AP Economics
The goal: Understand how markets and whole economies really work, and turn that understanding into confident exam answers with correctly labelled graphs.
In short: students learn to understand the graphs, not just draw them, and practise on real exam questions until the format feels familiar.
We follow the College Board course for AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics unit by unit. Both exams have the same shape, so we train for it from the first lesson.
The exam
- MCQ60 multiple-choice questions in 70 minutes, about two thirds of the score. Many need a quick calculation or a graph read in seconds.
- FRQ3 free-response questions in 60 minutes: one long question (10 points) and two short ones (5 points each). Each one asks you to draw, label and explain.
What we learn
What I pay attention to
- Graphs drawn and labelled correctly every time: axes, curves, equilibrium, the shift and its direction
- Cause-and-effect chains written step by step, the way free-response questions are marked
- Calculations: elasticity, profit, the multiplier, the money multiplier
- Reading a question carefully: "ceteris paribus", short run or long run, which market
- Linking micro and macro: how one market's story connects to the whole economy
History and connections: We meet Adam Smith, Alfred Marshall, John Maynard Keynes and Milton Friedman, and the events that shaped their ideas, from the Great Depression to the 2008 financial crisis. Where it helps, we use maths (slopes, areas of triangles, percentages) and history to make a topic clear.
How we work
- 1Dialogue, not a lectureWe learn through discussion: I ask, you think out loud. Then we swap roles and you explain the idea to me, as if I were the student. Teaching it back is the fastest way to find a gap, and it sharpens how you speak and write about economics.
- 2Build the graph, then read itWe never just copy a diagram. We build it from the logic: why the curve slopes this way, what moves along it and what shifts it. Then you learn to read what the graph says and to draw it from memory.
- 3Real cases and current eventsEvery idea is tested on what is happening in the world now: prices, central bank decisions, taxes, trade disputes, news and data.
- 4Exam techniqueWe practise on real past questions and read the mark schemes together, so you know exactly what earns the marks and how to set out an answer.
- 5Critique and defendWe look for the weak points of a model or a policy, and you learn to defend your own view with clear arguments and evidence.
- 6Independent work and reviewStep by step you learn to research, read and think on your own. After each lesson you get homework, and we go through it together: what worked, and why.
Homework: After every lesson: problems, short cases and graphs. We review it together, so every mistake becomes a lesson.
Materials: Access to my books and slides, plus interactive learning resources that let you explore topics and ideas step by step and learn on your own.