Leaving Cert economics: A ‘great paper' with topical questions
A 'very topical' higher-level economics paper featured a broad mix of macro and micro questions, but students hoping for high marks needed to have studied the full course, teachers have said.
Rob Quinlan, an economics teacher at the Institute of Education, said that the paper drew on topics such as GP numbers, pension auto-enrolment, hospitality closures, sustainability, the increased price of chocolate and international trade.
'Students who are alert to the unfolding events and economic discussions happening beyond the classroom will find that every chapter has real context, a real place in people's lives,' Mr Quinlan said.
Pádraig Murphy, ASTI subject representative for economics and a teacher at St Declan's College in Cabra, said that students liked the topicality of the paper.
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'It was a fair paper that rewarded people who worked hard and kept up to date with current affairs,' he said.
Section A
Mr Quinlan said that section A was short questions that skewed slightly towards microeconomics.
'This will have favoured students who find the material more conducive to quick, direct answers, with staple concepts like cost benefit analysis, Germany's hosting of the Euro 2024 tournament, inflation and the minimum wage,' said Mr Quinlan.
The only really tricky twist in this section occurred in question eight (B) which asked about 'greenwashing' and market failure.
'While the concepts are not themselves hard, the layout of the question was essentially a reverse-engineered version of the typical approach where students need to state the definitions. This will push those looking for the highest grades to sit back and reconfigure their approaches,' said Mr Quinlan.
Section B
'The longer questions of section B were all rooted in important new topics but required a really broad knowledge of the course. If you had hoped to get away with only learning a select few chapters, you'll have found the scope of this paper tough.
'Q11 on health insurance and healthcare provision was a perfect balance of topics and scales that tested students' grasp of the full spectrum of factors at play in this pressing issue.
'Q12 on GDP and GNI was interesting in its emphasis on the latter as it was a good way to show the influence of multinationals on Ireland's economy. GNI also appears in Q13 in the context of international aid and the Official Development Fund (ODA).
'Q14's tech focus not only reflected key news stories (eg Amazon's expansion) but tasked students with considering more novel areas like Ireland's market economy in agriculture and sports. This was paired with fairly standard questions on supply and demand, as well as a gig economy that was similar to 2021,' said Mr Quinlan.
Mr Quinlan said that question 15 on housing prices and mortgage relief will surely be familiar from discussions both in and out of the classroom.
Question 16 focused on the topical issue of hospitality sector closures.
'This shows that a student looking to really succeed in the exams needs to keep an eye on what is happening in the world around them, as that is as good an indicator of what to expect as past papers.,' said Mr Quinlan.
'Overall, this was a great paper for those who really grasped how important economics is to their lives in the country and the world on the whole.'
On the ordinary level paper, Mr Murphy said that it was balanced, fair and appropriately pitched.
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