AQA GCSE Geography
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Available here: original skills, concepts and selected sourced evidence exercises. This is not a complete course or a claim that every option and examination task is covered.
Issue evaluation uses a resource booklet available twelve weeks before the examination; a clean copy is supplied in the examination.
Two primary-data enquiries take place outside the classroom and school grounds, on at least two occasions, covering contrasting physical and human environments.
2027 assessment route
| Component | Duration | Marks | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Living with the physical environment | 90 minutes | 88 | 35% |
| Challenges in the human environment | 90 minutes | 88 | 35% |
| Geographical applications | 90 minutes | 76 | 30% |
Assessment objectives
- AO1: Location and process knowledge (15%)
- AO2: Geographical understanding (25%)
- AO3: Application, analysis and judgement (35%)
- AO4: Geographical and fieldwork skills (25%)
Save your taught options
Topic coverage by component
Partial means a few linked exercises cover part of the topic. It does not mean the topic has been taught in full.
Living with the physical environment
Includes three spelling, punctuation and grammar marks.
- The challenge of natural hazards: Hazard, exposure and vulnerability, Plate motion and tectonic hazards, Storm surge and coastal inundation, Adaptation to changing conditions — partial
- The living world: Ecosystem interdependence, Forest conversion and distant demand — partial
- Physical landscapes in the UK: overview: no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Hot deserts (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Cold environments (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Coastal landscapes in the UK (option): Coastal processes and management — partial
- River landscapes in the UK (option): Drainage basins as systems, Flood management and residual risk — partial
- Glacial landscapes in the UK (option): Glacier change and measurement — partial
Four and six figure grid references · Map scale and distance · Bearings · Contours and relief · Gradient · Climate graphs · Population pyramids · Scatter plots · Choropleth maps · Percentage change · Mean, median and range · Source evaluation
Challenges in the human environment
Includes three spelling, punctuation and grammar marks.
- Urban issues and challenges: Urban transport and access, Evaluating regeneration — partial
- The changing economic world: Measuring development, Global value chains — partial
- The challenge of resource management: core: Water security and competing uses, Power, energy and reliable supply — partial
- Food (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Water (option): Water security and competing uses — partial
- Energy (option): Power, energy and reliable supply — partial
Four and six figure grid references · Map scale and distance · Bearings · Contours and relief · Gradient · Climate graphs · Population pyramids · Scatter plots · Choropleth maps · Percentage change · Mean, median and range · Source evaluation
Geographical applications
Issue evaluation: 37 marks. Fieldwork: 39 marks. Includes six spelling, punctuation and grammar marks.
- Issue evaluation: Matching evidence to a claim — partial
- Fieldwork: Sampling and representativeness, Matching evidence to a claim, Association and geographical explanations — partial
Four and six figure grid references · Map scale and distance · Bearings · Contours and relief · Gradient · Climate graphs · Population pyramids · Scatter plots · Choropleth maps · Percentage change · Mean, median and range · Source evaluation
Fieldwork and independent assessment
Two enquiries in contrasting environments must include physical and human geography. Centre fieldwork declaration is required.
Paper 3 assesses the enquiry process and unfamiliar contexts. Issue evaluation material is released 12 weeks before the examination; a clean copy is supplied in the examination.
Case and example requirement slots
This inventory records distinct roles and dimensions. Further specification auditing is needed for an exhaustive list. Saved examples can be assigned to roles from Your practice.
