A manageable start, a demanding finish
The June 2025 H060 set combines microeconomics and macroeconomics, with 60 marks and 90 minutes for each paper. Its estimated difficulty is 3.3 out of 5: the opening multiple-choice questions reward secure fundamentals, while the longer responses demand sustained reasoning. This is an analytical estimate, not a published grade-boundary measure or a judgement based on candidate results.
Where revision pays off
Half of the marks available to each candidate come from evaluation: a compulsory ten-mark response and one twenty-mark essay per paper. Inflation is prominent in the compulsory macroeconomic material; microeconomics combines market diagrams, elasticity and the consequences of production. Consumer surplus, resource allocation, sustainable development and exchange rates feature among the essay alternatives. The chapter chart gives each alternative half its printed marks, so it represents balanced coverage rather than the exact route any one candidate takes.
Start with skills that transfer across topics. Practise percentage changes using the original value as the denominator, then connect elasticity to quantities and revenue. Distinguish a movement along demand from a shift of demand. For diagrams, label axes and curves, identify both equilibria and explain the economic mechanism in words. These routines make short questions more reliable and strengthen longer answers.
What the marking guidance rewards
No principal-examiner commentary is supplied, so these pitfalls are inferred from the mark schemes rather than observed candidate performance. A correct direction of change may earn only partial credit when the causal link is missing. In the microeconomic input-cost explanation, connect the cost increase to supply and then to price and quantity. In the income-elasticity response, interpret both the positive sign and the size of the coefficient, and carry the effect through to producers.
In macroeconomics, distinguish nominal pay from purchasing power: wages can rise while real wages fall. Compare inflation rates in percentage points. The supplied reproduction removes two macroeconomic figures for copyright reasons; their expected readings are available in the mark scheme. Do not invent extra observations from those missing charts.
The highest essay levels require developed arguments on both sides, diagrams integrated into the explanation and a supported judgement. Explain why a condition changes your conclusion: spare capacity, the time horizon, the availability of substitutes or the responsiveness of international financial flows can matter. Simply adding a list of qualifications at the end is weaker than showing how each qualification alters the original chain of reasoning.
A practical examination routine
Allow about twenty minutes for Section A, thirty-eight for the case study and thirty-two for the chosen essay, including checking. Select the essay for which you can build both an argument and a counterargument with a suitable diagram. Show calculation working and tie short explanations directly to the extract. Do not answer both essay alternatives.
Looking ahead cautiously
The earlier-series history makes monetary policy, fiscal policy and substantial economic-growth analysis useful priorities after relatively light recent coverage. Government intervention remains recurrent despite a declining primary-mark allocation. These are revision priorities, not reliable forecasts: topics do not become guaranteed because they have been less prominent. Keep broad coverage, especially of diagrams and evaluation skills that can be assessed in many different contexts.