Edexcel GCSE Geography A sample questions and answers (1GA0)
Guide overview All 15 topics Sample questions Papers and weighting Look inside Questions and answers
45 sample questions and answers
Taken from every topic of Edexcel GCSE Geography A, specification 1GA0. The full guide has 1,385.
Paper 2
Changing Cities
156 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this topic
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Global urbanisation trends and rates
Describe the pattern of urban growth in emerging countries over the past half century.
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Very rapid growth, with millions moving into industrial cities and several reaching megacity size. -
The UK’s urban population and why urbanisation varies by region
Why did many British cities grow at estuaries and river mouths?
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Because ports there handled trade, and the docks brought in raw materials and jobs that attracted workers. -
Urbanisation, suburbanisation and migration in the chosen UK city
Why do households counter-urbanise?
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They want cheaper or larger homes, more space and a quieter environment, and remote working or commuting makes it practical.
Paper 1
Coastal Landscapes and Processes
71 questions in the guide, across 5 subtopics. More from this topic
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Coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
How is slumping different from a slide?
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Slumped material rotates as it moves down a curved failure surface, so the slipped block tilts backwards and leaves a scar shaped like a spoon. -
Coastal processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
How are boulders and pebbles moved along the sea bed, and how does this differ from the movement of shingle and coarse sand?
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The heaviest material is rolled and dragged along the bed by traction, while lighter shingle and sand is bounced along in short hops by saltation. -
Geology, wave type and UK weather at the coast
What is a fault, and why does it matter at the coast?
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A fracture where rock has been shifted and shattered by earth movements, and the broken zone is much weaker, so the sea often carves a cave or inlet along it.
Paper 1
Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management
140 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this topic
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The world’s large-scale ecosystems and what controls their distribution
What climate produces tropical grassland, and what vegetation results?
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A clear wet season and a long dry season on either side of the rainforest belt, giving tall grasses with scattered drought-resistant trees. -
The biosphere as a resource, and its commercial exploitation
What fuels do people take from the biosphere?
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Fuelwood and charcoal for cooking and heating, animal dung and crop residues, and biofuels such as ethanol grown from crops. -
UK terrestrial and marine ecosystems
Where is coniferous woodland most common in the UK?
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In upland and northern areas such as Scotland and Wales, mostly as planted forestry on poor soils and steep slopes.
Paper 2
Energy Resource Management
85 questions in the guide, across 6 subtopics. More from this topic
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Renewable and non-renewable energy resources compared
Why are coal, oil and gas grouped together as fossil fuels?
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They all formed from the buried remains of plants and animals over millions of years. -
Renewable and non-renewable energy resources compared
Why does opening a new oilfield often bring economic gains to a country?
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It creates jobs and export earnings and cuts the amount the country has to spend importing fuel. -
The UK’s energy mix and why energy mixes vary
Which renewable source has grown fastest in the UK in recent years?
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Wind power, especially from large offshore wind farms around the coast.
Paper 3
Geographical Investigations - Fieldwork
139 questions in the guide, across 9 subtopics. More from this topic
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River fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data
Why does a float on the surface give a faster reading than the channel as a whole?
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Friction against the bed and banks slows the water lower down, so the surface moves faster than the average. -
Coastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary data
How is the shape of beach sediment recorded?
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Each pebble is compared with a roundness chart running from very angular to well rounded. -
Urban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methods
Give four categories you would use in a land use survey.
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Retail, residential, offices or services, and industry, with open space and vacant units also recorded.
Paper 3
Geographical Investigations - UK Challenges
44 questions in the guide, across 4 subtopics. More from this topic
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The UK’s resource consumption and sustainability challenge
How does a larger population raise the demand on UK water, energy and food supplies?
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Every extra home has to be supplied with water, heated and lit, and its occupants fed, so total demand climbs even if each person consumes no more than before. -
The UK’s resource consumption and sustainability challenge
What makes a form of transport sustainable?
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It moves people or goods using less energy and giving off less carbon dioxide and pollution per journey, so it can go on being used without harming the future environment. -
The UK’s settlement, population and economic challenges
What is an enterprise zone?
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An area where firms are offered lower business rates, simplified planning and improved infrastructure to draw investment and jobs into a struggling region.
Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3
Geographical Skills
83 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this topic
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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.
Paper 1
Glaciated Upland Landscapes and Processes
75 questions in the guide, across 6 subtopics. More from this topic
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Glacial processes and the processes at work on relict landscapes today
What causes a glacier to deposit the load it is carrying?
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Melting, because ice that is thinning or retreating no longer has the energy to move its load and simply drops it. -
Glacial processes and the processes at work on relict landscapes today
Why do bare rock faces in a relict glacial valley weather especially quickly?
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They have no soil or vegetation cover to insulate them, so the rock is exposed directly to repeated freezing and thawing. -
Past climate and present UK weather in glaciated uplands
What is meant by a seasonal variation in weather?
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A change in weather conditions through the year, such as the difference between cold, wet winters and milder summers.
