Economics is an entry point for pupils into the adult world. It offers an opportunity to discover the meaning of mysterious terms such as inflation, quantitative easing and money supply, to acquire the tools to understand events such as the Global Financial Crisis and Brexit and to start to form your own opinions about government policy in key areas of the economy. Along the way you will develop the skills of analysis, to be able to explain cause and effect between variables, and evaluation where judgements are reached about the advantages and disadvantages of courses of policy action. You will see clear links to areas you have covered in your GCSE courses in other subjects. From studying twentieth-century German history, you will have an understanding of some of the problems associated with inflation. From Geography, you will understand the consequences for countries that specialise in the production of primary products such as gold or copper. A member of the social science family, Economics combines well with a wide range of other subjects. It can offer a framework to understand the business and financial context of the world around us for those planning a very different and specific career path, such as medicine, engineering or science as well as preparing pupils for economics, management, business and finance courses at university level. You need to have a passion for current affairs and a strong interest in following the daily news on national and international events, such as data releases and policy decisions and proposals. It is an exciting subject in that events unfold in real-time, but circumstances can change rapidly. The course aims to provide a conceptual understanding of both how markets and firms behave, and how the overall economic system functions at the national level, and in cross-border linkages. This is achieved through encountering economic models, simplified versions of reality, and by conducting comparative statics – comparing an initial situation, to a changed situation after one variable has been altered in the model. This usually involves drawing graphs, around which to build explanations. The contribution of great thinkers such as Smith, Keynes, Marx and Hayek to this body of knowledge, and more generally the evolution of economic thought, is also a feature of the course. The Economics specification has a mathematical component, but does not require complex skills (it is mostly the application of theory in a numerical context). The final papers combine a range of short and longer answers. The ability to construct a longer essay is an essential requirement for success, but this is eminently coachable.