determination of equilibrium price: How the market adjusts to a new equilibrium11
- The determination of equilibrium price: Consumer and producer surplus on the diagram11
- Consumer and producer surplus17
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of demand21
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Income and cross price elasticity of demand20
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of supply, uses of elasticity and tax incidence30
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets7 subtopics
- Wage determination: Demand for labour as a derived demand9
- Wage determination: Equilibrium wage rate and shifts in labour demand and supply8
- Wage determination: Elasticity of demand for labour and Elasticity of supply of labour15
- Wage determination: Causes of wage differentials, Effects of wage differentials, and wages in Wales22
- Labour market issues: Factors which affect flexibility in labour markets15
- Labour market issues: Effects of the statutory national minimum wage on labour markets16
- Labour market issues: Impact of migration on labour markets17
Resource Allocation2 subtopics
- How resources are allocated in a free market economy: Role of profit8
- How resources are allocated in a free market economy: Derived demand and the assumptions of a free market14
Market Failure11 subtopics
- Understanding market failure: Market failure12
- Understanding market failure: Public goods, Merit and demerit goods15
- Understanding market failure: Externalities15
- Understanding market failure: Externalities of consumption and monopoly power10
- Understanding market failure: Information asymmetries and gaps, Income inequality18
- Understanding market failure: Volatile prices and externality diagrams15
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Reasons for government intervention in markets16
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Maximum prices, road pricing, pollution permits and other interventions19
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Evaluating government intervention12
- The effects of government intervention: Government intervention can create distortions in markets9
- The effects of government intervention: Reasons for government failure18
Macroeconomic Theory (AS)10 subtopics
- The circular flow of income model: Flows in the circular flow model8
- The circular flow of income model: Injections into and withdrawals from the circular flow9
- The circular flow of income model: Model to explain the concept of national income equilibrium9
- The units of aggregate demand (AD): Units of aggregate demand: consumption8
- The units of aggregate demand (AD): Factors affecting consumption and investment, and the AD curve21
- The AD function: Why an AD function will slope downward from left to right9
- The AD function: Changes in the units10
- The aggregate supply (AS) function: Shape of the Keynesian long run aggregate supply curve11
- The aggregate supply (AS) function: Factors which might result in a shift in LRAS12
- AD/AS analysis18
Government Policy Objectives6 subtopics
- Economic growth: Actual and potential growth, output gaps and the business cycle24
- Economic growth: Benefits of economic growth for households, government and firms8
- Economic growth: Illustrating growth on PPF and AD/AS diagrams8
- Unemployment (AS): Measurement and types12
- Unemployment (AS): Costs12
- Unemployment (AS): Causes18
Policy Instruments (AS)9 subtopics
- Fiscal policy: Framework10
- Fiscal policy: Direct and indirect taxes and demand side fiscal policy9
- Fiscal policy: Automatic stabilisers, time lags and the Laffer curve14
- Monetary policy: Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee, Inflation target12
- Monetary policy: Bank Rate and the transmission mechanism17
- Exchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rates in a free market17
- Exchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rate policy16
- Supply side policies: Aims of supply side policies11
- Supply side policies: Market-based supply side policies and Limitations of supply side policies21
International Trade (AS)3 subtopics
- Free trade and protectionism: Benefits and costs of free trade14
- Free trade and protectionism: Main forms of protection; tariffs, quotas and other barriers11
- Free trade and protectionism: Benefits and costs of protectionism12
Costs, Revenues and Profits8 subtopics
- Costs, revenues and profits: Law of diminishing returns12
- Costs, revenues and profits: Product, total and average costs12
- Costs, revenues and profits: Total, average and marginal values for revenue and costs14
- Costs, revenues and profits: Internal and external economies and diseconomies of scale15
- Costs, revenues and profits: Concept of profit maximisation21
- The growth of firms: How and why firms might grow8
- The growth of firms: Types of integration/ mergers25
- Efficiency20
Market Structures14 subtopics
- Background to market structures14
- Business objectives19
- Perfect competition: Perfect competition and its underpinning assumptions16
- Perfect competition: Efficiency of perfectly competitive markets11
- Monopolistic competition19
- Monopoly: Monopoly and its underpinning assumptions11
- Monopoly: Comparing monopoly with perfect competition9
- Monopoly: Potential costs and benefits of monopoly9
- Oligopoly: Main features of oligopolistic markets and the concept of interdependence16
- Oligopoly: Potential costs and benefits of oligopoly14
- Competition policy: Why governments are concerned about monopoly power11
- Competition policy: Benefits and limits of competition26
- Privatisation: Way in which privatisation may increase competition11
- Privatisation: Effects of privatisation on competition14
Macroeconomic Theory (A2)5 subtopics
- Short run aggregate supply (SRAS)19
- Long run aggregate supply (LRAS): Neo-Classical view of the process13
- Long run aggregate supply (LRAS): Keynesian economists disagree with this process of adjustment8
- The short run Phillips curve21
- The long run Phillips curve17
Macroeconomic Objectives (A2)12 subtopics
- Economic growth: Actual vs potential economic growth and Causes of growth17
- Economic growth: Benefits and costs of growth11
