RES Young Economist 2008
RES Competition - Word Limit
I have had a couple of email requests from students asking if it is ok to go over the word limit (which is 2000 words).
The answer is no - to be fair to all students, we will not judge essays which exceed that limit
Emailing entries in for the RES competition
If you do not have a postal option available please email in your essay to geoff@tutor2u.net ahead of Monday’s deadline
But please also remember to attach a cover sheet completed
You can download one here
RES competition deadline
A reminder that the deadline for entries is Monday 12 May 2008. Entries should be postmarked 12 May or earlier and sent to the tutor2u office together with a completed entry form, which can be downloaded here:
Attention grabbing
The deadline for submitting an entry to the RES economics competition is just a week away! Students entering the competition might like to know that the initial round of judging will be taking place on the 12th June! On this day a team of teachers drawn from across the country will be enjoying a day away from the classroom with just one aim in mind, to read and find essays that grab their attention and which stand a chance to make it into the final short list!
With so many essays to read and judge, writing a lively introduction that engages with the reader is really important if you want your essay to stand a good chance. Each of the judges will have their own thoughts on what makes a good answer. From my point of view, I am looking for an essay that I really want to read to the end - so your opening does make a difference! The best essays will have at their heart a clear economic idea or policy (often it is better to narrow down your idea and develop it properly rather than try to paint on too broad a canvas). And we are looking for students who make the connection between their idea and policy and how this might be used to ‘improve peope’s lives’. You will need to persuade the reader, making good use of evidence and drawing on your background reading.
In short, please dont regard your answer as a normal homework essay! We want to see you going beyond the usual AS or A2 syllabus and taking a few risks!
Good luck this week ... we are really looking forward to reading your answers.
Don’t forget to stick to the rubric of the competition - clear presentation, spell-checking and all of those other ‘critical non-essentials’!!
Two weeks to the RES deadline!
There are two weeks until the final deadline for submitting essays for the 2008 RES competition. Here at school we had our own internal competition to give students a chance to win a small prize for an early entry. I thought I would give a flavour of the topics covered
Open source software
Feed-in-Tariffs
Economics of mass collaboration
Micro-finance
Lump sum taxes
Free trade
Carbon trading
Globalization
Welfare and happiness policies
Flat rate taxes
Auctions
There were certainly some interesting essays from the two dozen that I read - it is so much fun reading an essay without having to give it a mark or apply some dodgy assessment criteria to it. Hopefully my students will find a bit of time away from revision to do a little more reading for their essays and work on their style and arguments before the 12th May deadline arrives!
Submitting your essay for the RES competition
A steady flow of essays is already arriving as students gear up to meet the RES Economics essay competition deadline on the 12th of May. There are plenty of interesting titles and ideas being put under the microscope!
read more...»Royal Economics Society 2008 - Entry Forms
Here are the entry forms for students and teachers to attach to essays being submitted for the 2008 RES competition.
Word format
RES2008EntryForm.doc
Pdf format
RES2008EntryForm.pdf
Congratulations to Tiffin Girls School
Tiffin Girls’ School are celebrating their win in the 2008 Bank of England / The Times TwoPointZero competition. Many congratulations from everyone at Tutor2u. Read all about their triumph here
Flair for economics
1st: The Tiffin Girls’ School, Kingston-upon-Thames.
Nancy Chen, Georgia O’Donnell, Neshma Shah, Teresa Song
2nd: Loreto College, Coleraine, Co Londonderry
3rd: Leeds Grammar School, West Yorkshire
Other finallists: Peter Symonds College, Winchester, Hampshire; Tonbridge School, Tonbridge, Kent; Wolverhampton Girls’ High School, Wolverhampton
Now the attention switches to the Royal Economic Society’s Young Economist of the Year competition, there are just under two months to go before entries must be submitted for judging.
RES Competition - Economic ideas
A student challenged me over the weekend to draft a tentative list of some of the economic ideas that, if followed through with appropriate policies, can and might have a significant impact on people’s lives! This is all part of the early preparations for the Royal Economic Society’s Young Economist of the Year competition for 2008.
Over a coffee this afternoon I jotted down the following (rearranged into alphabetical order). I make no attempt to justify them at this point, some of them are classic ideas (comparative advantage) that seem to me to have stood the test of time, although the principals of comparative advantage seem to be under threat from a clutch of new trade theorists. Other ideas focus on pressing environmental concerns - a carbon tax or a properly constituted system of carbon trading. A further group link to theories of competition, innovation and sources of economic growth.
A plea! Please do take issue with my rough assembly of ideas, I am bound to have missed out a raft of them that are far better and might be great to research and consider in more depth as a contribution to the essay competition. In the spirit of wikinomics, I will update this list adding in fresh ideas in bold text as we go!
read more...»Advice for the 2008 RES Economist Competition
Our panel of experienced Economics teachers read through every essay submitted for the 2007 competition! It was quite a task but also a very enjoyable one, for there was lots of interesting and colourful answers making great use of economic ideas!
The 2008 RES Young Economist essay competition is a great opportunity for students to explore how economics can influence their lives. It is a chance to spread their academic wings, to learn the pleasure of research, to enjoy the challenge of going off-syllabus and to work independently.
Ahead of the 2008 competition, several members of the teachers’ panel have offered good advice for students wanting to make their mark this time!
read more...»
