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WACE Economics · Year 12

WACE Economics: what actually gets examined

Every question from 4 official SCSA papers, coded by unit, content area and marks — so you can decide what to revise from evidence rather than a feeling.

4 SCSA papers, 2022–2025 · 118 questions · 400 marks

12 of the 12 topics in WACE Economics were examined in every paper on file, and the 2 units carry almost identical weight. There is nothing here you can safely skip — the question is what order you revise in.

Counted from 4 official SCSA Economics papers (2022–2025). 118 questions, 400 marks. Nothing estimated.

12 of 12content areas in every paper on file
50marks in the single biggest content area
50%indicative share per unit, from teaching time

The key words that carry the paper

Share of written-response questions by SCSA key word, matched against SCSA's own Glossary of key words. Revising the content without revising the directive is how marks get lost. The lower / middle / higher grouping is ours — SCSA publishes the list but does not band it. Based on the 93% of written responses that open with a listed key word; the rest open with wording outside it, such as a direct question.

Describe18% · 5qlower order
Explain14% · 4qmiddle order
Identify14% · 4qlower order
Outline14% · 4qlower order
Extract11% · 3qlower order
State11% · 3qlower order
Other11% · 3q
Define7% · 2qlower order

Lower orderMiddle orderHigher order

Each tile is one key word; its size is that key word's share of written-response questions that open with one. The smallest 2 are grouped as Other: Choose 4% · 1q, Calculate 7% · 2q.

Where the marks sit

Each unit with its content areas underneath. The bar is that content area's share of its own unit, and the chip says how many of the papers on file examined it.

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy

199 marks

50% indicative share, inferred from equal teaching time — not a published mark weighting

Foreign investment Every paper 43 marks

10 questions · 22% of this unit

Free trade and protection Every paper 38 marks

14 questions · 19% of this unit

Exchange rates Every paper 34 marks

8 questions · 17% of this unit

Terms of trade Every paper 32 marks

5 questions · 16% of this unit

Australia's international trade Every paper 27 marks

15 questions · 14% of this unit

Balance of payments Every paper 26 marks

10 questions · 13% of this unit

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy

201 marks

50% indicative share, inferred from equal teaching time — not a published mark weighting

Fiscal policy Every paper 50 marks

12 questions · 25% of this unit

Monetary policy Every paper 39 marks

12 questions · 19% of this unit

Labour productivity Every paper 37 marks

12 questions · 18% of this unit

Australia's macroeconomic performance and the business cycle Every paper 32 marks

13 questions · 16% of this unit

The aggregate demand and aggregate supply models Every paper 25 marks

8 questions · 12% of this unit

The aggregate expenditure model Every paper 19 marks

10 questions · 9% of this unit

Across 4 papers the units carried 199, 201 marks — against an indicative 50% share each, inferred from equal teaching time (SCSA: the notional time for the pair of units is 110 class contact hours). The SCSA Economics ATAR Year 12 Syllabus (for teaching from 2024) publishes no mark weighting; the counted share is the only measured figure.

How each content area gets asked

The 6 biggest content areas, by the shape of the questions actually set on them. Revising the content without revising the directive is how marks get lost — the key words below are SCSA's own, counted from the papers.

Fiscal policy

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy · 50 marks across 12 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×8 · Short answer ×1 · Extended response ×3

SCSA key words Extract ×2 · Explain ×2

Foreign investment

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy · 43 marks across 10 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×6 · Extended response ×4

SCSA key words Identify ×1 · Describe ×1 · Choose ×1

Monetary policy

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy · 39 marks across 12 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×8 · Short answer ×1 · Extended response ×3

SCSA key words Describe ×1 · Define ×1 · Identify ×1 · Outline ×1

Free trade and protection

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy · 38 marks across 14 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×10 · Short answer ×1 · Extended response ×3

SCSA key words Identify ×1 · Outline ×1 · Describe ×1

Labour productivity

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy · 37 marks across 12 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×8 · Short answer ×1 · Extended response ×3

SCSA key words Define ×1 · Describe ×1 · State ×1 · Outline ×1

Exchange rates

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy · 34 marks across 8 questions

Asked as Multiple choice ×5 · Short answer ×1 · Extended response ×2

SCSA key words Identify ×1 · State ×1 · Outline ×1

What the markers wanted

School Curriculum and Standards Authority publishes examination reports after each paper. This is our reading of the 2022–2025 feedback, in our words, grouped by unit and cited to the year and question it was seen in. It describes what markers rewarded in papers already sat; it does not predict the next one. The originals are linked below.