- Unemployment (A2): Measurement and types8
- Unemployment (A2): Costs, measurement and the Phillips curve12
- Unemployment (A2): Causes10
- Inflation and deflation: Measurement and calculation16
- Inflation and deflation: Causes21
- Inflation and deflation: Costs19
- Inflation and deflation: Deflation24
- The balance of payments: Current account imbalances: causes15
- The balance of payments: Current account imbalances: impacts18
- The balance of payments: Solutions to current account deficits16
Policy Instruments (A2)7 subtopics
- Control of the national (public sector) debt: Causes10
- Control of the national (public sector) debt: Implications15
- The operation of monetary policy: Interest rates and how quantitative easing works13
- The operation of monetary policy: Effects and criticisms of quantitative easing9
- The operation of monetary policy: Quantitative tightening, Funding for Lending and the financial sector15
- Monetary stability: Asset bubbles and financial crises14
- Financial stability18
International Trade (A2)12 subtopics
- Advantages and disadvantages of free trade: Advantages of free trade10
- Advantages and disadvantages of free trade: Disadvantages of free trade15
- Protectionism: Free trade compared with protectionist measures13
- Protectionism: Key methods of protectionism15
- Globalisation: What globalisation is and what drives it, Benefits of globalisation16
- Globalisation: Costs of globalisation and Evaluating the net impact of globalisation12
- Trade and the UK: Absolute and comparative advantage, Terms of trade and the gains from trade20
- Trade and the UK: Disadvantages of international trade13
- Trade and the UK: Methods of protection11
- Trade and the UK: Arguments for and against protectionism10
- Trade and the UK: World Trade Organisation and globalisation13
- Trade and the UK: UK’s major export sectors and an integrated world economy11
Non-UK Economies3 subtopics
- European Union: Advantages and disadvantages of membership of the EU15
- European Union: Whether the continuous expansion of the EU is beneficial18
- European Union: EMU as an optimal currency area, and challenges facing MEDCs and emerging economies27
Economic Development6 subtopics
- Measurement: What is meant by economic development and how it is measured13
- Measurement: Human development index, More indirect indicators such as access to health and education13
- Obstacles: Why LEDCs may face difficulties in competing with MEDCs9
- Obstacles: Relevant obstacles15
- Solutions: Liberalisation as a route to development, Aid and debt relief14
- Solutions: Foreign direct investment and trade strategies18
Sample questions
Taken from the WJEC A-Level Economics guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Scarcity and Choice
Why does choice arise in economics?
Show the answer
Choice arises because scarcity forces economic agents to decide between alternative uses of limited resources. -
Demand and Supply in Product Markets
What is the primary objective that consumers are assumed to pursue in economic theory?
Show the answer
Consumers are assumed to seek to maximise satisfaction or utility. -
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets
What does it mean to say that the demand for labour is a derived demand?
Show the answer
It means the demand for labour depends on the demand for the goods or services that labour produces, rather than being demanded for its own sake. -
Resource Allocation
What does profit signal to firms in a free market economy?
Show the answer
Profit signals where consumer demand is high relative to supply, indicating which industries are most valued by consumers. -
Market Failure
In the context of market failure, what does efficiency refer to?
Show the answer
Efficiency refers to the maximisation of the sum of consumer surplus and producer surplus. -
Macroeconomic Theory (AS)
What does the circular flow of income model illustrate about an economy?
Show the answer
It shows the continuous movement of money, goods, and services between households and firms in an economy. -
Government Policy Objectives
What does economic growth mean in the technical sense used by economists?
Show the answer
A lasting expansion in what the economy is able to produce, its productive potential, as distinct from a short-run rise in measured output. -
Policy Instruments (AS)
Why do economists usually regard capital expenditure more favourably than current expenditure?
Show the answer
Capital expenditure raises the economy's productive capacity and can generate future output and tax revenue that help service the borrowing used to fund it, whereas current spending is consumed immediately.
Questions about this guide
How do you use active recall for WJEC A-Level Economics?
Answer up to 10 questions cold and closed book. Answer the same questions again open book, writing the correct answer down.
Then answer them closed book one more time. The difference between the first and third attempt is what has moved into recall.
How is WJEC A-Level Economics assessed?
WJEC A-Level Economics is assessed by 4 components: AS Unit 1 (1 hour 15 minutes, 20%); AS Unit 2 (2 hours, 20%); A2 Unit 3 (2 hours, 30%); A2 Unit 4 (2 hours 30 minutes, 30%).
What topics does the WJEC A-Level Economics active recall guide cover?
It covers Scarcity and Choice, Demand and Supply in Product Markets, Demand and Supply in Labour Markets, Resource Allocation, Market Failure, Macroeconomic Theory (AS), Government Policy Objectives, Policy Instruments (AS), International Trade (AS), Costs, Revenues and Profits, Market Structures, Macroeconomic Theory (A2), Macroeconomic Objectives (A2) and Policy Instruments (A2).
The full list is set out on this page.
Is the WJEC A-Level Economics guide a PDF?
Yes. It is a digital PDF sent to the email address on your order after purchase.
Check the address is correct at checkout, and check junk or spam if it has not arrived.
Does the guide include the answers?
Yes. Every question has its answer in the same document, grouped by topic, so step 2 of the method is done from the guide.
WJEC A-Level Economics Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by topic, ready to work in three passes.