How to prepare for WASSCE Economics

Topic areas to revise

These are the areas candidates revise for WASSCE Economics. A heading is not a promise that every unit appears on your paper. Glearn does not host the WAEC file. If the file your school gives you uses a different name, follow the file.

1. 1. The economic problem

   Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost. A scale of preference is the order of wants. Opportunity cost is the next best alternative forgone, not the money price. A production possibility idea shows what is given up when resources move from one use to another.

2. 2. Demand, supply and price

   The law of demand and the law of supply hold other things equal. A movement along a curve is a change in the good's own price. A shift is a change in something else, such as income or the cost of production. Equilibrium is the price where the quantity demanded equals the quantity supplied. Elasticity asks how strongly quantity responds. Show the direction and the reason. Do not invent a coefficient.

3. 3. Production and market structure

   Factors of production, costs, and how firms sit in a market. Compare perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly on the number of firms, the product, how easy entry is, and whether the firm takes the price or makes it.

4. 4. National income, money and public finance

   National income is the value of output over a period. A larger money total is not the same as a richer citizen, because prices, population and the way income is shared can all change the meaning. Money is a medium of exchange, a store of value and a unit of account. Inflation is a persistent rise in the general price level, not a rise in one price. Public finance is why a government taxes and spends.

5. 5. International trade and development

   Countries trade because they can obtain goods more cheaply, or goods they cannot make. Comparative advantage is a lower opportunity cost, not simply being able to produce more. The balance of trade is visible goods. The balance of payments is the wider account. Development asks what helps output and living conditions grow. Do not invent a figure for any country.

WASSCE syllabusWASSCE Economics past questionsDemand and supplyNational incomeMoney and inflationInternational tradeMarket structures

Definitions, diagrams, and essay points

A theory mark is for a point a marker can see. A definition opens the answer when the command asks for one. A diagram carries the same point in lines. An example shows you can use the idea.

1. 1. Match the command

   Define is the meaning. State is a short fact. Explain is that fact plus a reason. Distinguish needs both sides. Discuss needs more than one side. A definition does not answer a question that asked for a diagram or an effect.

2. 2. Define, then use the term

   Put the meaning in the first sentence when the question starts with define, or with what is meant by. The next sentence applies it. Opportunity cost is the next best alternative forgone. Then say what was given up in the case the question gave you.

3. 3. Draw only the curves the question needs

   For demand and supply, price goes on the vertical axis and quantity on the horizontal axis. Name each curve. Mark equilibrium where they meet. A movement along a curve stays on that curve. A shift draws a second curve. Do not add a curve you were not asked for.

4. 4. Say what the diagram shows

   A drawing without a sentence is hard to mark. Write what changed, which curve moved, and what happened to price and to quantity. Label the old point and the new point so the change is visible.

5. 5. One point, a reason, and an example

   Build each essay point as a short chain. The point, why it follows, and a brief example. A Ghanaian setting is welcome, such as cocoa or a market day, when it fits the question. Do not invent a price, a percentage, or a national income figure.

6. 6. Obey the rubric

   Answer the data response if the paper requires it, and stop at the number of essays the instruction allows. An extra unfinished essay does not replace a required part you left blank.

WASSCE exam tipsWASSCE Economics past questionsDemand and supply

How to use the time

The clock is on the timetable and on the front of the paper. This page does not copy a duration. The habit is the same on any length of paper.

1. 1. Read the front before you write

   Note which questions are required and how many essays you may answer. Choose the essays you can finish. Starting one more than that, and leaving it unfinished, spends time the marked answers needed.

2. 2. Give the data response its own block

   If the paper requires a data response, do it before you settle into the longest essay. It uses a table or a graph that is already on the paper. Leaving it until the last minutes is how it gets missed.

3. 3. Split the remaining time across the essays

   Give each essay you chose a fair share, including a few minutes to plan the points. A script that is one long essay and several blank answers has not used the rubric.

4. 4. Plan in points, then write

   List the points for an essay as short lines, each with its reason. Then write them as prose. If two lines say the same thing, replace one before you fair copy.

5. 5. Leave a short reading at the end

   A second look catches a missing label, a part you skipped, and a unit you forgot. The exam tips cover the morning of the paper. This page does not copy a duration.

WASSCE exam tipsWASSCE timetable

A short way to revise

Rotate the papers and the diagrams. A week of definitions with no curve and no data response leaves the theory paper cold.

1. 1. Give each paper a turn

   One session for objective items, one for a diagram you draw from memory, one for a full essay or a data response. Do not save the data response for the night before.

2. 2. Draw, then check the labels

   Close the book, draw the demand and supply diagram for a shift you were taught, and write what happens to price and quantity. Then check which curve you moved.

3. 3. Reject the wrong options

   On an objective item, say why the other options fail. A movement described as a shift is a reason to reject an option, not a detail to ignore.

4. 4. Have the answer marked

   Anna marks WASSCE Economics on glearn. Kevin is the coach on BECE practice. A written answer is marked point by point. Practise with Kevin and Anna on glearn.now. The first questions need no account.

5. 5. Keep Economics inside the wider plan

   The revision plan orders the weeks across every subject you sit. Social Studies is a different paper. Revise it on its own guide. This page does not copy a date.

WASSCE revision planHow to pass the WASSCEWASSCE Social Studies tipsTry WASSCE practice free

Mistakes chief examiners keep returning to

WAEC chief examiners write a report after a sitting. This page describes the habits in general. It does not quote a report, and it does not give a figure.

1. 1. A price change called a shift

   Reports often describe a script that moves the whole curve when only the price of the good changed. That is a movement along the curve. A shift needs a change in something else.

2. 2. Axes with no names

   A demand and supply diagram with no price, no quantity, and no curve names is a picture, not an answer. Name the axes and the curves, and mark the equilibrium you are talking about.

3. 3. Opportunity cost written as a money price

   The cost in this sense is the next best alternative you did not take. The money price of the good is a different idea. Say which one the question asked for.

4. 4. A definition where an effect was asked

   Explaining what inflation is does not answer a question that asked who loses when prices keep rising. Define only when the command says define. Then give the effect.

5. 5. The balance of trade used for the whole account

   The balance of trade is visible goods. Tourism, shipping and capital flows sit in the wider balance of payments. Using one name for the other loses the distinction.

6. 6. An invented statistic

   A percentage of inflation, or a national income you made up, does not strengthen a point. The mechanism is enough. This page does not give a figure, and your script should not invent one.