IB Economics SLTopic 5 — Assessment and Exam SkillsPaper 1Exam skill~8 min read
What Paper 1 Asks You to Do
Paper 1 is one essay. Three questions are put in front of you, you pick one, and you write for 75 minutes. No data, no case study, no calculator. The mark comes from how clearly you explain the economics and how honestly you weigh it up afterwards.
📘 What you need to know
You answer one question out of three. The whole paper is worth 25 marks and lasts 1 hour 15 minutes.
Every question splits the same way: part (a) is worth 10 marks, part (b) is worth 15 marks.
Part (a) asks you to explain. Part (b) asks you to evaluate or discuss.
Diagrams are expected wherever they help. They must be fully labelled and explained in words.
There is no calculator, no pre-released material and nothing to read except the question.
Each question comes from a different part of the syllabus, and each one tests a single topic.
Marks follow the quality of the argument, not the number of pages you fill.
What the paper looks like
Three questions, one choice. One might be microeconomics (externalities, asymmetric information), one macroeconomics (government debt, the inflation and unemployment trade-off), one international (trading blocs, economic integration). You will not know which topics turn up, so you cannot revise for “the Paper 1 topic” — you revise the theory and the diagrams, then pick the question that suits you on the day.
Both parts belong to the same question, so the theory you set up in part (a) is the theory you argue about in part (b).
One topic per question. A question will not ask you to jump from monopoly to exchange rates halfway through. If you can already picture the diagram for part (a), that is usually the question to choose.
🧩 Picking your question in the first five minutes
Read all three properly. Skimming and grabbing the familiar word is how people end up stuck at minute 40.
Circle the command term in both parts. “Explain how” and “explain why” want different chains of reasoning.
Ask: can I draw it? If no diagram comes to mind for part (a), that question is the risky one.
Ask: do I have an example? Part (b) is much easier when you can name a real country, policy or year.
Commit. Switching question after 15 minutes costs you more than a weak paragraph ever would.
Part (a): explain, do not argue
Part (a) is worth 10 marks and the command term will be explain, explain how or explain why. That is a request for theory, not for opinion. You are showing the examiner that you can take an economic idea and walk it from cause to effect without skipping steps.
What part (a) is really asking
definition + labelled diagram + a chain of “because” → back to the words of the question
The chain matters more than anything else. A price rises because supply falls, which happens because the cost of an input rose. Each link needs saying out loud. Students who lose marks here usually know the economics perfectly well; they just wrote the first step and the last step and left the middle in their head.
Your diagram is not decoration. Draw it, label both axes, label the curves, mark the old and new equilibrium, then write a sentence that walks the reader through the shift. A diagram nobody explains earns almost nothing.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Explain how a government subsidy on electric cars affects the market for electric cars. [10 marks]
Step 1: define the term you were given
A subsidy is a payment from the government to producers, so the cost of making each car falls.
Step 2: draw it and label it fully
Demand and supply for electric cars. Supply shifts right by the size of the subsidy per car. Mark P1, Q1, P2, Q2.
Step 3: write the chain out loud
Cost of production falls → firms supply more at every price → supply curve shifts right → price paid by buyers falls from P1 to P2 → quantity bought rises from Q1 to Q2.
Step 4: land back on the question
So the subsidy raises the quantity of electric cars traded and lowers the price consumers pay.
Define, draw, chain, link backNo judgement here. Save “is it worth it?” for part (b), or you will run out of time.
Part (b): weigh it up and decide
Part (b) is worth 15 marks, more than half the paper, and the command term will be evaluate or discuss. Both mean the same thing in practice: give both sides, use real examples, and finish with a judgement that is actually yours.
The last box is the one students skip. A conclusion that lists what you already said is a summary, not a judgement.
