The 3-step active recall method

Re-reading notes is a futile process when your aim is to remember the information and successfully apply it in exam settings. Active recall is the method you use to ensure the information sticks for a long period of time. But even active recall can be futile unless you have a structured way of implementing it. This is where the 3-step active recall method comes in, a structured method that is signature to the Levo Learning guides.

1. Step 1

   Answer up to 10 questions cold, closed book, even if you are unsure on the topic.

2. Step 2

   Answer the same questions again, but open book. Write the correct answer down even if it seems pointless.

3. Step 3

   Repeat as step 1 and answer the questions closed book again.

Worked across the CCEA A-Level Geography specification, one subtopic at a time.

The subject, and what is assessed

CCEA A-Level Geography is assessed by six units, three at AS and three at A2. AS 1, physical geography, and AS 2, human geography, each last 1 hour 15 minutes and are worth 16% of the A-Level. AS 3 covers fieldwork skills and techniques, lasting 1 hour and worth 8%. A2 1 covers physical processes, landforms and management and A2 2 covers processes and issues in human geography, each lasting 1 hour 30 minutes and worth 24%. A2 3 is a compulsory decision making paper lasting 1 hour 30 minutes and worth 12%.

Memorisation, then application

Marks are given for applying content to the question that has been set, which cannot happen while the content is still being looked up. Step 1 shows what is actually held. Step 2 puts the correct wording in front of you while the gap is still fresh. Step 3 repeats the cold test, and the difference between the first and third attempt is the part that has moved.

Every question in the guide is paired with its answer in the same document, so step 2 is done from the guide itself rather than from a separate set of notes.

What is inside the guide

Questions are grouped by topic and then by subtopic, following the CCEA specification. Open a topic to see its subtopics.

Sample questions

Taken from the CCEA A-Level Geography guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

1. Processes That Shape Fluvial Environments

   What is a drainage basin, and what marks its boundary?

   Show the answer

   A drainage basin is the area of land drained by a river and all of its tributaries. Its boundary is the watershed, the ridge of higher land separating one basin from the next; precipitation falling on one side of the watershed drains into one basin, precipitation on the other side drains into the neighbouring basin.

2. Small Scale Ecosystems

   Why is an ecosystem described as an open system?

   Show the answer

   Because both energy and matter cross its boundary. Solar energy enters and is eventually lost as heat, and water, gases, dissolved nutrients, seeds and mobile animals all move in and out. Nothing about an ecosystem is sealed off from its surroundings, and this is why events outside its boundary - pollution carried in by a river, a change in grazing pressure on adjoining land, or a change in climate - can alter it.

3. The Processes That Shape Our Weather and Climate

   What is the Earth's planetary albedo, and where does the rest of the incoming radiation go?

   Show the answer

   Roughly 30 per cent of incoming solar radiation is reflected straight back to space by clouds, the atmosphere and bright surfaces such as ice; that is the planetary albedo. The remaining 70 per cent is absorbed: about 20 per cent of the incoming total within the atmosphere itself, mainly by ozone, water vapour, dust and cloud droplets, and about 50 per cent of the incoming total by the land and sea surface.

4. Weather in the British Isles

   What is precipitation, and in what forms does it reach the ground?

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   Precipitation is any form of water, liquid or solid, that falls from cloud and reaches the Earth's surface. It includes drizzle, with droplets under 0.5 millimetres, rain, sleet, which is partly melted snow, snow, and hail, which is layered ice formed in vigorous cumulonimbus updraughts. Dew and hoar frost are not precipitation, because they condense directly onto surfaces rather than falling from cloud.

5. Global Weather Issues

   What happens to the trade winds during an El Niño event?

   Show the answer

   They weaken substantially and in a strong event they reverse, so that instead of blowing from South America towards Indonesia, westerly winds blow from Indonesia towards South America. Because it is the trade winds that normally hold the warm water piled up in the west, once they weaken there is nothing to keep it there and it flows back east across the Pacific as a series of waves in the ocean.

6. Population Data

   Why does having a complete address register make such a difference?

   Show the answer

   Because a form can be sent to every dwelling and any address that does not reply can be identified and chased precisely. Without one, enumerators have to find households by walking an area, and the places easiest to miss or to double-count are exactly the ones that matter most: unnumbered dwellings in informal settlements, scattered rural homesteads, and nomadic groups who may be counted twice or not at all.

7. Population Change

   How would you actually calculate a crude birth rate from raw figures?

   Show the answer

   Divide the number of live births registered during the year by the total mid-year population, then multiply by one thousand. If a country of 4 million people recorded 60,000 live births, the calculation is 60,000 divided by 4,000,000, multiplied by 1000, which gives 15 live births per thousand population per year. The crude death rate is worked out the same way, using deaths instead of births.

8. Settlement Change and the Rural-Urban Fringe

   What do geographers mean by a rural settlement?

   Show the answer

   A settlement with a small, sparsely distributed population living at low residential density in open countryside, where a higher proportion of land is under agriculture, forestry or other primary uses. Rural settlements typically have few services, a narrow range of functions serving only a small local area, a simple internal structure, strong local social networks and greater dependence on private transport.

Questions about this guide

Other CCEA A-Level guides

All CCEA A-Level guides · All A-Level guides