Pearson Edexcel GCSE Geography B
Find a lesson, practise a skill or work on an exam answer.
Lessons and practice for this course
These lessons cover selected parts of the course, including optional topics. Follow the options your class studies.
- Rivers and flooding
- Coasts and coastal change
- Urban growth and change
- Tectonic hazards
- Weather hazards
- Climate change
- Ecosystems
- Tropical rainforests
- Development and inequality
- Energy resources
- Geographical enquiry
- River landforms
- Coastal landforms
Map, graph and calculation practice · General fieldwork methods · Written-answer practice
My taught options
Choose the options your class studies. Your choice stays on this browser.
Practise an exam answer
Official specification and assessment requirements
Open the official qualification source
Explore selected parts of your course through skills practice, process lessons and sourced case evidence.
Issue 4, September 2025. Paper 2 has fifteen additional minutes from 2026.
Paper 3 uses an unseen decision-making resource booklet. Our fictional decisions are practice resources, not the official booklet.
2027 assessment route
| Component | Duration | Marks | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global geographical issues | 90 minutes | 94 | 37.5% |
| UK geographical issues | 105 minutes | 94 | 37.5% |
| People and environment issues: making geographical decisions | 90 minutes | 64 | 25% |
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
These links cover selected parts of the specification. Use your school course and the official specification to check the full requirements.
Global geographical issues
Three sections; four terminology and writing accuracy marks.
- Hazardous Earth: Hazard, exposure and vulnerability, Plate motion and tectonic hazards, Storm surge and coastal inundation, Adaptation to changing conditions — partial
- Development dynamics: Measuring development, Global value chains — partial
- Challenges of an urbanising world: Urban transport and access — 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
UK geographical issues
Both coastal and river content are compulsory. Choices apply to fieldwork questions only.
- The UK’s evolving physical landscape: Coastal processes and management, Drainage basins as systems, Flood management and residual risk — partial
- The UK’s evolving human landscape: Urban transport and access, Evaluating regeneration — partial
- Geographical investigations: Sampling and representativeness, Matching evidence to a claim — 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
People and environment issues: making geographical decisions
Unseen resources; select and justify one of three decisions in a 12-mark response.
- People and the biosphere: Ecosystem interdependence — partial
- Forests under threat: Forest conversion and distant demand — partial
- Consuming energy resources: Power, energy and reliable supply — partial
- Making a geographical decision: Matching evidence to a claim — 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 fieldwork occasions: one physical and one human investigation, in contrasting environments. Centre declaration is required.
Choose coastal or river investigation and urban or rural investigation. Both coast and river landscape teaching remains compulsory.
Case and example requirement slots
Check the requirements for each example you study. Assign saved examples to these roles from Your practice.
- Emerging country development: Topics 2.4–2.7; High or medium human development; Context; economic trends since 1990; globalisation and policy; uneven outcomes; international relations
- Developing or emerging megacity: Topics 3.4–3.7; Over ten million residents; City structure and growth; opportunities and challenges; inequality; top-down and bottom-up sustainability
- Changing major UK city: Topics 5.3–5.8; At least 200,000 residents; City context and structure; migration and inequality; change; regeneration and sustainability; linked rural change
- Tropical cyclone: developed country: Topic 1.6; Preparation and response effectiveness
- Tropical cyclone: developing or emerging country: Topic 1.6; Preparation and response effectiveness
- Tectonic hazard: developed country: Topic 1.9; Impacts; Short and long-term management
- Tectonic hazard: developing or emerging country: Topic 1.9; Impacts; Short and long-term management
The three in-depth case studies and four contrasting hazard example slots are mapped. Other located-example symbols across the specification still require an item-by-item inventory.
Pearson’s HDI category definitions and numerical city thresholds must be checked against the chosen setting and reference period. A city transport exercise alone does not satisfy the city case.
Paper 2 uses the revised 105-minute timing in issue 4; earlier 90-minute guides are out of date.
What is available here
Explore maps and data, practise methods, use case evidence and try an original assessment pack.
Skills practice · Written-answer practice · Create an original assessment
Mapped content areas
- Global geographical issues
- UK geographical issues
- People and environment issues
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.