MG207 Managerial Economics · nine papers · 2017–2025

Nine years of MG207, taken apart question by question.

Every question in every past paper, mapped to a topic, counted, and cross-checked against the published solutions. Including one structural pattern that changes how you should revise.

9papers audited, 2017 through 2025
6topics appear in all nine years
4/4Section B slots follow a fixed pattern
60%of the grade is now compulsory long-form
01 — Dashboard

Where you actually stand

Recorded in this browser as you tick Got it or Missed in the question bank below, and as you grade flashcards. Nothing leaves your machine unless you export a backup or turn on sync.

Accuracy by topic — weakest first

Only topics with at least one recorded attempt show a bar. Everything else hasn't been touched yet.

Questions you've missed most recently

02 — Flashcards

Drill the concepts you're forgetting

One card per key formula and per recorded trap, drawn straight from the topic profiles. Graded on a simple spaced-repetition schedule — cards you miss come back tomorrow, cards you know come back in a week. With the exam this close, clearing today's due pile is worth more than reading new material.

03 — Question bank

Every question from every paper

All 96 questions across the nine papers, in full — complete stems, all five options for each multiple-choice question, and every labelled sub-part for the long questions. Filter by paper, topic or section, then reveal answers when you’re ready.

Timer 22:00 Preset

Build a mock

A Section B set assembled from the fixed slot structure, drawing each slot from a different year.

04 — Aiming for a first

The playbook

A first is roughly 70. The cohort mean in the one published year was 65.79. The gap is small and it sits almost entirely in Section B — specifically, in the later parts of Section B questions that students never reach.

Techniques to make automatic

These are the mechanical procedures that recur so often that hesitating on them costs you time you need for the final parts. Aim to execute each without thinking.

TechniqueThe procedureSeen in
The single highest-leverage habit: the examiners repeatedly note that students lose marks not for wrong method but for stopping short — "did not state the complete SPNE", "did not reach parts (c) and (d), likely due to time constraints", "found the equilibrium but didn't write down the SPNE". Budget roughly 22 minutes per Section B question and move on when the clock says so, even mid-part. A half-answered part (f) scores; an unattempted one cannot. Write the final interpretive sentence for every part — the "explain why" clauses carry real marks and take fifteen seconds.
05 — Recalibrate before you use old papers

The exam changed shape in 2023

The content barely moved. How it's assessed moved a great deal — and in a direction that removes the escape hatch students used to rely on.

Legacy · 2017–2022 · six papers

Choice-based, essay-only

  • 8 long questions, no multiple choice.
  • Part A: all 4 compulsory, 12.5% each = 50%.
  • Part B: choose 2 of 4, 25% each = 50%.
  • You could walk past your two weakest Part B topics.
Current · 2023–2025 · three papers

Broad, and fully compulsory

  • 16 questions: 12 MCQ + 4 multi-part.
  • Section A: all 12 MCQ, 3.33% each = 40%.
  • Section B: all 4, 15% each = 60%. No choice.
  • Every topic is now examinable in a way you cannot dodge.
The 2019 mark data explains where firsts are actually won. It's the only year the examiners published means. Part A questions averaged 60–86%. Part B questions averaged 31–61%, with the whole-cohort mean at 65.79 — just under a first. The long-form questions are scored roughly 20 points lower than the short ones, and in the current format they are 60% of the paper and all compulsory. Marginal revision hours are worth far more in Section B than Section A.
06 — The finding worth the most marks

Section B has a fixed skeleton

Across all three papers in the current format, the four compulsory long questions occupy the same four slots in the same order. This isn't a loose tendency — it is 12 out of 12.

How to use this: you can predict the shape of 60% of your paper. Q13 will need the three-way decomposition or an intertemporal budget constraint. Q14 will need cost minimisation and returns to scale. Q15 will need a market-structure equilibrium with surplus calculations. Q16 will be the strategic topic — auctions, bargaining, or asymmetric information, which rotate. Practise each slot as a slot, under timed conditions, rather than revising topics in the abstract.
07 — Appearance rate, 2017–2025

How often each topic actually shows up

Years present out of nine. Half-credit where a topic appears only through a cross-listed mechanism (2018's VCG, which sits under public goods but functions as an auction).

Core — every year, or all but one Likely — most years Occasional — rare, high value when it lands Declining — was regular, now absent
08 — Nine-year grid

Which year, which question

Hover or tap any filled cell for the exact questions. Faded cells are cross-listed appearances only.

09 — Topic profiles

What each topic asks, and where it bites

The risk factor in each card is the mistake the examiners actually recorded in the published feedback, not a generic caution.

10 — Solving guide

Step-by-step method for every recurring question type

Each recipe is a fixed procedure with a worked example from a real paper. The goal is to reach the point where reading the question tells you which recipe to run, and the running is automatic.

11 — Written answers

What to actually say in the “explain” parts

Almost every sub-part ends with explain, comment on, or discuss. These carry real marks, take under a minute, and are the first thing abandoned under time pressure. Below: the recurring prompts, the concepts that must appear, the exact vocabulary the examiners credit, and a model paragraph for each.

Why this section exists. The published feedback repeatedly separates answers by explanation rather than arithmetic — “the best answers not only derived the price and quantity but explained why it does not matter to which party property rights are assigned”; “good answers explained why the total cost increase is lower… some provided an insufficient explanation, or none at all”; “very few wrote that whenever marginal cost is positive, MR will equal MC when MR is positive and demand is elastic.” The calculation gets you to a 2:1. The sentence afterwards is the first.

Phrase bank

Terminology that appears in the official solutions. Using the technical term rather than a paraphrase signals you know the mechanism, not just the result.

A four-line template that works for almost any “explain why”. (1) State the answer in one clause — higher, lower, not efficient, unchanged. (2) Name the mechanism using the technical term. (3) Say what each agent does or does not take into account. (4) Close with the consequence or the comparison the question asked for. Four sentences, under a minute, and it hits every element the mark scheme rewards.