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What’s the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) and How Is Economics Assessed Within It?

Victor Tan
 

Sepupus, we’ve come to the last part of the focus of this website beyond which an open world lies. Here we are at the program that I did, the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program.

Of all the major pre-university programs, I think that this is probably one of the most misunderstood – But there are a couple of people out there whom you might not expect to have done it, but whose names you will recognize regardless.

Amongst others, you have Khairy Jamaluddin, who did his IB aeons ago (and who did an extended essay on FELDA, interestingly enough), as he discussed with me when we did our interview together last year…

Seen: A couple of (former) IB students just doing their thing. Books: Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s Malay Dilemma, and Anwar Ibrahim’s The Asian Renaissance.

And also… Kim Jong-un? The current supreme leader of North Korea, otherwise known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who allegedly did his IB in Switzerland where the thing was actually conceived?

Well, maybe that’s just conventional wisdom or the results of a tabloid rag gone wow. But it would be fascinating to imagine him struggling over a HL math exam 😅

Anyway, IB is a globally recognized two-year educational framework tailored for students aged 16-19, and it is a little different from A levels which tend to go a lot more into depth into individual subjects in that it emphasizes holistic learning, international-mindedness, and developing inquiring people capable of critical thinking and responsible global citizenship – Which pretty much any IB student could easily tell you just means that we are extremely extremely good at BSing, but I’ll leave it to you to discover what’s true and what’s not.

If you’re doing the IB, maybe you can even make it into a TOK question.

You’re welcome.

Anyway…

Educational Philosophy of the IB Diploma Programme

Every educational organization has some sort of underpinning philosophy behind it, and the IB is no different. What it promised seemed a little more appealing to me at the time, though, and this is what it was.

You can also read this document here created by the IB if you are interested.

what-is-an-ib-education-enDownload

Didn’t read that? No problem – here are my thoughts and experiences.

I could say any number of woke things about the IB diploma, but I think that that’s a disservice to you, so I will just say my thoughts.

As I understand it, the International Baccalaureate (IB) is designed to be an international qualification. It was designed to be a curriculum that was interoperable, whichever international school you went to throughout the world, and it was designed with that explicit idea of broad focus and worldly scope in mind – To create something for the children of diplomats across the world so that whichever international school they went into, they would be able to just slot themselves in and just function, work, and do well.

To that end, students take six subjects which is meant to offer an education in breadth – three at what we call higher level and three at standard level. A higher level is roughly equivalent to an A level in terms of scope, while SLs are more analogous to AS exams. Also, there are a couple of interesting assessments, namely…

  • Theory of Knowledge (TOK), which explores the nature of knowledge and how we come to know what we know.
  • Extended Essay (EE), which involves an independent research project of 4000 words, fostering depth of inquiry.
  • Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) encourages students to engage in extracurricular activities to nurture personal growth and community service.

Economics within the IB Diploma Programme

Now, this sets us out to understand economics within the IB Diploma.

Economics within the IB DP focuses not only on economic theories and models but also on their real-world application, ethical implications, and societal impacts, and with an eye towards internationalism.

Curriculum and Content

Economics students at both Higher Level (HL) and Standard Level (SL) study four core units:

  • Introduction to Economics: We study foundational principles and economic thinking, Leading from scarcity into the principles of economics.
  • Microeconomics: We study individual market behaviors, supply-demand analysis, and market failures, amongst other things.
  • Macroeconomics: national economies, policy-making, and economic indicators like GDP, GDP per capita, as well as phenomena that affect the macro economy, i.e., the economies of countries, such as inflation and the interest rate, and how all this affects the aggregate behavior of consumers.
  • The Global Economy: international trade, economic integration, sustainable development, and economic growth.

As with Economics at IGCSE and A level, understanding content knowledge is important, but so is the ability to analyze and to evaluate, although the topics may be slightly different or the emphasis somewhat shifted. We will talk a little bit more about this later on.

