Preparing for the GBEO
Discover tips and supporting resources to help you prepare for the Great British Economics Olympiad and the round one paper.
Are you registered for the Economics Olympiad and wondering what to do next? Fear not – we have plenty of Olympiad resources to support teachers and students alike. Use this guide to help you plan your preparation and make the most of the resources available.
Tips on how to prepare
There isn’t a syllabus for the Economics Olympiad, but with a bit of knowledge from studying Economics GCSE & A-level (or an equivalent qualification) students should be able to give the Olympiad questions a go. The questions are difficult – they require students to apply their knowledge, solve problems and make educated guesses. The key is not to give up, and remember that even a seemingly low mark can earn an award.
The Economics Olympiad questions are based on fascinating real-world economics, so the most important tip is to enjoy the economics and the chance to tackle an interesting new paper each year.
As we have said, any economics you are doing as part of your studies is good preparation for this competition. However, if you want to push yourself beyond the core texts of your course.
The main recommended textbook for the Economics Olympiad is The Economy by CORE Econ, the economics education project. CORE (which stands for Curriculum Open-access Resources in Economics) offers a modern way of teaching economics that is widely accessible for students with any backgrounds and available online free of charge.
Supplementary recommended textbook for preparation is Principles of Economics by N. Gregory Mankiw (the newest edition). It represents the more traditional approach to teaching introductory economics.
These two textbooks are available in English, Mankiw's textbook is also translated into other languages, CORE Textbook is also available in French.
If these resources are unavailable for contestants, they can use other economics textbooks of principles level
Paper One of the GBEO consists of 50 Economics multiple choice questions; the overall time limit is 90 minutes.
Multiple choice questions test the basic understanding of economic concepts (which may include simple calculations).
Each participant is sent a link which includes Paper One.
All 50 multiple choice questions will be graded (4 raw points for the correct answer, minus 1 raw point for the incorrect answer).
The questions will test the following topic areas:
- Specialisation and the gains from trade;
- Technology and long-run growth;
- Game theory: conflict and cooperation;
- Institutions;
- Firms;
- Competitive markets for goods and services (including government interventions and non-clearing markets);
- Labour market;
- Market failures;
- Macroeconomic data: measuring income, inflation and unemployment;
- Money;
- Fluctuations and macroeconomic policy;
- Open economy;
- Inequality;
- Environment;
- New industries and markets: innovations and networks.
With Economics Olympiad past papers stretching back to 2018, there is no shortage of papers to practise on. Working through past papers is particularly useful to familiarise yourself with the style of the questions and the timing of the paper.