Across the paper

  • SCSA repeats every year that the directional verb sets the depth: identify and state want a figure or a phrase, describe and outline want the main features, and explain wants cause linked to effect
  • Section Three carries a large share of the paper, and the panel notes candidates who spend their time freely in the earlier sections can be left without room to plan an extended answer

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy

Better responses

  • Treating the terms of trade as an index built from export prices relative to import prices, then naming the commodity price movements that pushed the ratio up or down
  • Drawing tariff, subsidy and exchange rate diagrams as microeconomic models, with axes and curves labelled for the market in question rather than reused from a macroeconomic diagram
  • Labelling an exchange rate diagram with the price of one Australian dollar on the vertical axis and the quantity of Australian dollars on the horizontal, and naming the curves as demand for and supply of the currency
  • Setting out the balance of payments as a record of transactions with the rest of the world, keeping the current account distinct from the capital and financial account
  • Mining the written extract for the specific detail a trade or protection question needs; SCSA found candidates handled text stimulus more comfortably than graphs or tables
  • Defining foreign investment terms with a concrete example attached, and tracing how foreign liabilities feed income flows back into the current account

Where marks were lost — and how to keep them

  • Explaining a terms of trade movement through both the demand and the supply side of commodity markets, which SCSA singled out as the weakest data question of 2023
  • Showing the double entry system in the balance of payments with a worked example, so both the credit and its offsetting debit appear; this pulled down the 2024 data section
  • Reading a currency or trade graph precisely and quoting the size and direction of the movement with its unit, instead of describing the trend in words alone
  • Choosing the Unit 3 model the question actually names, since a tariff, subsidy or exchange rate question earns nothing for a macroeconomic diagram
  • Answering every element of a terms of trade extended answer, where each factor needs its own explanation rather than a list of influences
  • Practising the trade calculations the syllabus lists, such as opportunity cost ratios and the trade intensity ratio, and writing the result with the right unit of measurement

Seen in 2025 Q25, 2024 Q22, 2023 Q25, 2023 Q28, 2023 Q29, 2022 Q25, 2022 Q26.

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy

Better responses

  • Labelling the AD/AS model with the price level on the vertical axis and real GDP on the horizontal, curves named AD, SRAS and LRAS rather than D and S, and the new equilibrium marked
  • Carrying the multiplier through the answer, so an initial change in a component of aggregate expenditure becomes a larger final change in real GDP rather than a one-for-one shift
  • Working monetary policy through its transmission mechanism, from the cash rate to borrowing costs, spending and activity, instead of asserting that the policy slows or lifts the economy
  • Naming the phase of the business cycle from a graph and backing the label with the growth figures shown in the data
  • Referring to what the Reserve Bank has actually done over the past three years, which the syllabus treats as contemporary content, rather than describing policy in the abstract
  • Explaining causes of structural change and factors behind labour productivity with recent Australian examples attached to each one

Where marks were lost — and how to keep them

  • Drawing the aggregate expenditure model with aggregate expenditure on the vertical axis and real GDP on the horizontal, and showing the AE line shifting rather than a curve rotating
  • Including the long-run aggregate supply curve beside short-run aggregate supply, so the diagram can show where output settles as well as the immediate effect
  • Tracing a commodity price shock through export income into aggregate demand and on to output and the price level, with the multiplier, rather than stating that activity would fall
  • Handling the consumption function and the aggregate expenditure model, which SCSA identified as the content candidates found hardest in the 2023 multiple-choice section
  • Calculating an inflation rate from index numbers and expressing it as a percentage, one of the skills the panel asked teachers to drill
  • Judging whether a macroeconomic objective has been met by quoting the figures in the table, not by answering from general knowledge of the economy

Seen in 2025 Q23, 2025 Q24, 2025 Q28, 2023 Q26, 2023 Q27, 2023 Q30, 2023 Q31, 2022 Q27.

2025 SCSA examination report →2024 SCSA examination report →2023 SCSA examination report →2022 SCSA examination report →

How the paper is built

Marks by question format across the same 4 papers.

Multiple choice 8824 / 24 / 20 / 20 per paper
Short answer 7236 / 36 / 0 / 0 per paper
Extended response 24040 / 40 / 80 / 80 per paper

The rest moves around: multiple choice ran 24, 24, 20, 20 marks, short answer ran 36, 36, 0, 0 marks and extended response ran 40, 40, 80, 80 marks.

Every question, by content area

All 118 questions from the 4 papers, listed under the content area each was coded to — year, question number, marks as printed on the paper, key word and format — with SCSA's own copy of the paper linked on every row. The questions themselves are read there, not here. Marks here are as printed and every question is listed once, so these totals sit a little apart from “Where the marks sit” above, by design: there, a question coded to more than one content area has its marks split evenly, and a question offered as one of several choices counts for its share of the paper rather than its printed marks. Open a unit to see its list.

Unit 3: Australia and the global economy58 questions · 269 marks · show

Foreign investment · 9 questions, 54 marks

Free trade and protection · 13 questions, 52 marks

Exchange rates · 7 questions, 29 marks

Terms of trade · 5 questions, 49 marks

Australia's international trade · 14 questions, 44 marks

Balance of payments · 10 questions, 41 marks

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy60 questions · 271 marks · show

Fiscal policy · 12 questions, 68 marks

Monetary policy · 9 questions, 35 marks

Labour productivity · 11 questions, 55 marks

Australia's macroeconomic performance and the business cycle · 13 questions, 65 marks

The aggregate demand and aggregate supply models · 6 questions, 20 marks

The aggregate expenditure model · 9 questions, 28 marks

The papers this is counted from

School Curriculum and Standards Authority publishes every paper and its marking guidelines. These links go to SCSA's own copies — read the questions there.

2022 SCSA paper · 100 marks →2023 SCSA paper · 100 marks →2024 SCSA paper · 100 marks →2025 SCSA paper · 100 marks →

These are the external examination papers. They are not the whole subject: Economics is also assessed by school-based assessment set and marked by your school, which SCSA does not publish — so nothing on this page covers that part of your result.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Which WACE Economics content areas come up every year?

12 of the 12. Every content area marked "Every paper" above was examined in all 4 papers on file. That describes the papers analysed, not a prediction — examiners set each paper fresh.

Which WACE Economics unit is worth the most marks?

Unit 4: Macroeconomic theory and economic policy 201, Unit 3: Australia and the global economy 199 marks across the 4 papers analysed. The syllabus publishes no mark weighting for them; the indicative share on this page is inferred from equal teaching time (SCSA: the notional time for the pair of units is 110 class contact hours), and the counted share is a different measure.

What is the biggest single content area in WACE Economics?

Fiscal policy, with 50 of the 400 marks counted across 4 papers.

How was this analysed?

Every question in 4 official SCSA WACE Economics papers (2022–2025) was counted against the SCSA Economics ATAR Year 12 Syllabus (for teaching from 2024): its mark value, its format and its key word, and the unit and content area it assesses. Marks are reconciled against each paper's own stated total, and where a section offers a choice the alternatives share that section's marks rather than each claiming them.

Are the exam questions reproduced here?

No. School Curriculum and Standards Authority owns the papers. This page publishes counts and links to SCSA's own copy of each paper so you can read the questions at the source. The analysis is ours; the papers stay with SCSA.

Does this predict what will be in my exam?

No, and it is not meant to. It describes what has been set. Examiners write each paper fresh and can weight a neglected content area heavily, which is why every content area is listed here, including the ones examined least.

Can I see which WACE Economics questions were set on each content area?

Yes. Every question from the 4 papers is listed above under the content area it was coded to, with its year, question number, marks and key word, and a link to SCSA's copy of that paper. The question itself is read there, not here.

What did the SCSA markers say about WACE Economics?

School Curriculum and Standards Authority publishes marker feedback after each paper. The "What the markers wanted" section above is our reading of it across 4 years, in our words, grouped by unit and cited to the year and question it was seen in, with the originals linked.

Coded against the SCSA Economics ATAR Year 12 Syllabus (for teaching from 2024). Where a question is coded to more than one content area its marks are split evenly, so content area totals within a unit can round a mark or two above the unit total. A content area is marked "Every paper" when it appears in all 4, "Most papers" when it is missing from one, and "Comes and goes" when it is missing from more — the one-paper tolerance absorbs a single coding miss rather than publishing it. Last updated 2026-09-01 · Exam papers © School Curriculum and Standards Authority, linked at source.