Ever wondered how the whole assessment process works? Take a look at our series of short videos that shine a light on the assessment process to help students, parents, carers and teachers understand how the exam process works.
May 2025 Economics update
8 May 2025
Welcome to this May update!
This month, the primary focus is on support for the upcoming May/June exam series. The Key Dates section includes the dates that the exam materials will become available.
In addition, the summer 2026 timetables have been finalised.
Wishing all students the very best of luck in their exams!
| Date | Activity |
|---|---|
| 24 June | GCSE & International GCSE question papers uploaded |
| 1 July | A level and IAL question papers uploaded |
| 15 July | A level and IAL mark schemes uploaded |
| 22 July | GCSE & International GCSE mark schemes uploaded |
| 14 August | Results day for A level and IAL Economics |
| 19 August | A level and IAL examiners' reports uploaded |
| 21 August | Results day for International GCSE Economics |
| 26 August | GCSE & International GCSE examiners' reports uploaded |
Getting ready for exams guide
As you and your students begin to focus on the summer exam series ahead, we’d like to share our Getting ready for exams guide with top tips on preparing for exams.
Download the guide and pass it on to your students
Exam wellbeing
Everyone's exam experience is unique, and we understand that preparing for and sitting exams can bring about many emotions. Our exam wellbeing support is here to help you, your students and their families navigate this time – from the run-up to exams, to exam days and results days.
| A level Economics A |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Delivery support focuses on free support materials, networking and both free and paid-for resources. There are links to Pearson, Hodder and other publishers.
A level Economics B |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Assessment support focuses on assessment news and tools, support in understanding the command verbs, and information about grade boundaries and statistics.
Source booklets are to be added to the AS and A level papers for specification A and to the A level papers for specification B. This change is being made following feedback from teachers and will make it easier for students to refer to the sources when writing their answers. Candidates will receive the source booklet as an insert when they sit the exam.
We have provided revised versions of the 2024 question papers should you want to use these for mocks.
May/June 2025 timetable - Economics A
Summer 2026 Timetable
The A level Economics A You Tube Channel includes recordings of events from previous years.
Recent case studies for Economics A
New case studies based on articles from the FT have been written for you to use with your students. These have up-to-date content and also have suggested answers.
| Case study | Theme 1 | Theme 2 | Theme 3 | Theme 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coffee | 1.2.6 Price determination 1.2.8 Consumer and producer surplus 1.2.3 Price elasticity of demand |
4.3.2 Factors influencing growth and development: volatility of commodity prices | ||
| 2 | Electric cars | 2.1.4 Balance of payments | 4.1.6 Restrictions on free trade | ||
| 3 | Rent controls | 1.2.7 Price mechanism 1.4.1 Government intervention in markets 1.4.2 Government failure |
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| 4 | UK public sector borrowing | 2.5.3 Public sector finances | 4.5.1 Public expenditure | ||
| 5 | European carmakers | 1.2.3 Elasticities of demand | 3.1.2 Business growth 3.3.4 Normal profits, supernormal profits and losses 3.4.7 Contestability |
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| 6 | Disposable income | 2.1.1 Economic growth 2.2.1 The characteristics of AD 2.2.2 Consumption (C) 2.4.3 Equilibrium levels of real national output |
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| 7 | Italy's small businesses | 3.1.1 Sizes and types of firms 3.1.2 Business growth 3.2.1 Business objective |
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| 8 | Workers in the global economy | 4.1.1 Globalisation 4.2.2 Inequality |
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| 9 | Saudi Aramco and lithium | 1.2.6 Price determination | 3.1.2 Business growth | 4.3.2 Factors influencing growth and development 4.3.3 Strategies influencing growth and development |
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| 10 | Brazil’s fiscal shortfall | 4.1.8 Exchange rates 4.5.4 Public sector finances 4.5.4 Macroeconomic policies in a global context |
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| 11 | The office lunch disrupters | 3.3.1 Revenue 3.3.2 Costs 3.4.4 Oligopoly – types of price and non-price competition 3.4.7 Contestability |
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| 12 | Kenya – a window into Africa’s demographic future | 1.1.4 Production possibility frontiers
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2.3.3 Long-run aggregate supply 2.5.1 Causes of growth |
4.3.2 Factors influencing growth and development 4.3.3 Strategies influencing growth and development |
There are also some other case studies in the Files section of the Facebook group.
May/June 2025 timetable - Economics B
The June 2025 pre-release material for Paper 3 is now available to download.
