1. Geography: Exam Skills for GCSE
Assessment Objectives and Command Words

2. Assessment Objectives (AOs)
These are possibly the most important things to make sure you know before you go into any exam.
Exams are written to discover not only how much of your subject you know but also the associated skills that you are expected to demonstrate.
Your mark will be based on how effectively you meet these skills.
It is important therefore to know the proportion of marks awarded for each AO.

3. 1. Knowledge 
This is an understanding of the subject matter you have covered, but you are also expected to demonstrate a critical understanding of this subject matter.
This means that you should not just take everything you have learnt at face value, but be able to see that knowledge in different contexts and be aware of subtlety.

4. 2. Application 
It is one thing to understand a term or concept, it is another to be able to recognise where and when it occurs in real life. Application is the skill of being able to take knowledge and to apply it to different contexts and circumstances to understand why problems and issues arise. In human geography there are so many issues that could be the subject of questions, it is impossible to predict what the subject matter will be.  The important thing to remember is that whatever the context of the question – e.g. a question about government initiatives - the principles being assessed are the same but will have slightly different implications given the different issue being considered.

5. Application: example
For example, the question How far do you agree that government initiatives are the key contribution in reducing social problems in shanty towns in LEDCs?
Clearly, you need knowledge of case study material to be able to discuss specific government initiatives in each case, and you will need to have a detailed knowledge of the results of these interventions.

6. Application: case studies are fundamental
It can never be repeated too often: if you do not revise and add to your range of case studies, you will not achieve a good grade in GCSE Geography!
It is through the application of case studies to the higher mark questions that this assessment objective is marked by the examiner. Take a relaxed approach to case studies at your peril!

7. 3. Analysis 
Analysis covers a range of areas. It can involve you looking at a piece of data, a table, chart or diagram and making some sense out of it, identifying trends and so on, or it might involve you identifying certain elements that make up the problem, issue or case that you are considering.
Analysis is therefore about breaking down a complex issue into its constituent parts to make it understandable or intelligible to another person. This implies that you will need to consider things like causes, consequences, key factors and so on that are relevant to the issue.

8. 4. Evaluation 
Evaluation involves judgment and opinion. When you evaluate you will make some comment about how important, significant, valuable and so on something is.
Making such judgments implies that there are no wrong or right answers but what is important is that you need to be able to support your judgments. In some cases you can make up some supporting statement.

9. Higher order skills
Analysis and Evaluation are referred to as higher order skills. They are difficult and need lots of practice and consideration.
It is also important that you have some degree of confidence in your own abilities to make these judgments.
This might not be very comforting but the only way to really get to grips with such skills is to keep practising them.

10. There is a slightly different weighting for each paper but in general you can assume the following BALANCE OF KNOWLEDGE & HIGHER ORDER SKILLS:
PAPER 1
Knowledge
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
50%
20%
15%
PAPER 2
Knowledge
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
25%
15%
35%
PAPER 4
Knowledge
Application
Analysis
Evaluation
20%
25%
30%
More than half the marks you get in Paper 2 and Paper 4 are going to be awarded for your ability to demonstrate these skills, so it does not matter how hard you have revised in terms of the content, it could all be for nothing if you neglect to ‘test yourself' on the use of these skills.

11. Learning Point
Ask yourself this question - will you spend most of your revision time practising the higher order skills? For many students revision means going through their notes and making yet more notes or writing down prompts on cards.
Fine, all necessary, but if you do not practise how to use that information, you are gong to be neglecting an important part of how you are going to be ultimately assessed. This implies that you may need to think carefully about how you structure your revision time. Maybe spend an hour going through a topic and then find a sample question and answer it. Check your answer against the mark scheme and note where your answer differs with what the examiners are looking for, so that next time you attempt a question you try to incorporate that skill into your answer. This type of approach will pay huge dividends and is more effective that merely sitting in your room reading your notes!