1. AS Geography revision 09 Top tips to kick-start your AS Unit 1 Revision

2. AS Geography revision 09 What should you be doing? With the exams approaching it’s important to get into a high gear and prepare fully. Get organised Sort out files, identify gaps and fill them. Make a plan Identify times when you will revise different key topics. Make sure you have a copy of the Specification ….and use this as a checklist to ensure you have covered everything.

3. AS Geography revision 09 Practice makes perfect Mock on …. You should practice past questions from Jan 09, June 09 and Jan 10 Other exam style questions can be found in the textbooks and unit guides that support the course. The more you do, the more feedback you will get and the greater your improvement will be.

4. AS Geography revision 09 Key terminology Remember that this is a new Specification. It contains new terminology which you need to be able to define. You will need to understand both single words and phrases. The terminology is used in exam questions so you need to know what it all means. Make glossaries of key terms and consult the textbooks if you are unsure.

5. AS Geography revision 09 Active revision For the vast majority of students revision works best when it is active. Passive reading of notes is a poor way to revise. Try to: Condense notes by re-writing them Use diagrams and mind maps Put key case studies and examples onto revision cards

6. AS Geography revision 09 Understanding the Papers: Unit 1

7. AS Geography revision 09 Command Words

8. AS Geography revision 09 Unit 1, Section B extended writing skills

9. AS Geography revision 09 What do I have to do? One question from a choice of 4 – you should spend 30- 35 minutes on this Each question is worth 25 marks The 25 marks is split into a 10 mark part ‘a’ and 15 mark part ‘b’ There is a stimulus resource for the 10 mark question

10. AS Geography revision 09 Choice of Question Questions will be based around 4 key themes you can expect to have a genuine choice:

11. AS Geography revision 09 Very importantly you should read all 4 questions look at all four accompanying Figures before you make a decision. In January 2009 the choice of question was heavily biased towards questions 7 and 8.

12. AS Geography revision 09 The Resource question, part ‘a’ Notice that the question states ‘such as the one shown’. This is indicating a need to move beyond the stimulus material provided and into a discussion of other drought examples and their impacts: Ongoing Australian drought the ‘big dry’ Drought in Niger Drought in Sudan and Ethiopia

13. AS Geography revision 09 There is also a structure provided in the question i.e. ‘people and the environment’ answer needs to cover both in order to be balanced. Importantly the question is not ‘what are the impacts of drought?’ but actually ‘why do drought have such severe impacts?’ Just describing the impacts of drought lacks the explanation the question is looking for.

14. AS Geography revision 09 Description of impact Explanation of severity Forest firesUncontrolled burn devastates wildlife and ecosystems; difficult to manage Farm production down Direct reliance on irrigation; scarce water resources diverted to people Low river flowsMade worse by human abstraction for water supply Fall in tourist numbers Fear, danger, intense uncomfortable heat DeathsVulnerable groups (elderly) ‘silent’ killer Use the resource, but don’t copy it out.

15. AS Geography revision 09 The Open questions, part ‘b’ a 15 mark question which will be quite open. There is no Figure to look at -you are ‘on your own’. good idea to do a very quick plan just to organise your thoughts and help structure your answer. The plan should take less than 1 minute

16. AS Geography revision 09 Mark schemes for the 15 mark question they use 4 levels. Like a flight of sets which you are trying to climb. To go up a step, you need to add something new into your answer.

17. AS Geography revision 09 Ticking the mark scheme boxes can be a real challenge, but there are various tricks you can use to help write an impressive answer. This question is from January 2009 (Question 10b): typical. It uses the command word ‘explain’ and is ‘open’. The question does not directly ask for examples to be used, but you should just assume you should use them!

18. AS Geography revision 09

19. Top Tips for extended writing Structure  Organisation; logical order and sequencing  Consider a summative statement / very brief conclusion. Depth  Issues, problems, factors, explanations etc. need to be examined and discussed in some depth Examples  Need to be used as a matter of course, don’t wait to be asked! Case Studies  If the question refers to a compulsory case study then considerable detail is expected Up-to-date  Contemporary knowledge always shines more brightly than the tired and dated Range  Narrow answers, around one factor or explanation will rarely attain the top level of the mark scheme Facts  Factual data support – numbers, facts and figures, always impress. Terminology  Use of the correct geographical terminology increases your answers currency Evaluative style  Some recognition that geographical issues are now always black and white, combined with some evaluative language. Balance  Especially in human geography, a recognition of costs and benefits, positives and negatives etc.