The difference between SL and HL in terms of content is that HL goes much more into depth. For example, in HL economics, students go deep into the Theory of the Firm and into cost curves amongst other things, the Marshall-Lerner condition, and a lot more depth in terms of discussions and understanding of economic theory. Also, there is an explicit focus on policy analysis and evaluation which is manifested in paper 3 which is only available for HL students.

📚 IB Economics Assessment Structure: HL vs SL

STANDARD LEVEL (SL)

🔸 Internal Assessment (30%)

  • Content: Three commentaries (800 words each) based on real-world news articles. This will probably be a big source of your suffering throughout the course, and I will talk more about it later on.
  • Coverage: One each for microeconomics, macroeconomics, and global economics.
  • Assessment method: Internally marked, externally moderated. What this means in practice is that all of you will be working with your economics teachers to craft and create your commentaries. In most schools, you will have the chance to have your teacher look over a draft one time so that you can receive comments before having to submit the final.

    What typically happens is that the teacher will assign grades to every single person, and IB won’t be checking every single assignment for marking. Rather, what they do is choose one or two commentaries from the entire cohort, compare what they personally would grade the IAS against the teacher’s grade, and then from there try to understand how the school is doing.

    If the school grades the commentary very leniently and assigns it a perfect score when in reality it should have only deserved a 5, then this raises an alarm bell that tells us that the school is too lenient and therefore all other students should be treated as such.

🔸 External Assessment (70%)

  • Paper 1 (Essay-based) – Extended analytical and evaluative responses, requiring critical thinking and deep synthesis across economic theories. Basically, you need to bring out your analysis and evaluation skills here alongside your understanding of real-world examples. By this point, I hope that you’ve read a lot and have taken the effort to learn about the world around you, countries around you, and economic decisions and how they impact the world around you.
  • Paper 2 (Data-response) – Application and analysis of data sets to examine economic concepts practically.
PaperTypeTimeDescriptionWeight
1Extended Response1 hour 15 minChoose one question from three. Each question has part (a) and part (b).30%
2Data Response1 hour 45 minChoose one question from two. Based on real-world case study extracts.40%

🕒 Total Examination Time: 3 hours
📘 Syllabus Coverage: Core syllabus only (units 1–4)

HIGHER LEVEL (HL)

🔹 Internal Assessment (20%)

  • Content: Same as SL — three 800-word commentaries from different syllabus sections.
  • Assessment method: Internally marked, externally moderated – Same as before.

🔹 External Assessment (80%)

  • Paper 1 and 2 – Same as for SL.
  • Paper 3 (Policy paper) – A specialized assessment exclusively for HL, focusing explicitly on policy evaluation and synthesis.
PaperTypeTimeDescriptionWeight
1Extended Response1 hour 15 minSame structure as SL — one out of three essays (two parts each)20%
2Data Response1 hour 45 minSame as SL — one out of two case-based questions30%
3Policy Analysis1 hour 45 minAnswer two compulsory questions — includes mathematical calculations.30%

🕒 Total Examination Time: 4 hours 45 minutes
📗 Syllabus Coverage: Core + HL extensions (includes more advanced theory and quantitative work)

🎯 Summary: SL vs HL

FeatureSLHL
Papers2 (P1 & P2)3 (P1, P2, P3)
Internal Assessment30%20%
Quantitative Paper❌✅ (Paper 3)
SyllabusCore topics onlyCore + HL extensions
Total Exam Duration3 hours4 hours 45 minutes
University PreparationModerateStrong (especially for economics/finance)

Philosophy and Practical Differences between HL and SL

HL Economics aims to prepare students rigorously for university-level economics study. It provides deeper theoretical foundations, more extensive analytical challenges, and greater demands for synthesis and evaluation. The additional HL-exclusive policy paper reflects this heightened focus.

SL Economics, while rigorous, is tailored for students seeking a strong but general understanding of economics. It balances foundational theory with practical applications suitable for students whose higher education or career aspirations lie in diverse fields beyond economics itself.

