Hello AQA students. We've done it for paper one. Let's now do it for paper two. Hot topic areas that could feature in your paper two exams, but also have the potential to feature in paper 3. Your job is to weigh up these topic areas in your revision. Don't disregard other topic areas. An extra bit of weight towards these. 10 15% more of your time should be devoted to these topics. What about if they come up as major essay questions, you're laughing, great. You've got the knowledge to smash these essays. But even if they don't feature and other topics come up, you've still got the knowledge there to answer great essays and secure top grades. That's what your job is. But also note that this is one video of many in my revision for 2025 exams playlist. Make sure you've watched all the videos in there relevant for your exams. And make sure you know that all the uploads coming are going to be in that playlist geared towards you revising great and securing top grades in your final exam. Watch them all and be aware that many more videos are to come. They're all going to be in that playlist. But let's go now. Hot topic areas of paper two know the pros and cons of free trade very well. Uh, ever since Brexit, the UK's come out. Our politicians have come out and they've said that we want the UK to be a global leader at free trade. We want to champion free trade. And the way we're doing that is by signing free trade deals with many countries around the world or attempting to sign these deals. So, pros and cons of trade linking to trade deals we've already signed or trade deals we're attempting to sign could easily be an essay question. The opposite of that is the pros and cons of protectionism. I mean, look what's happening at the moment with Trump and his crazy tariffs. Trump has been proposing these for a long time. So, that could still be an essay question even though it's recently occurring. He's been talking about it for a while. U but also Joe Biden before Donald Trump was a very protectionist president. He intensified Trump's trade war with China, but he also started his own one within climate industries, imposing massive tariffs on the import of Chinese electric cars, semiconductor chips, lithium-ion batteries, solar panels, all from China. Um, so yeah, knowing the pros and cons of protectionism linked to all these themes will be excellent revision. Next is the topic area of exchange rates. In the last couple of years, the major global theme has been exchange rate depreciation. many countries suffering from weak exchange rates. The UK is a prime example, the euro another good example, but also developing country currencies like the Nigerian naira, Argentina peso, Turkish lera, uh Egyptian pound, uh Indian rupee, but even the Japanese yen, a more advanced nation with a very very weak currency. Um the one exception to that has been the dollar up until recently has been very very strong. So, an essay about the impacts of a weak exchange rate or a strong exchange rate, we need to be ready for knowing how to evaluate those impacts, too. But also know that on January the 1st, 2023, Croatia entered the Euro zone. You might get an essay about the pros and cons of Euro membership or the pros and cons of general monetary union membership. So, make sure you're revising that as well. Know your balance of payments well. In particular, I would focus on the causes and the consequences of countries who are running a current account deficit. That could be linked to the UK, the USA, Turkey are all uh really good recent examples. But also the flip reverse causes of consequences of a current account surplus. Maybe linked to China or Germany. Some very interesting recent examples there. I know that the balance of payments is often under revised. Often students don't like it very much, but AQA love it. Revise it. Well, next is development. I know again students often don't like this topic area. It's often under revised. Don't let that be you. Make sure you learn it very very well. Uh so major themes recently have been about cuts to foreign aid. It's a very recent theme. But also over the last couple of years gently gently foreign aid spending has been coming down to ensure that spending on domestic issues can be picked up a little bit. So knowing the pros and cons of that maybe for developing countries, yes, but also whether that generally is a right move to make or not. Um but also more generally I would be revising interventionist policies to promote economic development. Trade versus aid for development. These are areas I'd way up but development generally revise it well. And next to macro policy this is very likely to feature in your paper two andor your paper three. So you've got to be revising it strongly. There are two sides to macro policy. You got the easy side expansionary fiscal expansionary monetary policy. supply side policies just to shift LS right and boost potential growth. You'll be very lucky if you get a question about that. That could happen. In which case, good for you. Nice and easy. But there is a harder side to macro policy that you've got to be revising as well, which is contractionary monetary policy, contractionary fiscal policy with a focus on government finances, but also supply side policies for more unique goals. Uh these questions are more likely to feature. often macro policy questions are on the harder side but when they come up