Cambridge A Level Economics Tutors Online

Cambridge A Level Economics is syllabus 9708. This page works from the syllabus for exams in 2026, 2027 and 2028, which is version 2. Exams are available in the June and November series, and also in the March series in India.

An A Level candidate sits four papers. Papers 1 and 2 are the AS Level papers and Papers 3 and 4 are the A Level papers. Candidates following an A Level route are eligible for grades A* to E.

Paper 1 is AS Level Multiple Choice. It lasts 1 hour, carries 30 marks and 30 multiple-choice questions, and is based on the AS Level subject content. It is worth 33% of the AS Level and 17% of the A Level.

Paper 2 is AS Level Data Response and Essays. It lasts 2 hours and carries 60 marks, based on AS Level content, and it is worth 67% of the AS Level and 33% of the A Level.

Paper 3 is A Level Multiple Choice. It lasts 1 hour 15 minutes, carries 30 marks and 30 multiple-choice questions, and is based on the A Level subject content with the AS content assumed. It is worth 17% of the A Level.

Paper 4 is A Level Data Response and Essays. It lasts 2 hours and carries 60 marks, based on A Level content with the AS content assumed. It is worth 33% of the A Level.

Read those four descriptions side by side and the shape of this qualification appears. Paper 3 is Paper 1 with harder content, and Paper 4 is Paper 2 with harder content. The marks, the durations and the section structure are the same.

That makes the weighting easy to hold in mind. On the A Level, the two multiple-choice papers are 17% each and the two written papers are 33% each. On the AS Level, the multiple-choice paper is 33% and the written paper is 67%.

So the written paper is worth double the multiple-choice paper at both levels. A student who is accurate on multiple choice but cannot write an essay will lose most of the qualification at either level.

Paper 2 and Paper 4 share a structure of three sections. Section A is one compulsory data response question worth 20 marks. Section B is one essay from a choice of two focusing mainly on microeconomics, worth 20 marks. Section C is one essay from a choice of two focusing mainly on macroeconomics, also worth 20 marks.

The difference sits in one line of the syllabus, and it is the most important line on this page. On Paper 2 the essay questions have two parts each. On Paper 4 the essay questions are unstructured, with no parts.

That single change alters the task completely. A two-part AS essay tells the candidate what to do in each half. An unstructured A Level essay gives a single 20 mark instruction and the candidate must build the structure, decide the order of the argument, choose where evaluation goes, and reach a judgement without a prompt.

Students who move from an AS timetable straight into Paper 4 practice often write exactly as they did in Year 12 and wonder why the marks fall. The content is not the problem. The essay has stopped scaffolding them.

The assessment objectives are three. AO1 is knowledge and understanding: showing knowledge of syllabus content and recalling facts, formulae and definitions; demonstrating understanding with appropriate explanations and examples; and applying knowledge and understanding to economic information in written, numerical and diagrammatic forms.

AO2 is analysis: examining economic issues and relationships using relevant concepts, theories and information, selecting and organising economic information in written, numerical and diagrammatic form, recognising patterns, relationships, causes and effects, and explaining the impacts and consequences of changes in economic variables.

Here is the second surprise, and it is the opposite of what most students expect. The objective weightings do not change between AS and A Level. At both levels AO1 is 35 per cent, AO2 is 40 per cent and AO3 is 25 per cent.

So the A Level does not reward evaluation any more generously than the AS does. Evaluation is a quarter of the qualification at both levels. A student who assumes A Level means more evaluation and less recall has the balance backwards.

AO3 is evaluation: recognising the assumptions and limitations of economic information and models, assessing the strengths and weaknesses of arguments, recognising that some decisions rest on priorities and value judgements, and communicating reasoned judgements and conclusions.

Per paper the pattern is even cleaner. Paper 1 and Paper 3 are identical: AO1 at 47 per cent, AO2 at 40 per cent and AO3 at 13 per cent. Paper 2 and Paper 4 are identical: AO1 at 33 per cent, AO2 at 37 per cent and AO3 at 30 per cent.

That tells a student exactly where evaluation lives. It is worth 30 per cent of the written papers and only 13 per cent of the multiple-choice papers. So the essays are where a candidate can gain on evaluation, and the multiple-choice papers are where knowledge and analysis decide the grade.

The content runs from 1.1 to 11.6, and AS Level students study 1.1 to 6.5 while A Level students study all of it. The syllabus states that the AS Level content is assumed knowledge for A Level Paper 3 and Paper 4.

The AS sections are basic economic ideas and resource allocation; the price system and the microeconomy; government microeconomic intervention; the macroeconomy; government macroeconomic intervention; and international economic issues.

The A Level adds five sections, numbered 7 to 11, and they mirror the five AS topic sections rather than bolting on unrelated material. Section 7 is the price system and the microeconomy. Section 8 is government microeconomic intervention. Section 9 is the macroeconomy. Section 10 is government macroeconomic intervention. Section 11 is international economic issues.

Section 7 is the largest single addition and it is where most of the new microeconomics sits. It covers 7.1 utility, 7.2 indifference curves and budget lines, 7.3 efficiency and market failure, 7.4 private costs and benefits, externalities and social costs and benefits, 7.5 types of cost, revenue and profit with short-run and long-run production, 7.6 different market structures, 7.7 growth and survival of firms, and 7.8 differing objectives and policies of firms.

Indifference curves and budget lines are genuinely new technique. So is the move from a simple demand curve to utility analysis, and from naming market structures to comparing their conduct and performance.

Section 8 covers 8.1 government policies to achieve efficient resource allocation and correct market failure, 8.2 equity and redistribution of income and wealth, and 8.3 labour market forces and government intervention. That third topic, the labour market, has no AS counterpart.

Section 9 covers 9.1 the circular flow of income, 9.2 economic growth and sustainability, 9.3 employment and unemployment, and 9.4 money and banking. Money and banking is new ground against the AS treatment of price stability.

Section 10 covers 10.1 government macroeconomic policy objectives, 10.2 links between macroeconomic problems and their interrelatedness, and 10.3 effectiveness of policy options to meet all macroeconomic objectives. Topic 10.2 is where the A Level demands that problems be seen together rather than one at a time.

Section 11 covers 11.1 policies to correct disequilibrium in the balance of payments, 11.2 exchange rates, 11.3 economic development, 11.4 characteristics of countries at different levels of development, 11.5 relationship between countries at different levels of development, and 11.6 globalisation.

Development and globalisation are the largest additions to the international section, and they are where many Paper 4 essays are set because they invite judgement about policy.

Each topic description in the syllabus also names the key concepts that the topic is built on. The first AS topic, for example, names scarcity and choice, the margin and decision-making, and time. Those concepts recur through the qualification and are worth learning as themes rather than as definitions.

There are three routes. Route 1 is AS Level only, taking Papers 1 and 2 in the same exam series. Route 2 is the A Level staged over two years, with Year 1 as the AS Level and Year 2 taking Papers 3 and 4 only. Route 3 is the A Level with all four components in one exam series.

On Route 2 the AS papers are not retaken, and candidates carry forward their AS Level result rather than a grade, subject to the rules and time limits described in the Cambridge Handbook.

The qualification is graded A* to E for an A Level candidate. The lower case a to e scale belongs to the AS Level route only.

This page is written for Year 13 students completing the A Level.