Similarities and the Unique Contribution of the IB

Regardless of whether you are taking SL or HL economics, it’s a good bet that you will be expected to:

  • Read widely
  • Manage your time extremely well because of the multiple other assignments and subjects you are dealing with
  • Be able to comment intelligently and link things together across different areas of the syllabus
  • Make good observations about what’s suitable

One of the reasons why the IB happens to be one of the most expensive pre-university programs that a person can undertake is because of the high labor intensity of this kind of engagement, whereby teachers have to often deal with entire cohorts of students on a personal basis to provide feedback to every single student in the course of their journey, which is not easy by any means and entails a large amount of work.

I consider it a very rewarding programme, but let me go ahead and tell you that it really isn’t for everyone, because it’s not an easy programme and if you don’t choose the right school, you will suffer because of the way the curriculum is structured and because of how much contact time and therefore collaboration you as a student will need to have with your teachers.

I know some of you will read this and you will say that you want a more rigorous education – Well that was exactly what I wanted; let me not overly praise or mock my teachers, but let me just say that it would be fair to say that I went on to hard mood. And up until now I still don’t know whether I can justify it.

To that, I can say the following: Be careful what you wish for because you may actually receive it.

…Then again, you’re here reading Sepupunomics, are you not? Well… Enjoy your masochism then, I guess.😂

Alright, sepupus, that’s enough for today, and I will see you in the next one!

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Economy International Malaysia Premium Reports Singapore

Dr. Goh Keng Swee: Architect of Singapore’s Economic Miracle

Victor Tan
 

Sepupus, most of you who are reading this are probably aware that I am from Malaysia, and a subset of you are probably aware about the traumatic separation between Malaysia and Singapore.

If you have known me over the years, you may also know how I have wrestled with this complexity both in my existence as a Malaysian and in my interactions with Singaporeans, and in my later reading, reflection, and heightened understanding of this event.

In time, and upon reflecting upon the ties of kinship, trauma, and renewed kinship between our two nations, I have come into the realization that Singapore’s story is a story of transformation, renewal, not just of surviving but also of thriving – It is a key case study that any student of economics must be aware of if they wish to understand the importance of institutions, policies, and economic planning for securing the future of a country.

Most of you who know me in person further likely understand very clearly that I am a strong admirer of the Singapore story – not just the story of the country itself as articulated by Lee Kuan Yew, but also his book “The Singapore Story” in itself, which I have read from cover to cover three times by now, even as I now read his “From Third World to First” for the third time for a project that is coming up for Singapore’s Diamond Jubilee, SG60.

But you probably also know that I like to read beneath the surface – At least, I like to tell myself that I read beneath the surface, and therefore, I cannot discuss Singapore’s success without highlighting the role of one of its chief architects: Dr. Goh Keng Swee.

With that in mind, I am very proud to share with you this premium report below, accessible in full by our premium members or purchasable for USD10 over here, about the man behind Lee Kuan Yew and a sine qua non of Singapore’s economic success.

Introduction

When Lee Kuan Yew delivered the eulogy for his old comrade Dr. Goh Keng Swee in 2010, he declared that “of all my Cabinet colleagues, it was Goh Keng Swee who made the greatest difference to the outcome for Singapore” (pmo.gov.sg). 

Dr Goh is clearly from Singapore, but the fact that he was one of the chief planners of a nation that so sharply diverged away from Malaysia and became one of the most prosperous countries in the world in per capita terms is something that should give not only Malaysia but the rest of the world pause, as they contemplate the consequences of a grand natural experiment illustrating the consequences of institutions and policy formulation upon the fate of two countries that share in ties of kinship, but prioritize dramatically different things. (More on this in subsequent reports and posts) 

Indeed, Dr. Goh was the quiet powerhouse behind many of Singapore’s early triumphs – the economic architect who engineered the nation’s leap from Third World to First, the strategist who built up a credible defence from scratch, and the reformer who overhauled Singapore’s education system. 

