Tips on writing a good Economics commentary

Internal Assessment in IB Economics holds a very important place.

Internal assessment in economics enables students to demonstrate the application of their knowledge and understanding of economic theory to real-world situations.As per the new Economics syllabus , Economics IA has 20% weightage.

Here are a few tips on how to write a good commentary.

First of all the most important aspect is choosing a good article. The following tips will help

• The articles may be from a newspaper, a journal or the internet, but must not be from television or radio broadcasts.
• Avoid choosing long articles.
• Articles should be raw piece of news and should not have too much of analysis done by the author. The article should be more in a reporting style.

Here is a presentation which briefs you with the further details.

Macroeconomics Revision notes

dineshbakshi.com is now updated with fresh revision notes on Macroeconomics, specifically written for IB Economics. These notes are short and crisp and are an ideal revision tool. Each topic is complimented with relevant videos and interactive quizzes.
Moreover, there is a revision question section also, where all the possible questions with suggested answers are listed topicwise.
Now... Learning is fun, indeed !!
Click here to got IB Economics section on dineshbakshi.com

Article Sources for writing Commentaries

Here are some of the websites where you can get good articles for your commentaries.

BBC: www.bbc.co.uk
CNN: http://europe.cnn.com/
Reuters: www.reuters.co.uk
The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Financial Times: www.ft.com
The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/
The Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
The Sunday Times: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/
The Irish Independent: http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The Wall Street Journal : http://online.wsj.com/public/us
Moscow Times (in English): www.moscowtimes.ru
Sydney Morning Herald: www.smh.com.au
To browse other newspapers from across the world, go to: http://www.newsdirectory.com/

If you have some more then please do add them through your comments.

Mind Map on Elasticities

Mind Map on elasticities is available for download on dineshbakshi.com.

This concise mind map has all the essential elements needed to revise Elasticities for IB and A Level Economics.

The topics covered are Price elasticity of Demand, Income elasticity of Demand, Cross elasticity of Demand and Price elasticity of supply.

An excellent tool to get a gist of the whole topic....on one page.

An ideal last minute revision tool...

Download it here and enjoy.

More Mind Maps specifically designed for IB and A Level Economics students....coming soon!!

Answering part d in IB Economics Paper 3 (HL)

What makes the difference?

On very short responses (a half page or less) it is difficult to get above level 1 purely because insufficient points can be explained and there is little possibility of applying theory sufficiently to explain a point to L2 .

Mostly candidates manage to analyse (ie explain a point by applying theory) but are not able to evaluate (i.e. giving an informed judgement based on or linked to material in the text L3). Candidate's often restate material in the text that can appear as though they are answering the question; however, unless they are applying economic theory to explain their answer then often all that they are doing is restating the text.

Often candidate's will also state an answer rather than develop an answer. For example "The government stimulus package will fix the recession". While this may be true, it is stated rather than developed by applying theory. A good response would say something like "the government's stimulus package of X billion euro will stimulate household consumption and possibly investment if it is also targeted at firms. An increase in consumption and investment will result in an increase in AD and thus increase GDP Blah blah blah ..... This is an example of L2 where the candidate is analysing or evaluating economic theory.

To go the next level the candidate needs to continue on saying things like "the problem with stimulating the economy with the X billion euro stimulus package is that the government is likely to incur a budget deficit. Persistent budget deficits lead to increasing indebtedness and if sustained can undermine international confidence in both the government and the economy and their capacity to repay the debt". This can lead to ....".

What is Evaluation?

As we all know evaluation skills are high order thinking skills and play a vital role in making a grade difference. While writing commentaries or attemtping extended response questions or answering data response questions, proper evaluation done will decide whether a student will fall in the top level category or not. Here is a brief expalantion of what is actually expected from a student
Evaluation occurs when a judgment is made. It is the weighing or measuring of factors followed by an attempt to give relative weight to those factors. Questions that begin “evaluate”, “assess”,“critically assess”, “discuss” or “to what extent” require candidates to show their skills of evaluation in order to reach the highest achievement levels.
Invites candidates to make an appraisal of a situation. Candidates should weigh the nature of the evidence available and discuss the convincing aspects of an argument as well as its implications and limitations, and the less convincing elements within an argument. For example:
Evaluate alternative policies designed to reduce inflation.
There are many ways that candidates can be encouraged to improve their skills of evaluation.

• What factors such as causes, consequences or remedies are asked for, candidates should attempt to identify the most important ones and then to justify the reason for the choice.
• When advantages and disadvantages are asked for, candidates should attempt to identify the most important advantage (or disadvantage) and then justify the reason for the choice.
• When strategies are asked for, candidates should attempt to assess the short term and long term implications.
• When data is offered, candidates may question its validity, in terms of whether it is appropriate, whether it is reliable, or whether it is still relevant.
• When summarizing a theory, candidates may question its validity, in terms of whether it is appropriate, whether it is reliable, or whether it is still relevant.

I hope this post helps!!

Mind Maps for IB Economics

dineshbakshi.com has come up with a new collection of IB Economics Mind Maps. These Mind Maps are based on different topics and integrate all important points from the topic and provide a wonderful tool for last minute revision for students.
The latest addition to this collection are the following Mind Maps.
Aggregate Supply

Aggregate Demand

Perfect Competition

Oligopoly

Monopolistic Competition