Graph practice · Micro and macro

Read the graph. The graph grades you.

The hardest-earned points on an economics exam come from reading graphs: equilibrium values, which curve shifted, the size of a shortage, whether a price control binds, which gap the economy is in. Every question here is generated fresh from a live graph and graded by the same numbers that drew it. Answer, and the graph shows you the construction.

What you are asked to do

Supply and demand

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium · Measure the shortage or surplus · Judge a price control · Find surplus on the graph

Labor market

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium · Measure unemployment

Aggregate demand and aggregate supply

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium · Name the output gap

Money market

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium

Loanable funds market

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium

Foreign exchange market

Read the equilibrium · Identify the shift · Predict the new equilibrium

Phillips curve

Identify the shift · Read the short-run trade-off

Questions people ask

Where do the questions come from?
A generator draws a random market from a seed, then asks a question whose answer is computed from the same numbers. The equilibrium you read, the shortage you measure and the gap you name are all calculated from the curves on screen, so the grading is exact and the supply is unlimited.
Can I share a question?
Yes. The link in the address bar encodes the diagram and the seed, so anyone who opens it sees the same graph and the same question. Use Copy link under the answer options.
Why are the axes numbered 0 to 100?
The units are deliberately generic so the same skill transfers to any market. Interest-rate and inflation axes run 0 to 10 percent instead, matching how those diagrams are drawn in most courses.
What do the dashed curves mean?
A dashed curve is where a curve started and the solid curve of the same colour is where it moved. If both a dashed and a solid version are on the graph, the question is about the shift between them.

Related

Beyond reading graphs

Learn why the curves sit where they sit.

Reading a graph is a skill. Explaining it is the exam. The full course teaches each diagram from scratch and remembers which shifts you get wrong.