• Prioritise your time
• Focus on topics you feel weakest in. I know it’s easy to revise the topics you are comfortable with but in Economics it’s important you know the whole course as anything could come up!
• For example, spend 1hr 30 mins on a topic you really struggle with compared to maybe 30 minutes on a topic you are comfortable with
• Find a place to study which suits your study habits
• Try and avoid places you will get easily distracted
• Work in an environment that keeps you best focused - this could be in silence, with music, background noise etc - do what you feel works best for you!
• Find a comfortable space to avoid distraction due to discomfort. This will also give you a positive association with your study space
• Take breaks
• Take a break when you need it, some students will need more than others
• Some students might work best in structured intervals, for example working for 30 minutes on, 10 mintutes off
• Other students might work better with longer study periods and longer breaks in between
• No person will feel motivated all the time, so try and take advantage of sustained periods of motivation, especially if you feel it might drop for a while

• Give yourself rewards to look forward to
• After a study session, reward yourself by watching an episode of your favourite TV show, or hanging out with your friends and family
• This will help keep you motivated for your study session

Here are some different methods you could use to study:

• Mindmaps
• You could make a mindmap for each learning block or summarise a topic
• Tailor the complexity to your needs - from broad overviews to detailed breakdowns
• Use these mind maps as self-testing tools:
• Verbally explain the concepts without looking at the map
• Try recreating the mind map from memory

• Flashcards
• You can make flashcards for specific definitions or concepts you want to remember
• These could either be physical flashcards or ones made online, such as Quizlet or Brainscape
• A technique you can use to focus on the material you struggle with is the ‘traffic light’ or ‘red, amber, green’ method. This technique is particularly effective with physical flashcards
• As you review each flashcard, categorize them into one of three piles
• Red - indicates concepts you struggle with or need a lot of work
• Amber - represents topics you partially understand but need more practice
• Green - signifies material you’re confident about and have a solid grasp on
• This visual sorting allows you to quickly identify areas needing more attention (red), topics requiring more practice (amber), and subjects you’ve successfully learned (green)
• Prioritize your study time by focusing primarily on the ‘red’ pile, then the ‘amber’, while occaisionally revisiting the ‘green’ to maintain knowledge
• As you progress, cards will naturally move from red to amber to green, so hopefully at the end you are confident with most of the course material

• Teaching others
• You can pick a specific learning block or topic and present the material as if you’re teaching it to a non-economics student
• There are different ways you could do this:
• Develop your own teaching materials: presentations, posters, or mind maps
• Bring in a sibling, family member or friend who doesn’t know much about economics and see if you can try teach them some of the material
• Chalenge yourself to explain concepts without referring to notes
• This helps deepen your understanding of the matieral and identifies areas where your knowledge might be lacking

• Past papers
• Practice with past exam questions to familiarise yourself with the format and expectations
• Take advantage of the available marking schemes and the EF Hubs knowledge checkpoints with models answers to help refine your answers
• When you get more comfortable with the material, attempt past papers under time, exam-like conditions
• Here is a link to access past Higher Economics exam papers and the marking schemes

SQA - NQ - Past papers and marking instructions

sqa pastpapers



www.sqa.org.uk

• Working in groups
• This method doesn’t work for everyone and can often be distracting if working in the wrong group, but if you have a group of peers you work well with it can be benefical
• Use group sessions to complement, not replace, individual study time
• Can use this group study time to bounce concepts of each other to gain new perspectives or practice marking each other’s work to get into the mind of a marker

• Notes
• Create a comprehensive, well-organised set of notes you can use for easy reference during revision
• Personalize your notes through colour-coding to categorise information and enhance retention
• Actively engage with your notes, like creating a one-age topic summaries or regularly review and summarise key points in your own words