ECON1: June 2012: Question 6 - 8 Mark Question: Model Answer and Explanation:

Once again the key is to read the question and read the title of the graph (and the axes) to fully understand what it is showing us and what we need to do with the information.

This is one of the most complicated graphs to understand that AQA have ever set in my opinion. This graph does not show how much is spent on healthcare, it does not show a percentage increase in spending on healthcare. What it shows is how much the government spends on healthcare, as a percentage of national output, and the changes to that in comparison to the previous year.

I’m not even sure that I understand what that means, and I have just spent quite a few minutes working it out and rewording what I wrote above, these are minutes that you won’t have in the exam. However, whilst it helps if you understand the data, to some extent it is not essential, as you will see when I start to answer it… It does not show us in which year the most amount was spent, or, even more confusingly, in which year the biggest increase in spending was, as we have no idea about the changes in national output and it doesn’t even tell us that spending went up each year… As a percentage of national output spending went up each year, but if this fell dramatically, real spending may have decreased….

The key words in the question are: two, significant and over the period shown.

What this means is that the whole of the data is important, the fact that there is a forecast in there is somewhat irrelevant, it is still part of the whole data set and must be treated as such.

The difference between this question and most 8 mark questions is that this one is not asking us for a comparison, just the two significant points.

Here is how I would answer this:

Phil Hensman @PhilsEconomics

The highest (This is why it is significant) annual % change of UK government spending on health care as a % of national output between 1980 and 2015 (So, I don’t really need to understand the data, I just need to quote the title and pick the right point) occurred in 2003 when it was around 13%. (Shown by the blue circle)

The lowest (starting a new paragraph to show it’s a new point, and explaining why it is significant) annual % change of UK government spending on health care as a & of national output between 1980 and 2015 ( showing that I understand that the question asks me to identify the points over the whole period) is set to occur (showing that I understand that it is a forecast) in 2014 when it is expected to be around 0.5%. (Shown by the green oval)

Here is the answer without the annotations:

The highest annual % change of UK government spending on health care as a % of national output between 1980 and 2015 occurred in 2003 when it was around 13%.

The lowest annual % change of UK government spending on health care as a & of national output between 1980 and 2015 is set to occur in 2014 when it is expected to be around 0.5%.

It turns out to be a very short answer, and one which lots of students lost marks on, as the graph was so confusing, but once again emphasising the need to read the title of the graph.

Phil Hensman @PhilsEconomics