How will you be assessed this year?
Under the government’s changes to the GCSE Specification the exams for Geography will run as follows:
Paper 1: Living with the physical environment
Exam time: 1h 30min
Topics:
Section A- The challenge of natural hazards (33 marks)
This will include tectonic hazards (volcanos and earthquakes) and climatic hazards (hurricanes and climate change.
Section B- The living world (25 marks)
This contains sections on ecosystems in the UK and rainforests. The final question in this section will offer pupils a choice of response, either on cold environments or deserts. Pupils will need to respond to this question using a desert area taught in class to answer this question.
Section C- Physical landscapes in the UK (30 marks)
This final section offers pupils a choice of questions to complete. Question 3 refers to coasts, question 4 refers to rivers and the final question refers to glacial landscapes. Pupils should only answer questions 3 and 4. The final part of the exam booklet should be left blank.
Paper 2: Challenges in the human environment
Exam time: 1h 30min
Topics:
Section A- Urban issues and challenges (33 marks)
This will include urbanisation issues globally, where students should refer to Rio de Janeiro as the case study and urbanisation in the UK where they should refer to Birmingham as their case study.
Section B- The changing economic world (25 marks)
This contains sections development indicators and ways to reduce the development gap. Students should refer to the economy of Brazil and tourism in Jamaica as a method to reduce the development gap. Student will also be asked about the economy of the UK and how industry can become more sustainable.
Section C- The challenge of resource management (30 marks)
This final section offers pupils a choice of questions to complete. Question 3 refers to food, question 4 refers to water and the final question refers to energy. Pupils should only answer questions 4. The other questions in this section should be left blank.
Paper 3- Geographical applications
Exam Time: undecided at present due to amendments
Section A- Issue evaluation
This section is a selection of questions from 2 topics of the course. The main question is usually an essay style question where students need to make a decision about a real-world event and justify their choice. The topics will be revealed in March 2021 in a resource booklet at can be seen by pupils before the exam.
Section B- Fieldwork
This test students’ geographical skills and how they could put theory into practise in the outside world. This section often features maths skills and so a calculator is a must to perform well.
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