What this practice covers
These questions are drawn from past CIE 9708 papers and filtered to consumer and producer surplus. You answer, you find out immediately whether you were right, and you get the reasoning for the correct option and for each distractor. Wrong answers go to a mistakes locker so you can come back to exactly those.
Practice is free. You need an account only so your progress and your mistakes are still there next time.
Start practising Paper 1 MCQs →
What examiners see students get wrong here
These are the errors that cost marks on consumer and producer surplus, taken from our own topic notes. Read them before you practise and you will recognise the traps in the questions.
- Consumer surplus is total spending. Wrong. Total spending is price multiplied by quantity. Consumer surplus is the extra benefit above what consumers pay.
- Producer surplus is total revenue. Wrong. It is the amount above producers' minimum acceptable supply price.
- Producer surplus always equals profit. Wrong. Fixed costs create a difference.
- Consumer surplus lies below demand and below price. Wrong. It lies below demand and above price.
- Producer surplus lies above supply and above price. Wrong. It lies above supply and below price.
- Any higher price means consumer surplus falls. Only automatically true for a movement along an unchanged demand curve. If demand shifts, compare the new area.
- Any lower price means producer surplus falls. Only automatically true for movement along an unchanged supply curve. If supply shifts, compare the new area.
- Total surplus measures equality. Wrong. It measures gains from exchange, not distributional fairness.
Revise it first
If any of the above is unfamiliar, work through the notes before practising: Consumer and Producer Surplus revision notes.