WACE Economics ATAR study materials
WACE Economics ATAR study resources

WACE Economics ATAR study guide

WACE Economics ATAR · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.

The WACE Economics ATAR course is a Western Australian senior-secondary course for Year 11 and Year 12 students working toward the Western Australian Certificate of Education and an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank. It suits students who want a structured, analytical social science that combines economic theory with real-world Australian and global policy issues, and who are prepared to write extended responses rather than rely on recall alone. The syllabus is organised around two assessment domains: Economics knowledge and understanding, and Economics inquiry, reasoning and interpretation, each weighted at 50 per cent. In practice this means you are assessed as much on how you interpret data, apply models to unfamiliar scenarios and evaluate policy as on whether you can define terms. Topics on this exam: Economics knowledge and understanding and Economics inquiry, reasoning and interpretation. The WACE Economics ATAR study guide has 2 sections and about 681 words.

01

Economics Knowledge and Understanding

This domain rewards precise command of core models and the language that surrounds them. Be able to define and apply: scarcity and opportunity cost; the production possibility frontier and its shifts; demand and supply determinants (distinguish a movement along a curve from a shift); equilibrium and the effects of price ceilings, price floors and indirect taxes; elasticity (price, income, cross) and its link to revenue; market failure including negative and positive externalities, public goods and common resources; and the macroeconomic aggregates - GDP, inflation, unemployment and the business cycle - plus the policy tools of fiscal and monetary policy and their transmission.

366 words, about 2 min
02

Economics Inquiry, Reasoning and Interpretation

This domain tests whether you can read economic evidence and argue from it. You need to interpret data presented in tables, graphs and short extracts: identify trends, calculate percentage changes and growth rates, distinguish real from nominal values, and recognise index numbers.

315 words, about 2 min