IB econ tutor
This post will talk about the International Baccalaureate (IB program) paper 1 for Economics for both higher level (HL) and standard level (SL).
Here is a sample of an IB past paper 1:
As you can see you need to pick a question and write a longer answer response. This response should always be in the same format:
- Definitions
- Diagram
- Evaluation and Analysis with real world example.
In the definitions part you are going to define the key economics course words from the question. Maybe the question would be something like:
“Explain why, in monopolistic competition, abnormal profits can be made only in the short run.”
In which case you can define: monopolistic competition, defining monopolistic competitions is done by listing the assumptions of the model such as: large number of firms, no barriers to entry and exit, and product differentiation.
You would also define abnormal profits. Therefore if you do not know these defintions you can look for them in the glossary of your IB text book.
IB Econ tutor
In other words when I am writing the exam I like to leave space after the definition I have written in the beginning in case I need to go back later and add any others, because often as you are writing the evaluation and analysis you think of other course words you would like to define.
Next you need to do a graph, the graph must relate to the question. For the above graph it would be that of monopolistic competition which is: (IMAGE).
Then you can go onto Analysis and Evaluation where you actually answer the question. However the short answer to the question is that supernormal profits acts as a signal to other firms to enter the market. Since there are no barriers to entry and exit they are free to do that. Some real world examples of firms that are in monopolistic competition are:
