Economics is not about money. It is about choices, and what every choice costs you.The GOAT Notes™
Every Section B data response opens with a stimulus and climbs 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 4 = 10 marks. A graph is read in four steps.
Tables and bar charts follow the same steps. Tertiary is the largest bar, primary the smallest. A share needs the total, 500 + 1 000 + 3 500 = R5 000 billion, so secondary is 1 000 ÷ 5 000 × 100 = 20%.
Naledi’s Bakehouse in Polokwane raised the price of a loaf from R16 to R19 this week after the cost of wheat flour went up by 12%. Owner Naledi Mokoena, who employs six people, says she cannot pay her suppliers otherwise. ‘My staff earn the same and my oven uses the same electricity, but flour costs more every month,’ she says. On Monday she sold only 310 loaves. A spaza shop down the road still sells bread at R17, but its shelves are often empty.Extract written for this guide
Plotting from a table, as in the growth graph: choose a scale that fills the page, cross each pair, join the crosses in order and label both axes with units. For negative values, run the horizontal axis through zero.
No graph paper is supplied: draw in your answer book with a pencil and ruler.
The explanation is marked separately: at R70 buyers want 9 000 bags but only 5 000 are supplied, so the price rises to R90.
No formula sheet is printed, so the formulas are yours to learn. ‘Derive’ means build the expression from the words, then rearrange it to isolate the unknown: Total = A + B + C becomes A = Total − B − C.
A coefficient is one quantity divided by another. It shows how much of the first there is for each single unit of the second: 4 loaves given up per cake, 30 unemployed per 100 people in the labour force.
A town has 8 400 employed and 3 600 unemployed people. A bakery can make 100 loaves and 20 cakes, or 60 loaves and 30 cakes.
Divide by the labour force, not the employed: 3 600 ÷ 8 400 × 100 = 42,9% is wrong.
‘Show ALL calculations’ means the marks follow your working, not only your answer. A 4-mark calculation usually splits into formula, substitution, working and answer with its unit or % sign. Round only at the end, as the question says.
CAPS asks you to use Economics as a citizen and to join competitions and practical activities. Neither carries marks or teaching time, so no paper tests them. Use them anyway: plan a one-week budget or enter a school quiz.
Real GDP growth by quarter in a small economy: Y1 Q1 2,4%; Y1 Q2 1,1%; Y1 Q3 −0,9%; Y1 Q4 0,6%. Which quarter had the lowest growth rate?
Gross value added (GVA) by sector in Year 1: primary R450 billion; secondary R1 200 billion; tertiary R3 100 billion. A 1-mark item says: ‘Quote the secondary sector’s GVA, with its unit.’ Which answer earns the mark?
From a report: ‘The municipality raised the water tariff from R18 to R21 a kilolitre after the cost of pumping rose by 9%.’ A 1-mark item says: ‘Quote the reason for the tariff rise.’ Which words answer it?
Employment by sector, in thousands of jobs: agriculture 840; mining 460; manufacturing 1 150; services 7 300. A learner must name the sector with the fewest jobs and give the value with its unit. Which answer is complete and correct?
A cartoon shows a shopper with an empty purse in front of a sign that reads ‘Bread R25’. She says: ‘Only half a loaf today.’ In the four-move reading of a cartoon (look, say, name, link), which statement is the NAME move?
A town has 8 000 employed and 2 000 unemployed people. Which formula from the formula card gives the unemployment rate?
Rent rises from R3 000 to R3 300. Which formula from the formula card gives a percentage change?
A farm moves from point A to point B on its PPC, giving up 30 t of wheat to gain 10 t of maize. Which formula from the formula card gives an opportunity cost?
A country has a birth rate of 20 and a death rate of 8, both per 1 000. Which formula from the formula card gives the natural growth rate of a population?
The secondary sector produces R1 000 billion of a total GVA of R5 000 billion. Which formula from the formula card gives a sector’s share of the total, as a percentage?
A learner answers ‘Using a graph, show the effect of an increase in the demand for school shoes on their price (4)’. In her sketch quantity runs up the vertical axis and price runs across the horizontal axis. D and S are named, e is dashed to P and Q, and D1 and e1 are shown. Which mark is at risk?
For ‘Using a graph, show the effect of a fall in the price of rice on the demand for pap (4)’, a learner draws price up and quantity across with both axes named, two crossing curves with no names, e dashed to P and Q, and a new curve named D1 with e1, P1 and Q1 marked. Which addition earns the missing mark?
A learner draws a labelled graph for ‘an increase in the demand for taxi rides’: axes named, D and S named, e where they cross, D1 to the right with e1 marked. There are no dashed lines from e to the price and quantity axes. Which mark is lost?
For ‘Using a graph, show the effect of an increase in the demand for bicycles’, a learner shows axes, named curves D and S, e with P and Q, and a second demand curve drawn to the right but not named, with no new equilibrium marked. Which additions earn the last mark?
For ‘Using a graph, show the effect of an increase in the demand for maize meal on its price’, a learner shifts the supply curve to the right and calls it S1. Everything else is labelled. What must she change?
The price of a loaf rises from R25 to R30. Calculate the percentage change.
A taxi rank carried 400 passengers a day last week and 310 this week. Calculate the percentage change.
Primary-sector GVA grows from R500 billion to R540 billion. Calculate the percentage change.
School fees rise from R2 400 to R2 760 a year. Calculate the percentage change.
A flat’s rent falls from R3 200 to R2 880 a month. Calculate the percentage change.
A learner works out the unemployment rate for a town with 3 000 unemployed and 9 000 employed people: 3 000 ÷ 9 000 × 100 = 33,3%. What went wrong, and what is the correct rate?
Real GDP rose from R1 200 billion to R1 260 billion. A learner writes (1 260 − 1 200) ÷ 1 260 × 100 = 4,8%. What is the mistake, and what is the correct answer?
A farm moves from point A (60 t of maize, 20 t of sunflower) to point B (40 t of maize, 30 t of sunflower). A learner writes: opportunity cost of 10 t more sunflower = 10 ÷ 20 = 0,5 t of sunflower for every tonne of maize. Where is the error?
A country has a birth rate of 24 and a death rate of 9, both per 1 000. A learner writes: natural growth rate = 24 − 9 = 15, so the population grows by 15%. What has she left out, and what is the correct rate?
Real GDP growth in four quarters was 2,4%; −0,8%; 1,2% and 1,2%. A learner works out the average growth rate as (2,4 + 0,8 + 1,2 + 1,2) ÷ 4 = 1,4%. What is wrong, and what is the correct average?
Real GDP growth fell from 1,8% in Y1 Q1 to 0,6% in Y1 Q2. A learner says: ‘The economy shrank in Y1 Q2.’ Which verdict is correct?
The unemployment rate rose from 28% to 31%. A learner writes: ‘It rose by 3%.’ A second learner writes: ‘It rose by 3 percentage points.’ Which statement is correct?
Tertiary GVA was 70% of the total in Year 1 and 70% in Year 2, while total GVA grew from R5 000 billion to R5 200 billion. A learner says: ‘The tertiary sector did not grow, because its share stayed the same.’ Which verdict is correct?
Real GDP was R1 023 billion in Y1 Q2, R1 011 billion in Y1 Q3 and R1 017 billion in Y1 Q4. A learner says: ‘Growth returned in Y1 Q4, so the economy is back where it was in Y1 Q2.’ Which verdict is correct?
A taxi fare rose from R20 to R25, a rise of 25%. Daily passengers fell from 400 to 300, a fall of 25%. A learner says: ‘The rise and the fall cancel out, so daily takings stayed the same.’ Which verdict is correct?
Written for this guide. Using a graph, show the effect of an increase in the demand for school shoes on their price. Describe the graph you would draw, label by label: what is on each axis, how the curves are named, what you mark at the start and what you show and name for the change. Write full sentences. (4)
Price (R a pair of shoes) goes up the vertical axis and quantity (pairs of shoes) goes across the horizontal axis, with a short title. The demand curve D slopes down and the supply curve S slopes up, and I write D and S beside them. I mark e where D and S cross and dash it across to P on the price axis and down to Q on the quantity axis. More demand moves only the demand curve, so D shifts to the right and I name it D1; it crosses S at the new equilibrium e1, which I dash to a higher price P1 and a larger quantity Q1.
Written for this guide. A town has 3 750 unemployed and 11 250 employed people.
(a) Calculate the labour force. (1)
(b) Calculate the unemployment rate. Show ALL calculations: write the formula, the substitution, the working and the answer with its unit, then finish with a sentence saying what the answer means. (4)
(a) The labour force = 3 750 + 11 250 = 15 000. (b) Unemployment rate = unemployed ÷ labour force × 100. Substituting, 3 750 ÷ 15 000 × 100 = 0,25 × 100 = 25%, which means that one in every four people in the labour force has no job.
Written for this guide. Real GDP at constant prices, in R billion: Y1 Q1 1 200; Y1 Q2 1 212; Y1 Q3 1 200; Y1 Q4 1 224. Real GDP growth was 1,8% in the quarter before Y1 Q1, 1,0% in Y1 Q2, −1,0% in Y1 Q3 and 2,0% in Y1 Q4.
(a) Quote the growth rate in the quarter in which the economy contracted. (1)
(b) Growth fell from 1,8% to 1,0% in Y1 Q2. Explain why output did not fall in that quarter. (2)
(c) Calculate the percentage change in real GDP from Y1 Q3 to Y1 Q4. Show ALL calculations. (3)
(a) The economy contracted in Y1 Q3, when the growth rate was −1,0%. (b) A growth rate of 1,0% is still positive, so real GDP still rose in Y1 Q2. Output falls only when the growth rate is negative; here it rose, but more slowly than before. (c) Percentage change = (new − old) ÷ old × 100. Substituting, (1 224 − 1 200) ÷ 1 200 × 100 = 24 ÷ 1 200 × 100. The answer is 2%, a rise in real GDP.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner why a falling growth rate does not mean that the economy is shrinking. Use real GDP figures of your own.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner what you must draw and label to earn four marks for a graph that shows more demand for a good raising its price.
Explain to a Grade 8 learner why we divide by the old value when we work out a percentage change, using a price of R20 that rises to R25.
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Box breathing: 4 counts in, 4 hold, 4 out, 4 hold. Do it four times.
Look at the worked example below first, then make your own. Tick off each topic as you finish it.
Example (already filled in)
| Date | Subject | Topic | Done |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mon 8 Jul | Life Sciences | Your weakest topic, notes + summary | ✓ |
| Tue 9 Jul | Life Sciences | Next topic + 10 practice questions | ✓ |
| Wed 10 Jul | Life Sciences | A full past paper under time | – |
| Thu 11 Jul | Life Sciences | Mark the paper, revise weak spots | – |
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Every graph you can draw and label and every term you can define in one go is a mark you have already banked. Go and collect them.