AS Unit 1
Introduction to Economic Principles
- Multiple choice and structured questions
- Covers the full AS content: markets, resource allocation, market failure and the macroeconomy
1 hour 15 minutes75 uniform marks15% of A level
WJEC AS Economics, memorised in year one.
Everything the AS examines and nothing from the second year. Drill the 9 topics you are actually sitting in Wales this summer.
- AS of 1520QS
- 9 topics
- 62 subtopics
WJEC AS-Level Economics 1520QS
Scarcity and Choice
Topic overviewScarcity, choice and opportunity costProduction possibility frontiers (PPFs): Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choiceProduction possibility frontiers (PPFs): Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwardsSpecialisation, division of labour and exchange: Advantages and disadvantages of specialisationSpecialisation, division of labour and exchange: Productivity
Demand and Supply in Product Markets
Topic overviewFactors influencing demand and supply in product markets: Product marketFactors influencing demand and supply: Main influences on demand and supply in product marketsThe determination of equilibrium price: Equilibrium price and output, and disequilibriumThe determination of equilibrium price: How the market adjusts to a new equilibriumThe determination of equilibrium price: Consumer and producer surplus on the diagramConsumer and producer surplusPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of demandPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Income and cross price elasticity of demandPrice, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of supply, uses of elasticity and tax incidence
Demand and Supply in Labour Markets
Topic overviewWage determination: Demand for labour as a derived demandWage determination: Equilibrium wage rate and shifts in labour demand and supplyWage determination: Elasticity of demand for labour and Elasticity of supply of labourWage determination: Causes of wage differentials, Effects of wage differentials, and wages in WalesLabour market issues: Factors which affect flexibility in labour marketsLabour market issues: Effects of the statutory national minimum wage on labour marketsLabour market issues: Impact of migration on labour markets
Resource Allocation
Market Failure
Topic overviewUnderstanding market failure: Market failureUnderstanding market failure: Public goods, Merit and demerit goodsUnderstanding market failure: ExternalitiesUnderstanding market failure: Externalities of consumption and monopoly powerUnderstanding market failure: Information asymmetries and gaps, Income inequalityUnderstanding market failure: Volatile prices and externality diagramsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Reasons for government intervention in marketsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Maximum prices, road pricing, pollution permits and other interventionsWhy and how governments intervene in markets: Evaluating government interventionThe effects of government intervention: Government intervention can create distortions in marketsThe effects of government intervention: Reasons for government failure
Macroeconomic Theory (AS)
Topic overviewThe circular flow of income model: Flows in the circular flow modelThe circular flow of income model: Injections into and withdrawals from the circular flowThe circular flow of income model: Model to explain the concept of national income equilibriumThe units of aggregate demand (AD): Units of aggregate demand: consumptionThe units of aggregate demand (AD): Factors affecting consumption and investment, and the AD curveThe AD function: Why an AD function will slope downward from left to rightThe AD function: Changes in the unitsThe aggregate supply (AS) function: Shape of the Keynesian long run aggregate supply curveThe aggregate supply (AS) function: Factors which might result in a shift in LRASAD/AS analysis
Government Policy Objectives
Topic overviewEconomic growth: Actual and potential growth, output gaps and the business cycleEconomic growth: Benefits of economic growth for households, government and firmsEconomic growth: Illustrating growth on PPF and AD/AS diagramsUnemployment (AS): Measurement and typesUnemployment (AS): CostsUnemployment (AS): Causes
Policy Instruments (AS)
Topic overviewFiscal policy: FrameworkFiscal policy: Direct and indirect taxes and demand side fiscal policyFiscal policy: Automatic stabilisers, time lags and the Laffer curveMonetary policy: Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee, Inflation targetMonetary policy: Bank Rate and the transmission mechanismExchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rates in a free marketExchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rate policySupply side policies: Aims of supply side policiesSupply side policies: Market-based supply side policies and Limitations of supply side policies
What WJEC AS Economics covers, and what it leaves out
WJEC AS Economics is the first year of the 1520QS course and a qualification in its own right, examined in one unit, AS Units 1. This page holds only what the AS examines: 9 topics across 62 subtopics, 873 active recall questions, starting with Scarcity and Choice, Demand and Supply in Product Markets and Demand and Supply in Labour Markets. The 8 topics kept back for the second year are not shown, so nothing here is content you have not been taught yet.
Starting the second year? The full WJEC A-Level Economics page adds the A2 topics on top of everything here.
WJEC GCE AS and A Level Economics, qualification code 1520QS. Read the WJEC specification ↗
How it is assessed
AS Unit 2
Economics in Action
- Compulsory data response questions
- Covers the full AS content
2 hours125 uniform marks25% of A level
The full specification
9 topics, 62 subtopics. Open any topic to see what is inside it.