A man of incisive intellect and steely pragmatism, Goh served as Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s trusted lieutenant, often tasked with the toughest problems of government (pmo.gov.sg), combining scholarly rigor with an unflinching practicality to carry out the bold policies that laid the robust foundations of modern Singapore. 

This report explores how Dr. Goh Keng Swee set up Singapore’s economic base and key institutions, his interactions with Lee Kuan Yew (including Lee’s own influence and support), and the unique thinking and vision that Goh brought to the fledgling nation. It is a narrative of how one extraordinary man – perhaps one whom we could dub Lee Kuan Yew’s “hatchet man” for his role in executing difficult policies – systematically planned and built the structures that would support Singapore for generations to come. (Lee once said he intended to see that Singapore “will be here a thousand years from now. And that is your duty and mine” – a vision made attainable by the enduring institutions he and colleagues like Goh created(pmo.gov.sg).)

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A Levels Assessment Exam tips IGCSE Economics International Baccalaureate Syllabus

The Importance of Mark Schemes for Economics Exams (IGCSE, A Levels, IB Diploma Program)

Victor Tan
 

Hello, sepupus?

Do you like doing well on exams? Does that er, maximize your utility?

Well, listen up.

Mark schemes are crucial for getting those sweet, sweet, beautiful marks in your Economics (or pretty much any other) exams, whether IGCSE, A Levels, IB, or pretty much anything else — If you’re wondering why I specifically said good at economics exams, just ask yourself: Does being good at economics exams immediately or directly mean that you are good at thinking as an economist? That’s an interesting question, but what’s for sure is this:

If you cannot do well in economics exams, it is very unlikely that somehow or another you are secretly a truly incredible economist. And with that in mind, exams as tests are crucial and it is entirely possible to get higher marks if we understand how those marks are given out.

Here is where mark schemes come in, not just for examiners, but for students who want to excel.

Here’s why!

🎯 1. They Reveal the Target

Mark schemes tell you exactly what the examiner is looking for. Economics is not just about writing something that’s “kind of correct.” It’s about hitting specific keywords, concepts, and logical chains that the examiner has been told to reward.

For example, if the question is:

Explain two reasons why a firm may benefit from economies of scale.

The mark scheme might expect:

  • One valid type of economy of scale (e.g. purchasing, managerial)
  • A clear explanation of how it reduces average cost

Vague answers like “the firm grows” don’t get marks—even if they’re sort of true; each exam has specific criteria and conditions under which marks can be procured. And if you don’t try to understand them or actually work with the real marking documents in the first place, there’s a very high chance that you will just end up concluding that exams are unfair. The system was rigged against you and you didn’t have a chance when actually it was your own fault for not seeking out this important resource.

Also, understanding the syllabus and assessment objectives is one thing and it’s nice to have and it’s good to have that understanding, but you also need mark schemes; mark schemes offer you concrete and hard reasons as to why a particular answer is correct and will give you a valuable picture of what is correct for the exam that you happen to be taking.

🧠 2. They Train You to Think Like an Examiner

By reading mark schemes, you begin to internalize the examiner’s mindset. You learn to:

  • Structure your responses in logical steps (e.g. define → apply → analyze)
  • Avoid waffle
  • Anticipate the level of depth required for questions
  • Sympathize with examiners and imagine what it would be like if you were actually forced to evaluate other people.

This is especially useful in data-response questions or evaluation-based questions, where many students lose marks by either over-explaining or under-developing points.

A little bit more on this. You should try as a student or a parent to understand how an examiner thinks.

It is very worthwhile to do this.

Consider that an examiner wants to reward you for sharing your knowledge and ask yourself what the examiner needs to know in order to give you credit for your answers – They are not here to harm you or to trip you up immediately. Rather, they are performing a very important role in deciding who should be given credit and how they should determine who are the wheat and who are the chaff within the exam cohort. To separate out clearly who are the best – the ones who are good and the ones who unfortunately do not make the cut.

