OCR A-Level Geography Active Recall Guide (H481)
OCR · A-Level
OCR A-Level Geography Active Recall Guide
Every topic of specification H481 written as exam-style questions with the answers printed after them. 3,740 questions across 15 topics and 249 subtopics, including every optional landscape, global topic and geographical debate so the guide fits whichever ones you sit.
- OCR
- A-Level
- Specification H481
- 3,740 questions
Guide overview All 15 topics Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
What the exam asks of you
OCR A-Level Geography is three written papers and an independent investigation. Physical Systems and Human Interactions are 1 hour 30 minutes and 66 marks each, worth 22 per cent apiece. Geographical Debates is 2 hours 30 minutes and 108 marks, worth 36 per cent. The Independent Investigation carries the remaining 20 per cent.
This is a heavily optioned course. One landscape of three, one global system of two, one global governance topic of two, and two debates of five. Every option is in the guide, so the four or five you are not taught are simply skipped.
| Paper | Covers | Length | Marks | Weighting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Component 01 Physical systems |
Coastal Landscapes Glaciated Landscapes Dryland Landscapes Earth's Life Support Systems |
1 hour 30 minutes | 66 marks | 22% |
|
Component 02 Human interactions |
Changing Spaces; Making Places Trade in the Contemporary World Global Migration Human Rights Power and Borders |
1 hour 30 minutes | 66 marks | 22% |
|
Component 03 Geographical debates |
Climate Change Disease Dilemmas Exploring Oceans Future of Food Hazardous Earth |
2 hours 30 minutes | 108 marks | 36% |
|
Components 04/05 Investigative geography |
Independent Investigation | Non-examination assessment | 60 marks | 20% |
What is in the guide
All 15 topics
Every topic has its own page with its subtopics, what it covers and sample questions.
Sample questions
Taken from the guide. Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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The coastal system: inputs, outputs and flows of energy and material
State two outputs from a coastal landscape system.
Show the answer
Sediment carried out into deep water beyond the system, and wave energy dissipated as waves break on the shore. -
The glacier system: inputs, stores, flows and outputs
What is a store in a glaciated landscape system?
Show the answer
A place where matter or energy is held for a period of time, such as the glacier ice itself, a snowfield, a moraine or a proglacial lake. -
Dryland landscape systems: inputs, stores, flows and outputs
Give four sediment stores found in a desert landscape.
Show the answer
Dune fields, alluvial fans, playa deposits and the regolith mantling hillslopes are all sediment stores. -
Water and carbon as the foundations of life on Earth
Name the three sectors of human water use in order of the volume they withdraw.
Show the answer
Agriculture is much the largest at roughly 70% of withdrawals, then industry at about 20%, then domestic use for drinking, cooking, washing and sanitation at around 10%. -
The characteristics that shape a place profile
Give three indicators of the socio-economic character of a place.
Show the answer
Occupational structure, average household income and housing tenure. -
Merchandise, services and capital flows
Distinguish between visible and invisible trade.
Show the answer
Visible trade is trade in physical goods, while invisible trade is trade in services and other intangible earnings such as interest and profits. -
The global migrant population: size, composition and direction of flow
The world's migrant population has more than tripled since 1970 while total world population has roughly doubled. What does that comparison show?
Show the answer
It shows migration is growing faster than population, so a rising share of humanity now lives outside its country of birth. -
The idea of human rights and its legal foundations
State how many articles the Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains.
Show the answer
It contains 30 articles.
How the guide is worked
Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.
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Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
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Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.
Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.
Look inside
Questions for a subtopic print together and the answers for that section print after them.
- Coastal Landscapes260
- Glaciated Landscapes267
- Dryland Landscapes255
- Earth’s Life Support Systems271
- Changing Spaces; Making Places276
- Trade in the Contemporary World174
- Global Migration159
- Human Rights147
- Power and Borders168
- Climate Change323
- Disease Dilemmas271
- Exploring Oceans346
- and 3 more
- What does it mean to describe a glaciated landscape as an open system?
- Name the three main inputs of matter into a glaciated landscape system.
- Which two sources supply the energy that drives a glaciated landscape system?
- State two outputs from a glaciated landscape system.
- What is a store in a glaciated landscape system?
- Explain the difference between a store and a flow in a glacial system.
- Give three examples of flows within a glaciated landscape system.
- What is meant by dynamic equilibrium in a glaciated landscape system?
- What happens to a glacier when several years of unusually heavy snowfall increase its input of snow?
- Both energy and matter can cross its boundaries, so the landscape exchanges material and energy with the environment around it.
- Snow and ice, rock debris from weathering and mass movement, and liquid water from rainfall and melt.
- Solar radiation, which drives melting and evaporation, and gravitational potential energy, which drives the movement of ice, water and debris downslope.
- Meltwater and water vapour leaving the system, and sediment carried out beyond the ice margin by meltwater streams or icebergs.
- A place where matter or energy is held for a period of time, such as the glacier ice itself, a snowfield, a moraine or a proglacial lake.
- A store holds material in one place, while a flow is the transfer of material or energy from one store to another.
- Avalanche and rockfall delivering snow and debris to the ice, the movement of the glacier itself, and meltwater flowing through and beneath the ice.
- Inputs and outputs are balanced over time, so the size and form of the system stay broadly constant while material continues to move through it.
- It gains mass and advances into lower, warmer ground where melting is faster, until losses rise to match the extra input.
questions
Scroll sideways to turn through the pages.
Questions students ask first
I only do some of these topics. Is the rest wasted?
No. You take one landscape of three, one of Trade or Global Migration, one of Human Rights or Power and Borders, and two of the five debates. Every option is in the guide because schools choose differently.
Work the ones you are taught and skip the rest. Each is a separate topic with its own page.
Which parts are compulsory?
Earth’s Life Support Systems on Component 01 and Changing Spaces; Making Places on Component 02. Everything else on those two papers is an option, and Component 03 is two debates of five.
Is the Independent Investigation covered?
No. Components 04 and 05 are your own fieldwork investigation, marked by your centre. It is 20 per cent of the grade and it is coursework rather than examined content.
The Geographical Skills topic in the guide covers the map, graph and statistical techniques that are examined on the written papers and that you will also use in the investigation.
Do I need my own case studies?
Yes, and the guide holds the ones the specification and the standard resources use. Where your school taught a different example, use theirs for that question and the guide for everything else. The structure of what a case study has to supply, the place, the process, the figures and the outcome, is the same either way.
OCR A-Level Geography Active Recall Guide
Every question paired with its answer, grouped by topic and subtopic, ready to work in three passes.