Paper 2
Global Development
126 questions in the guide, across 9 subtopics. More from this topic
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Defining and measuring development
How do economic factors such as income and jobs raise human development?
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Higher wages and secure work buy better food, housing and healthcare, and the taxes paid fund public services. -
The global pattern of development and why it is uneven
Which parts of the UK are generally the most prosperous, and which the least?
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London and the south-east have the highest incomes and most employment, while parts of northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland have lower incomes. -
The consequences of uneven development for quality of life
Why does a large informal sector hold down a country’s measured development?
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Its work is untaxed and unrecorded, so it raises no revenue for schools or health care and does not show in national income figures.
Paper 1, Paper 2, Paper 3
Mathematics and Statistics Skills
100 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this topic
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Cartographic skills: contours, transects, scale and distance
A footpath climbs 30 m over a horizontal distance of 600 m. What is its gradient?
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One in twenty, because 30 ÷ 600 = 0.05, or one metre of climb for every twenty metres walked. -
Cartographic skills: contours, transects, scale and distance
How does a 1:25 000 OS map differ from a 1:50 000 OS map?
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On a 1:25 000 map each 1 km grid square is 4 cm wide and more detail is shown, such as field boundaries, while on a 1:50 000 map the same square is 2 cm wide. -
Using GIS and geo-spatial data
Why are layers so useful when investigating the risk of flooding?
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A layer showing land liable to flood can be placed over a layer of houses and roads, revealing exactly which properties would be affected.
Paper 2
Resource Management
42 questions in the guide, across 3 subtopics. More from this topic
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What natural resources are, and how people exploit them
What makes a resource non-renewable?
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It took millions of years to form and is being used far faster than it re-forms, so the total stock is finite. -
What natural resources are, and how people exploit them
How does commercial fishing take a resource from the sea?
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Boats use nets, trawls and lines to catch wild fish and shellfish for food. -
How exploitation changes environments
What is soil erosion?
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The stripping away of the topsoil layer by running water or by wind.
Paper 1
River Landscapes and Processes
96 questions in the guide, across 5 subtopics. More from this topic
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River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
What happens to material in a slide?
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A block of saturated material moves downslope in a straight line along a flat surface, staying largely in one piece. -
River processes: weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition
Which transport process moves the largest boulders, and how?
Show the answer
Traction, in which the flow rolls and drags them along the bed without ever lifting them clear of it. -
The long profile of a river and the effect of UK weather
Velocity usually rises downstream even though the slope gets gentler. Explain why.
Show the answer
The lower channel is deeper and smoother, so proportionally less of the water touches the bed and banks and less energy is lost to friction.
Paper 1
The Changing Landscapes of the UK
31 questions in the guide, across 2 subtopics. More from this topic
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The UK’s rock types and geology
Name two upland areas of Britain that sit on granite, and one place where basalt dominates.
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Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor in the south-west sit on granite, and the Antrim plateau in Northern Ireland is basalt. -
The UK’s rock types and geology
How did collisions between plates in the geological past help build British uplands?
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They crumpled and buckled thick piles of rock and forced them upwards into mountain chains, and the heat and pressure involved turned many of those rocks metamorphic. -
How the UK’s upland and lowland landscapes were formed
Explain freeze–thaw weathering and say where in Britain it is most active.
Show the answer
Water seeps into a crack, freezes and expands, prising the crack wider until fragments snap off, and it works hardest on exposed mountain summits where temperatures cross 0°C often.
Paper 2
Water Resource Management
76 questions in the guide, across 6 subtopics. More from this topic
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The global distribution of fresh water, and water surplus and deficit
At a local scale, why might one village have plenty of water while a nearby one has very little?
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One may sit beside a river or over a permeable rock that holds groundwater, or be connected to a piped mains supply, while the other is not. -
The global distribution of fresh water, and water surplus and deficit
What is water stress?
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A situation in which the water withdrawn for use takes up a large share of the renewable supply available, leaving little in reserve for dry years. -
Changing water supply and demand
How do dams and reservoirs increase the water supply available to people?
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They store river water through wet periods so that a steady, reliable amount can be released when it is needed.
Paper 1
Weather Hazards and Climate Change
121 questions in the guide, across 9 subtopics. More from this topic
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Global atmospheric circulation and the transfer of heat
What weather is found in the belt of high pressure at about 30° north and south?
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Air sinks and warms there, so cloud cannot form and the skies stay clear and almost rainless, which is why most hot deserts lie at those latitudes. -
Natural climate change and the evidence for it
How does the natural temperature change of the Quaternary compare with the warming of the last hundred years?
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The natural swings were larger overall but took many thousands of years, whereas the recent rise has happened within roughly a century. -
The enhanced greenhouse effect and the effects of climate change
How does transport contribute to the enhanced greenhouse effect?
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Cars, lorries, aircraft and ships burn oil-based fuels, and every litre burned releases CO₂ into the air.
Edexcel GCSE Geography A Active Recall Guide
The other 1,340 questions, with the answers printed after each section.