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Reviews

Review of the 2010 ETAWA Sundowner

This PD seminar was presented by Steven Kemp, Associate Head of Economics, School of Economics and Finance, Curtin Business School and Chief Marker of the Economics TEE on 26th February 2010 and was attended by 57 economics teachers and educators. It consisted of two presentations:

• A review of the 2009 Economics TEE paper
• Stage 3 Economics Unit 3A Australia and the Global Economy and Unit 3B Macroeconomics and Policy

2009 TEE

Steve presented a statistical summary of the TEE followed by feedback on each of the three sections in the paper.

Section A – the multiple choice section of the paper, was more difficult with six particularly low scoring questions. There was considerable debate amongst some teachers regarding the answers to these questions.

In section B, Steve pointed out areas of concern including:

• The definition of GDP
• Automatic stabilisers and discretionary measures.
• CAD and Foreign Debt
• Foreign liabilities, foreign debt and foreign equity.
• Transmission mechanism

In section C, Steve pointed out that capable students benefited from choosing the harder, topical questions but weaker students struggled with responses to these more challenging questions. Again, students struggled with the International Trade questions and concepts in particular, foreign investment, foreign debt and the Balance of Payments.

Teachers should note that “external balance” is not deemed to be a macroeconomic objective.

Unit 3A Australia and the Global Economy

New content including:

• Global Markets
• Sources of Comparative Advantage
• Gains from trade using demand and supply analysis
• Role of WTO and trade agreements

Unit 3B Macroeconomics and Policy

• Focus on Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

Sample Questions

• Two sample section B questions
• Four sample section C questions

A copy of the powerpoint presentation can be found here.

Maria Coate
ETAWA President