01Scarcity and Choice5 subtopicsOpen topic
- Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Production possibility frontier diagrams to depict choice
- Production possibility frontiers (PPFs): Factors which may shift the PPF inwards or outwards
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: Advantages and disadvantages of specialisation
- Specialisation, division of labour and exchange: Productivity
02Demand and Supply in Product Markets9 subtopicsOpen topic
- Factors influencing demand and supply in product markets: Product market
- Factors influencing demand and supply: Main influences on demand and supply in product markets
- The determination of equilibrium price: Equilibrium price and output, and disequilibrium
- The determination of equilibrium price: How the market adjusts to a new equilibrium
- The determination of equilibrium price: Consumer and producer surplus on the diagram
- Consumer and producer surplus
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of demand
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Income and cross price elasticity of demand
- Price, income and cross price elasticities: Price elasticity of supply, uses of elasticity and tax incidence
03Demand and Supply in Labour Markets7 subtopicsOpen topic
- Wage determination: Demand for labour as a derived demand
- Wage determination: Equilibrium wage rate and shifts in labour demand and supply
- Wage determination: Elasticity of demand for labour and Elasticity of supply of labour
- Wage determination: Causes of wage differentials, Effects of wage differentials, and wages in Wales
- Labour market issues: Factors which affect flexibility in labour markets
- Labour market issues: Effects of the statutory national minimum wage on labour markets
- Labour market issues: Impact of migration on labour markets
04Resource Allocation2 subtopicsOpen topic
05Market Failure11 subtopicsOpen topic
- Understanding market failure: Market failure
- Understanding market failure: Public goods, Merit and demerit goods
- Understanding market failure: Externalities
- Understanding market failure: Externalities of consumption and monopoly power
- Understanding market failure: Information asymmetries and gaps, Income inequality
- Understanding market failure: Volatile prices and externality diagrams
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Reasons for government intervention in markets
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Maximum prices, road pricing, pollution permits and other interventions
- Why and how governments intervene in markets: Evaluating government intervention
- The effects of government intervention: Government intervention can create distortions in markets
- The effects of government intervention: Reasons for government failure
06Macroeconomic Theory (AS)10 subtopicsOpen topic
- The circular flow of income model: Flows in the circular flow model
- The circular flow of income model: Injections into and withdrawals from the circular flow
- The circular flow of income model: Model to explain the concept of national income equilibrium
- The units of aggregate demand (AD): Units of aggregate demand: consumption
- The units of aggregate demand (AD): Factors affecting consumption and investment, and the AD curve
- The AD function: Why an AD function will slope downward from left to right
- The AD function: Changes in the units
- The aggregate supply (AS) function: Shape of the Keynesian long run aggregate supply curve
- The aggregate supply (AS) function: Factors which might result in a shift in LRAS
- AD/AS analysis
07Government Policy Objectives6 subtopicsOpen topic
- Economic growth: Actual and potential growth, output gaps and the business cycle
- Economic growth: Benefits of economic growth for households, government and firms
- Economic growth: Illustrating growth on PPF and AD/AS diagrams
- Unemployment (AS): Measurement and types
- Unemployment (AS): Costs
- Unemployment (AS): Causes
08Policy Instruments (AS)9 subtopicsOpen topic
- Fiscal policy: Framework
- Fiscal policy: Direct and indirect taxes and demand side fiscal policy
- Fiscal policy: Automatic stabilisers, time lags and the Laffer curve
- Monetary policy: Bank of England and the Monetary Policy Committee, Inflation target
- Monetary policy: Bank Rate and the transmission mechanism
- Exchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rates in a free market
- Exchange rates and exchange rate policy: Exchange rate policy
- Supply side policies: Aims of supply side policies
- Supply side policies: Market-based supply side policies and Limitations of supply side policies
How you work through it
Pick the mode that fits the time you have.
Try three questions
No account needed. Answer from memory first.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What are the three core ideas of the economic problem?
Evaluation
What are the advantages of specialisation?
Key term
What benefits does specialisation bring to individual workers?
Spaced Repetition Schedule
How reviews are timed
Levo will automatically distribute all of your progress into a spaced repetition calendar. Once you’ve answered, it’s scheduled for you on the next day in the spaced repetition schedule. Over time, the gaps between your recall get bigger, from a day to three years, reinforcing memorisation over a long period of time.
Interval sequence
- 1 day
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- 7 days
- 14 days
- 30 days
- 60 days
- 4 months
- 8 months
- 1 year
- 2 years
- 3 years
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material
Economics revision questions
Common questions about revising WJEC AS-Level Economics. Tap any to open it.
What is on WJEC AS Economics?
9 topics across 62 subtopics, examined in AS Units 1. They are all listed on this page, and each one opens to the subtopics inside it. The full topic list is Scarcity and Choice, Demand and Supply in Product Markets, Demand and Supply in Labour Markets, Resource Allocation, Market Failure, Macroeconomic Theory (AS) and more.
Does AS Economics count towards the full A level?
Yes. In Wales the AS units are marked as a standalone AS qualification and also carry forward into the full WJEC A level, which is why the first year matters more here than it does in England. Check the current weighting on the 1520QS specification, as it is set by the board rather than by us.
What is the difference between AS and A level Economics?
AS is the first-year units only. The A level adds 8 further topics, among them Costs, Revenues and Profits, Market Structures, Macroeconomic Theory (A2), and expects you to connect them back to the AS material. Work the AS content here, then move up to the full A level page when you start the second year.
When do you sit WJEC AS Economics?
Normally at the end of Year 12, in the summer series. That gives you one year to memorise 873 questions' worth of material, which is roughly 5 questions a day across an academic year if you start in September.
How should you revise for AS Economics?
By retrieval, not rereading. Cover the answer, pull it from memory, then check. Levo runs that loop across all 9 AS topics and brings each question back on a spaced schedule, so what you learn in September is still there in June.
Is it worth revising AS content again for the A level?
Yes, and it is the mistake most students make. The second-year papers assume the first year, and in Wales the AS marks usually count towards the final grade as well. Keeping the AS material on a spaced schedule through Year 13 costs far less time than relearning it.
How many questions are there for WJEC AS Economics?
873, written from the 1520QS subject content and grouped into 62 subtopics so you can work one small area at a time rather than a whole topic at once.
Can you use Levo for just the AS year?
Yes. Pick your subject, choose the AS topics on the topic screen, and every mode — the 3-step method, Cram, Blank Blitz, Build It and Test It — works only that material. Add the second-year topics when you get to them.
Every question in Economics, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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