Geographical Skills | OCR GCSE Geography A (J383)

Geographical Skills

172 questions
14 subtopics
Component 03
Component 03

Geographical Skills is examined in Component 03, Geographical Skills.

It covers Constructing maps, and reading cross-sections and transects, Coordinates, scale, distance and reading information from a map, gradient, contours, spot heights and GIS, Choosing, constructing and presenting graphs and charts, reading and interpreting the main graph and chart types, number, area, scale and the relationships between units, proportion and ratio, and measures of central tendency and spread, percentages and percentiles, and designing data collection sheets, reading tables, and describing relationships in bivariate data, trend lines and lines of best fit, predicting from data, and spotting weak statistical presentation, drawing and justifying conclusions from data, interpreting images and written sources, and recognising bias and judging the limits of maps, graphs, statistics and images.

Sample questions from Geographical Skills

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

Constructing maps, and reading cross-sections and transects

What is a sketch map?

Show the answer
A simplified map showing only the main features of an area, usually not to an exact scale.
Coordinates, scale, distance and reading information from a map

How is a compass bearing from one place to another given?

Show the answer
As an angle in degrees measured clockwise from north, so due east is 090°.
Choosing, constructing and presenting graphs and charts

Which graph is used to look for a relationship between two sets of figures?

Show the answer
A scatter graph, with one of the two variables on each axis.
Reading and interpreting the main graph and chart types

Why is a cross-section useful alongside a contour map?

Show the answer
The map gives the plan view while the cross-section shows the true shape of the slopes, which contour spacing alone makes harder to picture.
Proportion and ratio, and measures of central tendency and spread

What is meant by proportion?

Show the answer
The share that one part makes of the whole, written as a fraction, a decimal or a percentage.
Percentages and percentiles, and designing data collection sheets

Which sampling method takes readings at fixed intervals, such as every ten metres along a transect?

Show the answer
Systematic sampling.
Trend lines and lines of best fit

Why is a trend line helpful when the points are widely scattered?

Show the answer
It brings out the underlying pattern that the scatter of individual readings hides.
Predicting from data, and spotting weak statistical presentation

Why is a percentage quoted without the total it came from weak evidence?

Show the answer
Half of four is very different from half of four thousand, so the size of the sample changes what the figure is worth.

The 14 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
Constructing maps, and reading cross-sections and transects	The four things every map needs, labels against annotations, choosing a scale, sketch maps and keys, cross-sections and their axes, vertical exaggeration, the U shape of a glaciated valley, and what transects, including one from a city's edge to its centre, can show.	11
Coordinates, scale, distance and reading information from a map	Eastings and northings, four and six-figure grid references, what a scale of 1:50 000 means, measuring distance and winding routes, compass bearings, and reading settlement patterns, tourism and change from a map.	12
Gradient, contours, spot heights and GIS	Contour lines and intervals, spot heights, calculating gradient, isolines, GIS and its layers, base maps, choropleth maps and their weakness, flow line, desire line, sphere of influence, thematic and route maps, and atlas maps compared with 1:25 000 maps.	19
Choosing, constructing and presenting graphs and charts	Which graph suits change over time, parts of a whole, separate categories, relationships and grouped continuous data, which axis takes the independent variable, and the title, labels, scale, annotation and colour a graph needs.	11
Reading and interpreting the main graph and chart types	Divided and horizontal bar graphs, histograms, what line and scatter graphs reveal, dispersion graphs, angles and percentages on pie charts, climate graphs, proportional symbol maps, pictograms, cross-sections beside contour maps, population pyramids, radial graphs and rose charts.	16
Number, area, scale and the relationships between units	Hectares and square metres, the area of a field and of an irregular shape such as a lake, the ground covered by an OS grid square, large and small-scale maps, three ways of giving scale, converting metric units, population density and per capita.	11
Proportion and ratio, and measures of central tendency and spread	Ratios, magnitude, frequency and proportion, calculating the mean and the median, the mode and modal class, the range, lower and upper quartiles and the interquartile range, cumulative frequency, and when the median is a better average than the mean.	14
Percentages and percentiles, and designing data collection sheets	Calculating percentage increases and decreases, percentiles and the 50th percentile, data collection sheets, why larger samples are more trustworthy, systematic and stratified sampling, reliable measurements, and the purpose of a control site.	11
Reading tables, and describing relationships in bivariate data	Reading a table's title, headings and units, anomalies, finding the biggest change, why raw totals mislead, tables against graphs, bivariate data, positive, negative, strong and weak relationships, why a relationship does not prove cause, and what a good description of one includes.	11
Trend lines and lines of best fit	Trend lines and what upward, curved and steep ones show, lines of best fit and whether they must touch every point or the origin, leaving out anomalies, estimating unmeasured values and how reliable they are, and how a line of best fit differs from joining the points.	11
Predicting from data, and spotting weak statistical presentation	Interpolation and extrapolation, predicting from a steady rate of growth, the assumption behind every trend, and why axes without zero or units, percentages without totals, crowded pie charts and chosen years mislead.	11
Drawing and justifying conclusions from data	What a conclusion is, how it differs from a result, justifying it with figures, referring back to the question, partial support, anomalies, staying within the data, and why proof is never claimed.	11
Interpreting images and written sources, and recognising bias	Interpreting photographs, vertical and oblique aerial photographs, ground-level photographs against satellite images, annotating images, cartoons and diagrams as evidence, bias in a written source and the wording that reveals it, why the author matters, fact and opinion, and checking an article's reliability.	12
Judging the limits of maps, graphs, statistics and images	The limits of old maps, choropleth against proportional symbol maps, graphs without keys, a mean on its own, single photographs, sketch maps, mismatched graph types, small surveys, and percentages from small populations.	11

Geographical Skills is 172 of the 749 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.