Good evaluation usually hangs on one of four hooks: short run against long run, advantages against disadvantages, which stakeholders gain or lose, or what the answer depends on (elasticity, how the money is raised, how firms actually react). Pick one or two and go deep, rather than listing six shallow points.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Evaluate the view that a subsidy is the best way to raise the use of electric cars. [15 marks]
Step 1: set the theory up quickly
One tight paragraph plus the diagram from part (a). Do not re-teach it for a page.
Step 2: the case for
Cheaper cars, more take-up, less air pollution, so the positive externality gets closer to being paid for.
Step 3: the case against
The subsidy costs the government money, which has an opportunity cost. If demand is price inelastic, quantity barely moves and most of the money ends up with firms and richer buyers.
Step 4: a real example
Name a country that cut or capped its electric car grant and say what happened to sales.
Step 5: judge, with a reason
“A subsidy works best in the short run while charging points are still being built; in the long run, spending the same money on charging infrastructure is more likely to shift demand permanently.”
Judgement = a side + the reason for it“It depends” only scores when you say what it depends on.
Where the 75 minutes go
Almost every dropped mark on Paper 1 has a timing story behind it. Part (b) is worth 50% more than part (a), so it needs more time, but the writing feels easier in part (a) and people overstay there.
The five minutes of planning at the start are not wasted time. They are what stops you writing three paragraphs on the wrong command term.
WORKED EXAMPLE
Paper 1 gives you 1 hour 15 minutes for 25 marks. How long is one mark worth, and what does that mean for each part?
Step 1: turn the time into minutes per mark75 ÷ 25 = 3 minutes per markStep 2: share it out by markspart (a): 10 × 3 = 30 min part (b): 15 × 3 = 45 minStep 3: that uses all 75 minutes, so trim both5 plan + 25 part (a) + 40 part (b) + 5 check = 75Part (b) gets roughly 40 minutesWrite the four times on the front of the answer booklet before you start writing.
What the marks are actually given for
The two parts are marked with different eyes. Knowing which behaviour belongs where saves you from writing evaluation in part (a) and pure theory in part (b).
What you write
Part (a) — 10 marks
Part (b) — 15 marks
Definitions
Yes, briefly, for the key term
Only if you use a new term
Diagram
Almost always, fully labelled
Often, and it must be referred to
Chain of reasoning
This is where the marks live
Needed before you can evaluate
Real-world example
Helpful, keeps it concrete
Expected, and named specifically
Judgement
Not required
The top band depends on it
Length
Shorter and tighter
Longer, but still argued not padded
Memorised essays get punished. Examiners can spot a pre-learned answer immediately, because it answers the topic instead of the question. Two questions on subsidies in different years can want completely different things.
💡 Exam tip
Underline the command term and the topic words in the question, then check every paragraph against them before you move on.
Draw the diagram before you write the paragraph. The labels on the diagram tell you what the sentences need to say.
Use the question’s own words in your first and last sentence of each part. It forces the answer to stay on target.
Keep two or three examples ready for common areas: a tax, a subsidy, a trade bloc, a period of high inflation. You can bend them to a lot of questions.
No calculator means no calculations. If you find yourself doing arithmetic in Paper 1, you have misread the question.
Leave the last 5 minutes to check that your diagram is labelled and your judgement actually picks a side.
⚠️ Common mix-up
Evaluating in part (a). Explaining is not arguing. Advantages and disadvantages in part (a) earn nothing and eat your part (b) time.
Explaining for the whole of part (b). Re-teaching the theory for 15 marks caps you low, because none of it weighs anything up.
A conclusion that repeats both sides. That is a summary. A judgement says which side is stronger and gives the reason.
An unlabelled diagram. Curves with no names, axes with no units, no new equilibrium marked. It looks like a drawing, not economics.
Writing about the topic, not the question. “Everything I know about subsidies” is the classic memorised-essay trap.
Answering more than one question. Only one is marked, so the second one is 40 minutes thrown away.
Up next: What Paper 2 Asks You to Do — same subject, completely different skill. Paper 2 hands you the data, and hides most of the marks in one final question.
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