they're often linked to major themes in the UK economy or themes just globally. Um so you need to be aware yes of the theory but also of the theme. So for example contractionary monetary policy how in the developed world interest rates over the last two two and a half years have been rising a lot to tame higher than target rates of inflation. So revising the effectiveness of that, the limitations of that, the pros and cons of that basically make sure you know that well in your revision and it's not just the flip reverse of expansionary monetary policy. Some of the points are far more novel are far more unique. On the fiscal policy side, major themes globally have been actually rising budget deficits. So knowing the impacts of that, linking that to the UK, the USA, to France, Germany, countries like this uh will be good to know. Some countries have used austerity policies to bring that down. Argentina comes to mind. Scotland have been raising income tax rates very highly. We've been using contractionary fiscal policy to bring that down. So knowing a bit about those policies and the impacts of that, the effectiveness of that in bringing down budget deficits is good to know. Um but also themes recently have been about whether fiscal policy needs to be more expansionary, whether it's the time to loosen fiscal rules in particular um and to be more expansionary with fiscal policy. So thinking about fiscal rules and whether it's good to loosen them or to tighten them is important to add to your vision. But also on the fiscal policy side, a major debate over the last few years has been whether tax cuts or tax rises are the right way to go to improve the state of the UK economy. This goes back to Liz Truss and Quasiang their time in charge and how they favor tax cuts on the rich know the pros and cons of that versus tax rises which we've seen since pros and cons of that and government spending cuts we've seen since pros and cons of that. So just be aware of all of this. I mentioned how context is very important as well. Great to have the pros and cons all in your notes learned well but you need the context too. I'm going to be releasing videos about UK monetary policy themes and UK fiscal policy themes which will give you all the context that you need to know, all the application linked to the UK that you need to know to then apply to these essays if and when they feature. Those videos are going to be uploaded in my revision for 2025 exams playlist. They're going to be uploaded time perfectly for paper 2. So make sure when they are uploaded you watch them. You watch all the videos in that playlist. It's really really important. And then supply side policies. Yes, to boost potential growth. We need that in the UK. But also more novel approaches. So supply side policies to reduce economic inactivity is a major theme right now. But also supply side policies to boost competitiveness, to deal with regional wage inequality. Just make sure that you've watched my supply side policy themes video in my 2025 exams playlist, and you'll see exactly what policies you can use to target those more novel themes. But macro policy, make sure you revise it well. Next, when it comes to macro indicators, I'd focus on deflation and inflation. The causes and consequences of both. When I say consequences, basically the cost and benefits of high inflation, the cost and benefits of deflation. Uh, China recently have had a massive deflationary spiral. Just worth knowing about the consequences of both for inflation. We've seen the rampant inflation in the UK and across really the global economy. So, know this topic area quite strongly. And then you must learn financial markets well in particular the significance of financial market regulation to promote macroeconomic stability. Uh in 2023 when interest rates were rising across the developed world it triggered a wide variety of bank failures mainly in the US but also that was kind of spreading across to Europe too. So knowing the importance of regulation to prevent bank failure, to prevent systemic risk, but also knowing the causes and consequences of bank failure is absolutely imperative to add to your revision. If this does come up as a big essay, you need to be able to do it. It's not difficult material. Revise it well, you'll realize it's quite simple and it's very interesting. Also know that since co in the UK, the savings ratio has increased. the proportion of disposable income that's been saved has hit dramatically high levels, much higher than normal averages in the UK. So, the pros and cons of a higher savings ratio are not that I say, well, the pros and cons of higher savings more generally. Add that to your revision. So, there you have it, guys. Big hot topic areas for you to weigh up for paper two, but also paper 3 exams this year. Make sure you focus carefully and follow the advice here, but also that you're just weighing these up. you're not disregarding other parts of the course so that no matter what the essay is, you'll be able to do it great to a high standard. Also, make sure you're watching all the videos in my revision for 2025 exams playlist. There is a lot more to come. All are going to be uploaded there. All to help you hit these top grades in your final exam. So, thank you so much for watching this one. Stay tuned for many more. Can't wait to see you in those videos. Thanks for watching, guys. [Music]