Geographical Skills | Edexcel GCSE Geography A (1GA0)
Geographical Skills
- 83 questions
- 7 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 and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch maps, describing the site, situation and shape of settlements, interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographs, using online census sources, hypotheses, sampling and risk assessment, collecting, recording and presenting data and writing about findings and building an argument.
Sample questions from Geographical Skills
Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.
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Atlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch maps
What is an anomaly in a distribution?
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A place or value that does not fit the general pattern shown by the rest of the map. -
Atlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch maps
What four things does a sketch map need if it is to be understood on its own?
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A title, a north arrow, a key, and some indication of how big the area shown is. -
Describing the site, situation and shape of settlements
What is a wet point site?
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One placed where water can always be obtained, such as beside a spring or a river. -
Describing the site, situation and shape of settlements
What is a nucleated settlement shape?
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Buildings packed tightly around a central point such as a crossroads, a green or a church. -
Interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographs
What is a ground-level photograph?
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One taken from the ground looking horizontally across a landscape, showing the scene as a person standing there would see it. -
Interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographs
Name one thing a satellite image can reveal that no ground photograph could.
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The full extent of something regional, such as an ice sheet, a tropical storm or the spread of a city. -
Using online census sources
What does geo-demographic information mean?
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Information about the characteristics of the people who live in one particular small area. -
Using online census sources
Give one limitation of census figures.
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They are gathered only once a decade, so by the time you use them the area may already have changed.
The 7 subtopics
One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.
| Subtopic | What it covers | Questions |
|---|---|---|
| Atlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch maps | Distributions and patterns on maps, clustered, linear and dispersed patterns, anomalies, describing a distribution, large- and small-scale maps, comparing atlas maps, sketch maps with labels and annotations, land use, communications and patterns of natural vegetation. | 16 |
| Describing the site, situation and shape of settlements | The site and situation of a settlement and the map evidence for them, wet point, dry point, meander and bridging point sites, and nucleated, linear and dispersed settlement shapes. | 10 |
| Interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographs | Labelling and annotating photographs, reading an unfamiliar graph, field sketches, ground-level, vertical and oblique aerial photographs and satellite images, judging size, matching a photograph to a map, and using compass directions. | 13 |
| Using online census sources | What a census is and how often it is taken, the information it records, geo-demographic data, why it counts as secondary data, its advantages and limits, and reading deprivation and gentrification from it. | 10 |
| Hypotheses, sampling and risk assessment | Hypotheses and good enquiry questions, random, systematic and stratified sampling and when to use each, why larger samples are more reliable, and risk assessment with hazards and controls for rocky shore and town-centre fieldwork. | 11 |
| Collecting, recording and presenting data | Quantitative and qualitative data, reliability and accuracy in fieldwork, improving depth readings, equipment for measuring river speed, recording sheets, consistent methods, collating results, spreadsheets, presenting by hand, and what every graph or map needs. | 13 |
| Writing about findings and building an argument | Writing descriptively, analytically and critically about results, describing a graph, dealing with results that do not fit, results against conclusions, well-evidenced conclusions that return to the hypothesis, balanced arguments and admitting the limitations of data. | 10 |
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.
Nearby topics
Edexcel GCSE Geography A Active Recall Guide
Every topic, not just this one. 1,385 questions with their answers.