Geographical Skills | AQA GCSE Geography (8035)

Geographical Skills

251 questions
21 subtopics
Paper 1
Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3

Geographical Skills is examined in all three papers, as a skills element of every question paper.

It covers atlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patterns, reading thematic maps for physical and human associations, OS maps: scale, grid references, distance and direction, OS maps: gradient, contours and landscape features, OS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferences, OS maps: transects, landscape description and human activity, comparing maps, sketch maps and photographs, describing landscapes from photographs, and annotating them, Choosing and constructing the right graph or chart, Completing choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line and flow maps, reading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line maps, number, scale, proportion and ratio, and designing data sheets, Drawing conclusions from numerical data, Averages, spread, percentages and correlation, Spotting weaknesses in how data is presented, using maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidence, using imagery, written, visual and graphical sources, using numerical and statistical information as evidence, Framing an enquiry and writing about it and building an argument and reaching a conclusion.

Sample questions from Geographical Skills

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

Atlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patterns

What do the letters N, S, E and W after a pair of coordinates tell you?

Show the answer
Whether the place lies north or south of the Equator, and east or west of the Prime Meridian.
OS maps: scale, grid references, distance and direction

How can the length of a winding road or river be measured on a map?

Show the answer
By laying string or the edge of a paper strip along the curve in short straight stages, marking each turn, then straightening it out against the scale bar.
OS maps: transects, landscape description and human activity

How is a headland shown on a large scale map?

Show the answer
As high ground with closely spaced contours jutting out into the sea, usually with cliff symbols along its edge.
Describing landscapes from photographs, and annotating them

Which parts of a photograph should be left out of a sketch made from it?

Show the answer
Fine detail such as individual people, colours and textures that do nothing to explain the landscape.
Reading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line maps

What does an unusually short bar for young adult males on a pyramid suggest?

Show the answer
That many young men have left the area to find work elsewhere, or that war or disease has removed them.
Drawing conclusions from numerical data

Why should a conclusion say how confident you are in it?

Show the answer
Because a small sample, a short recording period or measuring errors all limit how far the finding can be trusted.
Using maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidence

What is fieldwork data?

Show the answer
Information collected at first hand outside the classroom by measuring, counting, observing or asking people.
Using numerical and statistical information as evidence

What must be given alongside a figure for it to serve as evidence?

Show the answer
Its units, the area or group of people it refers to, and the date it was collected.

The 21 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Atlas maps: coordinates, distributions and patterns	Latitude and longitude, the Equator and Prime Meridian, describing distributions as clustered, linear or dispersed, anomalies in mapped patterns, and reading population, migration, drainage, relief, transport and settlement layout on atlas maps.	19
Reading thematic maps for physical and human associations	What a thematic map shows, finding positive and negative associations between two mapped patterns, the physical and human factors such maps display, why a match does not prove cause, and handling places that do not fit.	10
OS maps: scale, grid references, distance and direction	What the 1:50 000 and 1:25 000 scales mean, grid squares, four-figure and six-figure grid references, measuring straight and winding distances, and the eight compass points.	14
OS maps: gradient, contours and landscape features	Contour lines and their spacing, spot heights, calculating gradient as a ratio, reading heights and grid numbers off a map, and recognising valleys, steep uplands and ridges from the pattern of contours.	10
OS maps: relief, cross sections and drawing inferences	Naming relief features, drawing cross sections with an exaggerated vertical scale, V-shaped and U-shaped valleys, and inferring farming, river crossings, drainage, industry, forestry and steep slopes from map evidence.	12
OS maps: transects, landscape description and human activity	Transects against cross sections, headlands, river courses, flood plains, corries and troughs on a map, and the symbols that point to tourism, farming and commuter villages.	13
Comparing maps, sketch maps and photographs	Comparing maps of different dates and scales, what a sketch map is and what it must carry, and how ground level, oblique aerial and vertical aerial photographs and satellite images differ.	10
Describing landscapes from photographs, and annotating them	Describing a photograph by foreground, middle ground and background, identifying landforms, vegetation, land use and settlement, drawing a field sketch, and the difference between labels and annotations.	11
Choosing and constructing the right graph or chart	Line charts, bar charts, pie charts, pictograms, histograms, divided bars, scattergraphs and population pyramids, how to match a graph to the kind of data, and what every graph must carry.	14
Completing choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line and flow maps	How choropleth, isoline, dot, desire-line, proportional symbol and flow line maps display data, estimating values between isolines, and plotting readings accurately on an existing graph.	11
Reading population pyramids, choropleth and flow-line maps	Interpreting population pyramids with wide or narrow bases and missing age groups, reading choropleth maps and their weaknesses, what a flow line shows, and reading range, median and spread from dispersion graphs.	10
Number, scale, proportion and ratio, and designing data sheets	Converting units and areas, map scales in words, larger and smaller scales, designing data collection sheets, accuracy and reliability, control groups, ratios, proportions and percentages, and the link between magnitude and frequency.	15
Drawing conclusions from numerical data	Informed conclusions that quote figures, dealing with readings that do not fit, why rising together is not cause, judging the strength of a conclusion, results against conclusions, and the limits of averages and small samples.	10
Averages, spread, percentages and correlation	Mean, median, mode and modal class, range, quartiles and interquartile range, cumulative frequency, percentage increase and decrease, percentiles, bivariate data, lines of best fit, interpolation and extrapolation.	19
Spotting weaknesses in how data is presented	Selective presentation, stretched or truncated axes, percentages without totals, averages that hide spread, choropleth class boundaries, out-of-date figures, graphs showing only two dates, unstated sources and misleading pictograms.	10
Using maps, fieldwork data and GIS as evidence	What maps show as evidence and their limits, primary and secondary maps, quantitative and qualitative fieldwork data, and how geographical information systems use layers of geo-spatial data for tasks such as mapping flood risk.	10
Using imagery, written, visual and graphical sources	Satellite imagery and its value after a hazard, what infrared shows, the limits of orbital images, written and digital sources and how to judge them, and visual and graphical sources.	10
Using numerical and statistical information as evidence	Numerical against statistical information, common development statistics, rates such as birth rate, calculating population density, what a figure needs to count as evidence, comparing different years, and indices such as the Human Development Index.	10
Framing an enquiry and writing about it	What a geographical enquiry is, good enquiry questions and hypotheses, the stages of an enquiry in order, and writing descriptively, analytically and critically with precise place names, figures and diagrams.	10
Building an argument and reaching a conclusion	What an extended written argument is, how to structure it, weighing the opposing case, backing every claim with evidence, and what a conclusion must and must not do.	10
Issue evaluation: stakeholders, options and a justified decision	The Paper 3 issue evaluation and its pre-release resource booklet, identifying stakeholders and why they disagree, weighing their views, evaluating the social, economic and environmental impacts of each option at different scales, and choosing and justifying a decision.	13

Geographical Skills is 251 of the 1,429 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £7

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.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
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.
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.