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As a current AS student I have naturally found some challenges during this academic year. I chose Economics AS-Level because I was fascinated by how the economy worked and had little knowledge of what could affect me in the future, such as recessions and taxation. In January 2012, I took the Unit 1 exam after studying Economics for five months. Throughout this course I have recognised a few weaknesses with my understanding and application of current examples. My fellow students also shared this as a concern. After further consultation with my peers, I established a list of the 'top five challenges facing Economics students'.
Challenge 1
For many students Economics is a completely new subject, as many secondary schools do not offer it at GCSE. So understanding correct terminology, definitions and sounding like an economist is understandably demanding. In every lesson we must have up-to-date knowledge of economic events worldwide, which in my class are debated and examined regularly. For many who were oblivious to current affairs, knowing and understanding these articles and how the government operates is a further challenge.
To enhance this background knowledge, each student had a list given to them on what they needed to do each week. This included reading relevant chapters in our textbook, revisiting notes, additional reading from our school Internet database. Twitter feeds from my Economics teacher of relevant articles, watching the news regularly, searching for related articles and having Tutor2u 'Economics blogs' sent directly into our mailboxes. This 'reading around the subject' takes a huge proportion of our time in comparison to other subjects. Many students find this troublesome to balance, which emphasises the huge transition from GCSE to ?-Level. However, this ability is indispensable to a new student of Economics, as this knowledge is utilised when evaluating in the essay question of the exam and aids the application of the theory.
Challenge 2
The second challenge facing students at ?-Level is evaluation. The greater emphasis on this skill is different to that in GCSE. It is relatively difficult to grasp...