- Tectonic hazard: wealthier setting: Named event; Effects and responses; Contrast with poorer setting
- Tectonic hazard: poorer setting: Named event; Effects and responses; Contrast with wealthier setting
- Named tropical storm: Effects; Responses
- Recent UK extreme weather: Causes; Impacts; Management
- Small UK ecosystem: Interdependence; Food web; Nutrient cycling
- Tropical rainforest: Deforestation; Impacts; Management
- Hot desert (option): Opportunities; Challenges
- Cold environment (option): Opportunities; Challenges
- UK coastline landforms (option): Erosion; Deposition
- UK coastal management scheme (option): Need; Strategies; Effects and conflicts
- UK river valley landforms (option): Erosion; Deposition
- UK flood management scheme (option): Need; Strategies; Social, economic and environmental issues
- UK glaciated upland landforms (option): Erosion; Deposition
- UK glaciated upland tourism (option): Attractions; Impacts; Management
- Major LIC or NEE city: Location; Growth; Opportunities and challenges
- Planning for the urban poor: Quality of life
- Major UK city: Migration; Urban opportunities and challenges; Urban sprawl
- Urban regeneration project: Reasons; Features
- LIC or NEE tourism: Reducing development gap
- One LIC or NEE: Industry and TNCs; Trade and aid; Environment and quality of life
- Sustainable modern industry: Environmental sustainability
- UK rural population growth: Social and economic change
- UK rural population decline: Social and economic change
- Large agricultural development (option): Advantages; Disadvantages
- Local LIC or NEE food scheme (option): Sustainable supply
- Large water transfer (option): Advantages; Disadvantages
- Local LIC or NEE water scheme (option): Sustainable supply
- Fossil fuel extraction (option): Advantages; Disadvantages
- Local LIC or NEE renewable energy (option): Sustainable supply
Linked concepts and case exercises cover selected parts of topics. A mapping is not proof that all specification content is taught here.
Named case and example slots are recorded separately. Broader applied examples, including transport infrastructure, are not exhaustively inventoried.
UK extreme weather need not be a tropical storm. Its family tag is a discovery aid only. A case must meet the slot dimensions.
Choose two UK landscape units, one desert/cold unit and one resource unit with your centre.
What is available here
Shared maps/data/methods practice, sourced case evidence and original assessment packs. Whole-course completeness and examiner-equivalent marking are not claimed.
Skills practice · Written-answer practice · Create an original assessment
Mapped content areas
- Natural hazards
- Ecosystems
- Climate
- Rivers
- Coasts
- Development
- Urban change
- Resources
- Population
- Maps and data
- Fieldwork methods
- Evidence evaluation
Check your taught examples
- A country’s developmentUse the required national scale and income/development context.; Explain economic change, international connections and uneven social outcomes.; A city intervention alone cannot fulfil a national case.
- Urban growth and changeIdentify the city and its national context.; Connect opportunities and challenges to growth and migration.; A transport project covers only part of a whole-city case.
- A UK cityIdentify the city and its regional connections.; Explain social, economic and environmental change.; Add your taught evidence beyond the intervention shown here.
- Tropical rainforest use and managementIdentify the rainforest and country or region.; Explain causes, consequences and management of forest change.; An Indonesian Borneo example is not automatically a Malaysian case.
- A tectonic hazard eventName and date the event.; Separate the tectonic process from exposure and vulnerability.; Use contrasting examples where your specification requires them.
- A tropical stormName and date the storm.; Explain hazards, impacts and responses.; Identify whether a number is an estimate, observation or forecast.
- Coastal managementIdentify the defended or realigned coastal stretch.; Explain how the intervention changes risk and sediment or habitats.; Evaluate consequences for different people and timescales.
- River flooding and managementSeparate the catchment, affected settlement and intervention.; Explain rainfall, flows, exposure and response.; Assess residual risk and avoid promising complete protection.
- Water supply and securityDefine the supply area and period.; Connect physical availability, demand and infrastructure.; Evaluate financial, energy, ecological and distributional effects.
- Energy supply and transitionsDistinguish capacity from generation.; Identify the technology, location and time period.; Assess reliability, access and environmental consequences.
- An ecosystem and its managementIdentify the ecosystem’s scale and processes.; Explain interactions and human pressures.; Do not attribute every change to a single cause.
- Glaciated landscapesIdentify past and current glaciation.; Connect landforms to erosion, transport and deposition.; Distinguish glacier area, volume and mass.