Pay attention to every word

In the HSC exam, every word in every question is deliberate. Each word has a purpose.

That’s why decoding exam questions is so important if you want to access the higher marks on offer.

Let’s take an example. Below is Q18 from the 2020 NSW Economics HSC. It’s a tariff question with lots of words and numbers. I got asked about this specific question by a student and it’s a great example of the power of decoding exam wording.

I think the trickiest part of the question is the expression “total consumption”. What even is total consumption?

Let’s say we’re in the exam and we’re feeling a bit lost. We can decode the words to come to the answer.

First, we can think about consumption as being demand, and demand involving how much of something consumers want over a range of prices.

So — if we think about consumption, consider the fact that the question has told us that:

the economy has introduced international trade
there are imports.

Given all this, total consumption will include the total amount consumers actually want to consume. That is, locally produced goods AND imports. So the 35,000 kg figure includes the amount of cotton produced by the economy AND the 10,000 kg of cotton that is now imported. If 35,000 kg includes exports and imports, and imports are 10,000kg, that leaves domestic production at 25,000 kg.

You can then work out the answer. If domestic product, after the tariff is 25,000 kg, then domestic production has fallen by 5,000 kg. Just calculate tariff revenue and you’re golden.

You can see my working out process below.

Also, check out the video below for the step-by-step strategies.

Pay very close attention to the wording. Every word serves a purpose in HSC exam questions.