November updates & notices
Monday 4 November 2024
November updates & notices
Welcome to the November 2024 newsletter!
Some of the additions to the website are highlighted below.
New worked examples for questions in Paper 1 and Paper 2 have been added to the website. These examples guide students through the style of questions in Papers 1 and 2 along with explanations of how the marks are awarded. Examples of such worked examples include:
Unit 2.2.2 - Key resources allocation decisions here.
Unit 2.4.4 - Conditions of supply here.
Unit 2.6.1 - Causes of price changes here.
Unit 3.5.5 - Economies and diseconomies of scale here.
Unit 3.8.2 - Monopoly markets here.
Unit 4.3.6 - Impact of taxation here.
Unit 4.6.1 - Definition of economic growth here.
Unit 4.8.2 - Measurement of inflation and deflation here.
Unit 6.1.2 - Advantages and disadvantages of specialisation at a national level here.
Unit 6.2.4 - Methods of protection here.
Unit 6.3.5 - Floating & fixed foreign exchange rates here.
A new 8-mark Paper 2 exam practice question for Unit 2.9.2 (Advantages and disadvantages of the market economic system) has been added here, along with a full mark scheme.
A new quantitative Paper 2 exam practice question for Unit 4.3.6 (Impact of taxation) here.
There are now two sets of exam practice questions for Unit 5.4.1 - Differences in economic development between countries here.
The new Cambridge IGCSE (0455) Economics syllabus
The new Cambridge IGCSE and O Level Economics (0455) syllabus has now been officially published! Teaching of the new syllabus is in the 2025-26 academic year, with first examinations in 2027. Find out everything you need to know about the new syllabus (what's in, what's out, and what's changed) on InThinking here.
The InThinking IGCSE Economics website will be fully revised and updated to match the requirements of the new syllabus, ready for first teaching in 2025.
Content on the website now exceeds 485,000 words. To put this into context, the 320-page Cambridge-endorsed IGCSE Economics textbook published by Hodder Education contains approximately 150,500 words.
Student Access
Teachers can activate Student Access to give their learners free access to the website. There are several key functions to this:
Students have access to all notes related to the contents of the course. Essentially, they can use the website as an e-textbook for the entire course.
It allows students to directly access most, but not all, pages on the website (such as examination papers and mark schemes, as well as other teacher support materials).
It enables teachers to create tasks for their students (refer to the Smart Quizzes section of the website).
It helps to consolidate student learning and facilitates revision (such as the Paper 1 MCQ tasks, which all come with answers that have explanations).
It allows teachers to monitor the progress of their students using the grade book.
To get started, go to the Student Access tab in the top left corner of the home page.
You can also register other Economics teachers in your school to gain access to the website, which is updated every week, 52 weeks a year. The annual subscription therefore represents extremely good value for money and will save you hundreds of hours of planning:
Currency | Annual | Per week | Per day |
USD | 270 | 5.19 | 0.74 |
EUR | 220 | 4.23 | 0.60 |
GBP | 210 | 4.04 | 0.58 |
Staying connected
To stay up to date with site developments and professional discussions about the IGCSE Economics course, teachers are welcome to join our Facebook and WhatsApp support groups:
Finally, we know at InThinking that the strength and growth of the community of teachers using our sites rely on word of mouth. If you are enjoying the website, please share your insights through your own social networks. We are certainly keen on hearing from you, guiding the site's future developments. Testimonials for the website can be found here.
In addition to IGCSE Economics, there are existing InThinking IGCSE websites for Geography (authored by Paul Christmas) and History (authored by Jo Thomas and Keely Rogers). There are more subjects in the pipeline as well.
With best wishes for the month ahead.
Paul Hoang
