AS 91227 annotated exemplars

This annotated exemplar is intended for teacher use only. Annotated exemplars are extracts of student evidence, with commentary, that explain key parts of a standard. These help teachers make assessment judgements at the grade boundaries.

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TKI Economics assessment resources (external link)

For Excellence, the student needs to analyse comprehensively how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact.

This involves:

• justifying a combination of government policies that achieves specific policy objectives relating to one contemporary economic issue and minimises any negative flow-on effects on two other contemporary economic issues
• integrating changes shown on economic models into detailed explanations of direct impacts and flow-on effects of government policies.

The student has comprehensively analysed government policies that aim to reduce unemployment levels and increase real growth. The student has described what these two specific policy objectives are in the introduction, and explained how three different government policies relate to real GDP growth and employment (1).

The student has justified how and why the three policies could achieve the two specific policy objectives throughout the summary, integrating the language of the AS/AD, Labour market, and PPF models into detailed explanations of the short-term direct impacts and long-term flow-on effects of the policies (2).

The student has explained in detail why the additional contractionary monetary policy is needed to minimise negative flow-on effects on inflation (3).

For a more secure Excellence, the student could add the other important aspect of an economic justification. Integrating the AS/AD model into the explanation to explainhow the additional policy could work to ease inflationary pressure (4).

For Merit, the student needs to analyse in depth how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact. 

This involves:

• providing a detailed explanation of the direct impact of government policies on one contemporary economic issue using an economic model(s)
• providing a detailed explanation of the flow-on effects of government policies on two other contemporary economic issues using an economic model(s).

The student has provided an in-depth analysis of government policies that aim to reduce unemployment levels and increase real growth. The student has described what these two specific policy objectives are in the introduction and explained how three different government policies relate to real GDP growth and employment (5).

The student has explained how and why the policies could achieve the two specific policy objectives throughout the summary, integrating the language of the AS/AD and Labour market models into the explanation (6).

The student provided a detailed explanation of the secondary policy in relation to minimising the negative flow-on effects on inflation in the analysis (7).

To reach Excellence, the student could the student’s explanation would become comprehensive with more detail about how ‘the effects of one should balance the effects of the others’ (8), providing the necessary evidence of how the impact on inflation is minimised. For example, the student could use the argument that supply-side fiscal policy will help to counteract short-term demand-side inflationary pressure.

For Merit, the student needs to analyse in depth how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact. 

This involves:

• providing a detailed explanation of the direct impact of government policies on one contemporary economic issue using an economic model(s)
• providing a detailed explanation of the flow-on effects of government policies on two other contemporary economic issues using an economic model(s).

This student has explained in depth, for three different government policies, the two specific policy objectives of sustainable development and significant growth due to the multiplier effect in the introduction (9).

The student has incorporated the language of the AS/AD model into detailed explanations of the direct impact on growth, and the flow-on effects of the policies on inflation and employment (10).

Additionally, the student has explained in the summary how the policies would achieve significant economic growth (11).

For a more secure Merit, the student could explain how the three policies achieve the objective of sustainable development (12). Additionally, the student could provide more explanation of Policy 1, involving the ‘why’ and ‘how’ (12), to adding more evidence of an in-depth analysis.

For Achieved, the student needs to analyse how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact. 

This involves:

• identifying, stating or describing government policies that achieve specific policy objectives relating to one contemporary economic issue
• provide an explanation of the direct impact of government policies on one contemporary economic issue using an economic model(s)
• provide an explanation of the flow-on effects of government policies on two other contemporary economic issues using an economic model(s).

This student has described the two specific policy objectives of sustainable and significant growth in the introduction (13).

The student has explained how three policies directly affect growth and the flow-on effects of the policies on inflation and employment, by using the language of the AS/AD model in the explanations (14).

Additionally, the student has explained in the summary how the policies would achieve significant economic growth (15).

To reach Merit, the student could provide more description of Policies 1 and 3, and explain how the three policies achieve the objective of sustainable economic growth. The student could expand the explanations, involving how and why, in order to form an in depth analysis (16).

For Achieved, the student needs to analyse how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact. 

This involves:

• identifying, stating or describing government policies that achieve specific policy objectives relating to one contemporary economic issue
• provide an explanation of the direct impact of government policies on one contemporary economic issue using an economic model(s)
• provide an explanation of the flow-on effects of government policies on two other contemporary economic issues using an economic model(s).

This student has described, in the introduction, the two specific policy objectives of sustainable and significant growth (17).

The student has explained how three different government policies directly affect growth, and the flow-on effects of the policies on inflation and employment, by using the language of the AS/AD model in the explanations (18).

Additionally, the student has explained how the policies would achieve significant economic growth in the summary (19).

For a more secure Achieved, the student could provide more description for Policies 2 and 3 (20), and provide more explanation (involving how or why) of the combined flow-on effects on employment (20). Additionally, the student could include a description of how the policies achieve the objective of sustainable economic growth (20).

For Achieved, the student needs to analyse how government policies and contemporary economic issues interact. 

This involves:

• identifying, stating or describing government policies that achieve specific policy objectives relating to one contemporary economic issue
• provide an explanation of the direct impact of government policies on one contemporary economic issue using an economic model(s)
• provide an explanation of the flow-on effects of government policies on two other contemporary economic issues using an economic model(s).

This student has described, in the introduction, the two specific policy objectives of sustainable growth and significant growth (21).

The student has partially explained how the policies directly affect growth, and the flow-on effects of the policies on employment, by using the language of the AS/AD model in the explanations (22).

Additionally, the student has stated that the policies would achieve significant economic growth in the summary (23).

To reach Achieved, the student could provide more description for Policies 2 and 3 (24), and provide an explanation of how the policies affect inflation using the language of the AS/AD model, e.g. from PL to PL1 with Policy 1, and from PL1 to PL2 with Policy 2 (24).

Additionally, the student could include a description of how the policies achieve the objective of sustainable economic growth (24).