Economics

This pre-university Economics course will enable students to reflect upon, and begin to develop, the skills needed to move beyond the A Level approach and prepare themselves for Economics at university. Using critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis of books, articles and resources from their chosen universities’ reading lists, students will learn how to formulate and justify an original viewpoint. In particular, students will work towards producing a concise, in-depth, original written analysis (or presentation) in response to a question that is of personal interest to them. At the end of the process students should be able to explain the process that they have under-taken and evaluate how they could further improve in order to maximise their enjoyment and success at university.

Lesson Outline: 2 seminars a week with a 1:1 tutorial each week

Week 1: Identifying a purpose and direction

• Reflecting on why university, why Economics, and our aims for this pre-uni course • Identifying resources, themes and questions of interest for our essay • Reflecting on reading skills, note-taking, mind-mapping and bibliographies • Understanding the essay format and assessment criteria (and applying to presentations) • Planning our approach, including identifying a title and plan for the next week • Reflecting on an example of a degree essay • Practising analysis of an article

Week 2: Reflecting and improving our initial question titles and plan

• Sharing initial question titles, resources and plans • Sharing questions and challenges from the process

Week 3: Reflecting on our first draft of our first two paragraphs (or sections of presentation)

• Sharing first drafts of the first two paragraphs – reflecting and improving • Sharing questions and challenges from the process

Week 4: Reflecting on our final drafts, completion and reflection on what we have learnt

• Sharing drafts of whole essay/presentation • Planning completion of essay/presentation • Reflecting upon, and explaining orally, what we have learnt from the question we have investigated • Reflecting upon the process and the skills we have developed and how to improve yet further at university

Project Outcome: An essay of 1,000-1,500 words or a PowerPoint presentation.