GEOGRAPHY GCSE

Exam Board: AQA

Course Overview / Introduction

Studying Geography at GCSE will allow you to develop:

• Your understanding of geographical concepts and processes to understand and interpret our changing World.

• As global citizens who recognise the challenges of sustainability and the implications for your own and others' lives.

• Connections between the different aspects of Geography.

• Intellectual skills, such as judging evidence in order to make informed decisions and to develop reasoned arguments.

• Research skills, such as using a range of methods for the collection and analysis of data through undertaking fieldwork.

• Transferable skills, such as teamwork, problem solving, IT skills and communication skills (presentation, writing, debating).

What will you study?

• The Living World

• Urban Issues and Challenges 

• The Challenge of Natural Hazards 

• Physical Landscapes in the UK

• Fieldwork

• The Changing Economic World

• The Challenge of Resource Management

• Issue Evaluation

How many exams are there?

The course is divided into three examinations. 

Paper 1: (Living with the physical environment)

This paper is 1 hour 30 minutes long and is worth 35% of your GCSE. 

Paper 2: (Challenges in the human environment) 

This paper is also 1 hour 30 minutes long and is worth 35% of your GCSE. 

Paper 3: is a response to fieldwork and the decision making exercise

This paper is 1 hour 15 minutes long and is worth 30% of your GCSE.

What will you gain from this course?

The benefit of studying Geography is that it opens up hundreds of pathways for employment due to its breadth of study and development of skills. Fieldwork will undoubtedly improve your learning through experience and provide real world examples to the theory that you are studying.

What does this lead to?

There has never been a more important time to use geographical knowledge and skills to pursue a career. None of the changes and challenges facing the UK and the world in the 21st century, including climate change, energy security, migration, urbanisation and globalisation, can be properly understood, let alone tackled, without geography. This is the discipline that connects the natural and the human, the local and the global and in doing so, enables us to plan sustainably for the future. Whether your future career lies in the environmental sector, business, education, the natural or social sciences, the media, in geospatial industries or in travel, geography opens up a range of choices for your future work and career.

Staff Contact:

Miss D Bunkell,
Head of Humanities & Social Sciences