HKDSE Economics: two papers, ten compulsory topics, no school-based assessment, and free practice questions

How is HKDSE Economics assessed?

Two papers, and nothing else. There is no school-based assessment in either the current design or the 2028 one, so the two written papers carry the whole subject grade. Paper 1 is multiple-choice, one hour, worth 30 percent. Paper 2 is a conventional paper of two hours 30 minutes, worth 70 percent.

• Paper 1: multiple-choice, 1 hour, 30 percent
• Paper 2: conventional paper, 2 hours 30 minutes, 70 percent
• School-based assessment: none, in the current design or the 2028 one

What changes from the 2028 examination?

Paper 2 is split into three sections: Section A, short questions on the Compulsory Part, 26 percent; Section B, structured, essay-type and data-response questions on the Compulsory Part, 33 percent; and Section C on the Elective Part, 11 percent. The 2025 update to the Curriculum and Assessment Guide changed the assessment design only. The topic framework and the suggested lesson time for every compulsory topic are unchanged, so material written to the topic framework did not go stale with the update.

Do you still have to study the Elective Part?

From Secondary 4 in the 2025/26 school year, which is the 2028 HKDSE, students may choose to study the Compulsory Part only. The Guide notes that strong performance on the Compulsory Part questions can still reach Level 5, and that candidates with the same score receive the same grade whether or not they answered the Elective Part. Both electives are worth knowing about before you decide, which is why practice material that covers all four elective topics is useful either way.

How many questions are in HKDSE Economics Paper 1?

The Curriculum and Assessment Guide fixes the 30 percent weighting and the one-hour duration for Paper 1, but it does not fix a number of questions. Anyone quoting you a precise figure is quoting a past year rather than the Guide. Check the Regulations and Assessment Frameworks published by the HKEAA for the year you are actually sitting.

Which topics does HKDSE Economics cover?

Ten compulsory topics, labelled A to J, plus two elective units from which a candidate takes one. Our question bank organises itself by exactly this framework, which is why it has fourteen categories rather than ten: the ten compulsory topics plus the two topics inside each elective.

• Compulsory A to E: Basic Economic Concepts; Firms and Production; Market and Price; Competition and Market Structure; Efficiency, Equity and the Role of Government
• Compulsory F to J: Measurement of Economic Performance; National Income Determination and Price Level; Money and Banking; Macroeconomic Problems and Policies; International Trade and Finance
• Elective 1: Monopoly Pricing, and Anti-competitive Behaviours and Competition Policy
• Elective 2: Extension of Trade Theory, and Economic Growth and Development

How should you use free practice questions in Economics?

Not as a mock. Fifteen questions cannot tell you a grade, but they can tell you which of the fourteen topics you are weakest on, which is the more useful thing at any point before the final month. Answer by eliminating three options rather than by recognising one, and read the explanation even where you were right, because in Economics the gap between a correct instinct and a correct reason is exactly what Paper 2 goes on to test. Where an explanation names a distinction you cannot restate in one sentence, that topic is not finished.

Where do the questions come from?

Every question is original, written to the publicly available topic framework in the EDB Curriculum and Assessment Guide. No past paper, marking scheme or textbook text is copied. Each question carries the compulsory or elective topic it was written to, an explanation in both English and 繁體中文, and the bank is checked by a second independent AI model from a different family before it ships.

Is RiverMap Learning connected to the HKEAA or the EDB?

No. RiverMap Learning is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority, the Education Bureau or the Curriculum Development Council. These pages and the app are an independent revision aid built to the public curriculum framework. The HKEAA and the EDB publish the Guide and the Regulations and Assessment Frameworks themselves, and remain the definitive source.