Social Sciences and History / Unit 16 SSH 1507 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds
Sample Question Seven: The Single Measure of Output
The idea
The stem asks which is the most commonly used single measure of the overall output of the United States economy. The options: consumer spending; wholesale price index; gross domestic product; balance of trade; total tax collections. The key is C. Entry 1312 sorts them by the anchor's definition, the value of all final goods and services produced within a country in a year. Consumer spending is one component of GDP, the largest, not the whole, taught at 1307 and 1414. The wholesale price index measures prices, not output; unit 14 teaches its descendant, the producer price index, at 1324. The balance of trade is exports minus imports, taught at 1401, a difference, not a total. Tax collections measure government revenue, taught at 1339.
In practice
Ask what each option measures: a part, a price, a difference, a revenue, or the whole output. Only one is the whole.
Where people slip
The trap is A, since consumption is the largest share of GDP; the exam asks for the whole. The board calls this the exam's one definitional question in the course's reading of the set.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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