This logic is not exclusive to examiners. If you were to think about it long enough, you might see that there is a societal need for this kind of differentiating behavior, and you might in turn see that at some point, you might have to make the same decisions as well. So, be an examiner for the day, and think about what you would be looking for if you were in their position. It will be valuable for you.

📝 3. They Teach You the Language of Economics

Mark schemes highlight the specific terminology that Cambridge values. Using the correct economic language (e.g. “opportunity cost,” “price elasticity of demand,” “allocation of resources”) can make the difference between a 5 and an 8.

Having examples in front of you will make it very much easier for you to get used to using that language across all future situations, and make it so you don’t just start waffling out things that people won’t understand. It’s not about infinite creativity across a span of things that are ultimately not relevant. Rather, it is about being able to use the language in the common world that you are studying and being able to make use of it in the most effective, well-reasoned ways. Language is not merely about sounding pretty. It is also about being effective. And the mark schemes tell you very clearly what is effective, even if you may have to interpret them and may need good examples (hint: Join Premium!).

🧩 4. They Help You Understand Assessment Objectives

Each question in Economics (IGCSE and A Levels) is mapped to certain Assessment Objectives (AOs) like:

  • AO1: Knowledge and understanding
  • AO2: Application and analysis
  • AO3: Evaluation

Mark schemes show how each of these is rewarded. So if a question is AO3-heavy, you must evaluate—e.g. by weighing alternatives, recognizing limitations, or giving reasoned judgments. Understanding how the assessment objectives work in conjunction with what the mark schemes offer is highly helpful, especially when you have a good teacher or tutor on hand who is able to help you identify the deeper patterns that lie within.

The same is true for the International Baccalaureate as well, which in turn has its own dynamics – for example, knowledge and understanding of economic theories, application analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in Papers 1 and 2, and accuracy of calculations in Paper 3; almost every IB student also probably has nightmares about the rubrics for the extended essay and also for the commentaries that they have to produce as part of a portfolio throughout their entire career.

The IB has its own ways of assessing what is a good IB economics essay, and we’ll talk more about that soon even as I begin to provide and articulate examples that will come out in this website.

But the basic point is this: it doesn’t matter what curriculum it is – you need to find out how you will be marked in order to understand the broader goals of what you’re being taught to do, and you need not just to have that broad overview of the picture or the direction in which things are going but also need a very clear understanding of how things are evaluated on the more granular levels, whatever exam you are taking.

    📊 5. They Are a Study Tool in Themselves

    Mark schemes let you reverse-engineer good answers. When practicing past papers, you can:

    • Compare your answer to the mark scheme
    • Spot missing points or overcomplicated explanations
    • Learn what earns marks and what doesn’t

    It’s one of the most efficient ways to improve.

    The reason for this is that you want to make sure that you are hitting the right notes, and the mark scheme is basically a source of truth for you. The more you compare your answers to mark schemes and the more you become able to produce answers that hit the correct note, the higher the marks you will get in your exams as compared to what you would have gotten if you had not seen the mark schemes in the first place.

    ✅ Summary

    Mark schemes aren’t just tools for checking your score—they’re guides for mastering the exam. If past papers are the questions, mark schemes are the answer key to success. Learn their logic, adopt their style, and you’ll write answers that the examiner wants to reward.

    They are your keys to the kingdom of economics heaven. Or if you are not religious, then to the mansion. The luxury car or to the dream holiday destination where you can meditate beyond the confines and constraints of banal human life into the higher reaches of a more beautiful universe.

    Take your mark schemes friends and use them as a part of your strategy. Don’t listen to me tell you this over and over again. Reading what I say and hearing me tell you things is only going to get you so far. You can have all the premium resources that you want, but you must use them. You must be proactive, and you must take your learning into your own hands. It is an honor to be a part of your journey, but you are far from done. Go further and farther, and if you want to thank me, do it after you succeed.

    I look forward to hearing your stories!

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