Key term
Edexcel GCSE Geography A 1GA0
Changing Cities
Topic overviewGlobal urbanisation trends and ratesThe UK’s urban population and why urbanisation varies by regionThe chosen UK city: site, situation, connectivity and structureUrbanisation, suburbanisation and migration in the chosen UK cityPopulation change and deindustrialisation in the chosen UK cityInequality and changes in retailing in the chosen UK cityMaking the chosen UK city more sustainableThe chosen developing or emerging city: site, situation and structurePopulation growth and migration in the chosen developing or emerging cityInequality and quality of life in the chosen developing or emerging cityRapid urbanisation: challenges, and bottom-up and top-down responsesGovernment policy and quality of life in the chosen city
Coastal Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Management
Topic overviewThe world’s large-scale ecosystems and what controls their distributionThe biosphere as a resource, and its commercial exploitationUK terrestrial and marine ecosystemsTropical rainforest characteristics and the nutrient cycleRainforest biodiversity and plant and animal adaptationsRainforest goods and services, and the causes of deforestationSustainable management of a named rainforestDeciduous woodland characteristics and the nutrient cycleWoodland biodiversity and plant and animal adaptationsWoodland goods and services, and the causes of deforestationSustainable management of a named deciduous woodland
Energy Resource ManagementResource option
Geographical Investigations – Fieldwork
Topic overviewRiver fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataCoastal fieldwork: enquiry questions, methods and secondary dataUrban fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsUrban fieldwork: secondary data sourcesRural fieldwork: enquiry questions and methodsRural fieldwork: secondary data sourcesThe enquiry process: asking questions and choosing methodsThe enquiry process: presenting, analysing and concludingThe enquiry process: evaluating fieldwork
Geographical Investigations − UK Challenges
Geographical Skills
Topic overviewAtlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch mapsDescribing the site, situation and shape of settlementsInterpreting diagrams, sketches and photographsUsing online census sourcesHypotheses, sampling and risk assessmentCollecting, recording and presenting dataWriting about findings and building an argument
Glaciated Upland Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
Topic overviewGlacial processes and the processes at work on relict landscapes todayPast climate and present UK weather in glaciated uplandsGlacial landforms of erosion and depositionCrag and tail, and drumlinsHuman activity and development in glaciated uplandsA named distinctive glaciated upland landscape in the UK
Global Development
Topic overviewDefining and measuring developmentThe global pattern of development and why it is unevenThe consequences of uneven development for quality of lifeStrategies to reduce uneven development: aid, top-down and bottom-upThe chosen country: location, context and internal unevennessEconomic change, trade, aid and investment in the chosen countryPopulation and social change in the chosen countryGeopolitics and technology in the chosen countryThe impacts of rapid development and how they are managed
Mathematics and Statistics Skills
Topic overviewCartographic skills: contours, transects, scale and distanceUsing GIS and geo-spatial dataChoosing, constructing and interpreting graphs and chartsNumerical skills: number, scale, proportion and ratioDrawing conclusions from numerical dataStatistical skills: averages, spread, percentages and correlationSpotting weaknesses in how data is presented
Resource Management
River Landscapes and ProcessesLandscape option
The Changing Landscapes of the UK
Water Resource ManagementResource option
Topic overviewThe global distribution of fresh water, and water surplus and deficitChanging water supply and demandHow water use differs between countriesWater supply problems in the UK and in developing countriesStakeholder attitudes to water, and desalinationSustainable management of water resources
Weather Hazards and Climate Change
Topic overviewGlobal atmospheric circulation and the transfer of heatNatural climate change and the evidence for itThe enhanced greenhouse effect and the effects of climate changeThe climate of the UK and how it variesHow tropical cyclones form, and where they occurWhy tropical cyclones are hazardous, and their impactsResponses to tropical cyclonesThe causes of drought and why some places are more vulnerableThe impacts of drought and responses to it
Geographical Skills
- 7 subtopics
- 21 things to know
- All three papers
What Geographical Skills covers
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.
Where it is assessed
All three papers
Geographical, mathematical and statistical skills are assessed within every question paper.
Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗The 7 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- Atlas and map skills: distributions, patterns and sketch mapsDistributions 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.Open →
- Describing the site, situation and shape of settlementsThe 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.Open →
- Interpreting diagrams, sketches and photographsLabelling 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.Open →
- Using online census sourcesWhat 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.Open →
- Hypotheses, sampling and risk assessmentHypotheses 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.Open →
- Collecting, recording and presenting dataQuantitative 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.Open →
- Writing about findings and building an argumentWriting 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.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Your recallNot started
Key term
What does describing the distribution of features on a map involve, from the overall arrangement to the places that break it?
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How does a map show a settlement's situation, and how do water supply, flood risk and river crossings decide its site?
Evaluation
Give one advantage of presenting results by hand rather than with software.
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What does writing descriptively about your results mean?
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What does the distribution of a feature on a map mean?
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What is meant by the site of a settlement?
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What is the difference between labelling and annotating a photograph?
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What is a field sketch?
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What is a census?
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What is a hypothesis in a geographical enquiry?
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What is random sampling?
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What is the difference between quantitative and qualitative data?
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What does it mean to write critically about your findings?
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What is meant by a pattern when you look at a map?
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Which map evidence would you use to describe a settlement's situation?
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What is a ground-level photograph?
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How often is a national census taken in the UK?
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What is systematic sampling?
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What does it mean for a fieldwork measurement to be reliable?
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Which three elements should the description of a graph contain?
Take Geographical Skills further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Wet point site vs Dry point site
Wet point site: a position where water can always be obtained, beside a spring or river. Dry point site: a position on raised ground above marshy or flood-prone land.
Label vs Annotation
Label: a word that only names a feature. Annotation: a short note describing or explaining a feature.
Large-scale map vs Small-scale map
Large-scale map: one covering a small area in fine detail. Small-scale map: one covering a large area with far less detail.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
What does the distribution of a feature on a map mean?
Model answer
The way that feature is spread across an area — where it is found, where it is absent and how densely it occurs.
- 2
What is meant by a pattern when you look at a map?
Model answer
A recognisable regularity in the way features are arranged, such as grouped together, strung out in a line, or spread evenly.
- 3
What does it mean to say that settlements are clustered?
Model answer
They are grouped closely together in one part of the area while much of the rest is left nearly empty.
- 4
What does a linear pattern look like, and what usually causes one?
Model answer
The features sit in a line, because they follow a route such as a road, a river or the floor of a valley.
- 5
What is a dispersed pattern?
Model answer
Features scattered thinly and fairly evenly across the whole area, with no obvious grouping anywhere.
- 6
What is an anomaly in a distribution?
Model answer
A place or value that does not fit the general pattern shown by the rest of the map.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Geographical Skills revision questions
- What does Geographical Skills cover in Edexcel GCSE Geography A?
- 7 subtopics: 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. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Geographical Skills organised?
- By the Edexcel 1GA0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Geographical Skills, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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