Summer 2026 Timetable
Recent case studies for Economics B
The FT case studies above have been mapped to the Economics A specification but they could work for Economics B teaching as well. The command verbs used in the exam-style questions would need to be changed.
New case studies with up-to-date content have been added to both the dropbox folder and to the Files section of the Facebook group.
| IAL Economics |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Delivery support focuses on free support materials, networking and both free and paid-for resources. There are links to Pearson, Hodder and other publishers.
| International GCSE Economics |
|---|
| Delivery support |
| Assessment support |
Assessment support focuses on assessment news and tools, support in understanding the command verbs, and information about grade boundaries and statistics.
May/June 2025 timetable
October 2025 timetable
In 2023 we received feedback from centres that the timetable for the International A level October series was too condensed, leading to timetable clashes and a poor candidate experience. As a result, we took the decision to extend the timetable in 2024 on the understanding that results would be issued a week later than previously.
Whilst we added and an additional week in the timetable for October 2024 series, we decided to postpone implementation of the later results date.
We can now confirm that from the October 2025 series onwards we intend to issue results one week later than in previous years. Results dates for January 2026 will be Thursday 22 January 2026.
January 2026 Timetable
Summer 2026 Timetable
May 2025 timetable
Summer 2026 Timetable
International GCSE Economics
| 2 October | Getting Ready to Teach International GCSE Economics |
| 9 October | Understanding Assessment & Improving Delivery in International GCSE Economics |
IAL Economics
This new resource pack is available now.
100 worksheets with answers, and it covers the whole 2-year course.
Once purchased you are sent access to Word versions of each worksheet to enable you to edit them.
This is a recorded session which focuses on best practice when using ResultsPlus, alongside ExamWizard to analyse your students’ examination results, and improve your in-house approach to teaching the topics your students find challenging.
The Professional Development Academy summarises the training that is available to you.
The interim report was published in March with the final report due in the autumn.
Many teachers have been emailing me asking about the future of our GCSE and A level qualifications. We have had no indication as yet that reforms are in the pipeline but the final report of the Review may provide more information.
These monthly updates will keep you informed of any announcements.
Transform Economics Teaching with Multimedia Resources from the Educational Recording Agency (ERA)
The ERA Licence provides seamless access to television and radio recordings, offering a single point of clearance for the rights needed to create and use authentic media resources in your classroom. With ERA’s free video streaming platform, licensed institutions can explore a rich library of curriculum-mapped TV and radio clips tailored to GCSE, AS, and A-level teaching.
Engage your learners with curated clips, full-length documentaries, and programmes that bring economic contexts to life. The platform also includes exclusive access to the BBC Shakespeare and Literary Archives, offering unique cross-curricular opportunities to enrich your lessons with impactful media - perfect for both homework and classroom activities.
To access this free resource registration is required - but is quick and simple. State schools in England are licensed under a central agreement with the DfE and the vast majority of independent schools also hold a current ERA Licence.
Secondary schools around the world can get free online access to the Financial Times, with articles, games and multi-media content on many topics to enrich studies and improve exam performance in business, economics, politics, geography, psychology and other topics.
The FT can help strengthen global and media literacy, and offer insights into preparation for further study and the world of work. It also has competitions, an online work experience programme and teacher selected articles with suggested questions, alongside resources developed by Pearson/Edexcel.
Details at www.ft.com/schools . A staff member can check if their school is already registered and to create student or staff accounts at www.ft.com/schoolsarefree
The EBEA student conference and the FT
One of the speakers at the conference outlined how useful and important the FT offer can be for students. You can watch a recording of the session here:
Olivia Hylton: An Introduction to FT resources
The Pearson Edexcel Facebook page is designed to help and support you with the teaching and delivery of our UK qualifications. We share the latest news, updates and information about our support services across subjects. From our own news to updates from Ofqual and JCQ, follow us on @PearsonEdexcel on Facebook to stay up to date.
Multi factor authentication was rolled out to nearly a quarter of a million Pearson Portal users last year. Although it has now become a standard way of accessing our systems, it can sometimes present challenges if a smart device is lost or replaced.
You can read more information, see a quick start guide and access FAQs and troubleshooting for our authenticator app in our Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.
Based on feedback received this graphic was created to answer some common questions.
You can read more information, see a quick start guide and access FAQs and troubleshooting for our authenticator app in our Pearson Portal Authenticator support article.
If you teach any of our Business, Enterprise or Esports qualifications, you may wish to check out the monthly updates.
Subject advisor
Colin Leith
Economics
Email :
Phone :
+44 (0) 344 463 2535
(Teaching Services team | Mon-Fri, 9am - 5pm GMT)
