tutor2u’s Flying Start Economics Revision Workshop hosted by Dubai College, UAE

Did you know that in 2016 organic carrots were removed from the CPI calculation in 2016?

No? Neither did we until Sunday 26th of March, when students flocked from across the globe to the Exams Hall of Dubai College in order to meet and be taught by tutor2u

On this day we revisited some of the key topic areas of the Year 12 A Level Economics course (day 2 was for year 13s only), as well as quintessential exam techniques. These were then coupled with fantastic facts about economics in practice and the current state of the global economy throughout the day. As keen economists and the rising necessity of contextual detail in our future exams, we found this extremely valuable as we were able to not only enhance our economic knowledge beyond the boundaries set by exam boards, but were also able to apply this information to real life situations, further solidifying our understanding of economic principles on a global perspective.

In the first session, captivating co-Founder of Tutor2u, Geoff Riley guided us through the significance of statistical application within economics which was titled ‘Think of a Number.’ Throughout this session a few of the areas covered were elasticity, inflation, economic growth and equity. As students in the 21st century, we tend to have little patience when it comes to researching and analysing data, and often underestimate the importance of these skills. Therefore, this session was very useful as, under Mr Riley’s clear guidance, we were exposed to extensive yet condensed forms of data in which we can incorporate into future work.

This application of knowledge followed through in the second item of the day, where we delved into the different forms of market failure in the UK and discussed the significance of government intervention to overcome them. From the rotavirus vaccine to sunscreen labelling, we evaluated the externalities on a broad range of topics. It is safe to say that we will all think twice when looking at ratings towards the protection of UVB and UVA rays when buying sunscreen. In addition to this we also reviewed microeconomic diagrams illustrating variations of government intervention and their effects on stakeholders, which is a notorious weak spot of nearly all A Level Economics students. Therefore we all found this exceptionally helpful.

Given the uncertainty that has accompanied Britain’s departure from the EU, it is becoming of increasing importance to monitor the performance of the nation’s economy. With the ambiguity of the term ‘economic performance’, we discovered that there are a multitude ways in which we are able to evaluate the state of the UK economy. By looking at levels of unemployment, inflation, and the exchange rate, we acquired an in-depth understanding of the impact that these indicators of growth had on aggregate demand.

To end the day not only did we look at the theory behind demand and supply side policies, but we also gained an understanding of the current policies that are currently in use in the UK. We found that by discussing such policies in depth, we were able to acquire the skill to apply our theoretical knowledge into the decisions taken by key UK bodies. With growing emphasis being placed on evaluation in the new A Level linear economics course, we found that these two last sessions were particularly useful in strengthening our knowledge of the ways in which both demand and supply side policies can be evaluated, and how they can have both negative and positive impacts on the economy as a whole.

Overall, we found it very impressive how Tutor2u managed to deliver such immensely useful and informative workshops, whilst keeping it highly enjoyable and captivating through working in teams, competitions, quizzes and Geoff’s terrible... I mean terribly funny jokes.

On a whole we would like to extend our thanks to the Tutor2u Economics team for coming to Dubai College and Mr C for organising such a wonderful event.

Co-written by Isabella Lahdo and Georgina Holbrook.