Higher Geography
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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
- Weather hazards
- Climate change
- Tropical rainforests
- Hot deserts
- Glacial landscapes
- Development and inequality
- Water resources
- Energy resources
- Geographical enquiry
- Water cycles: budgets, residence time and feedback
- Population and health: structure, rates and environment
- Migration: flows, identities and uneven effects
- River landforms
- Coastal landforms
Map, graph and calculation practice · General fieldwork methods · Written-answer practice
My taught options
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Practise an exam answer
Official specification and assessment requirements
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Explore selected parts of your course through skills practice, process lessons and sourced case evidence.
Two question papers and an assignment have distinct raw and scaled marks.
Check the current course specification and your selected global issues; this library is not a complete Higher course.
2027 assessment route
| Component | Duration | Marks | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical and human environments | 110 minutes | 100 | 46% |
| Global issues and geographical skills | 70 minutes | 60 | 27% |
| Geography assignment | Independent assessment | 30 | 27% |
Assessment objectives
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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.
Physical and human environments
Two compulsory 50-mark sections.
- Atmosphere: no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Hydrosphere: Drainage basins as systems — partial
- Lithosphere: glacial and coastal landscapes: Glacier change and measurement, Coastal processes and management — partial
- Biosphere: soil formation: no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Population: Measuring development — partial
- Rural land degradation and conflict: Forest conversion and distant demand — partial
- Urban change and management: Urban transport and access, Evaluating regeneration — 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
Global issues and geographical skills
Global issues: 40 marks. Compulsory skills question: 20 marks.
- River basin management (option): Water security and competing uses — partial
- Development and health (option): Measuring development — partial
- Global climate change (option): Adaptation to changing conditions — partial
- Energy (option): Power, energy and reliable supply — partial
- Application of geographical skills: Matching evidence to a claim, Sampling and representativeness — 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
Geography assignment
Production of evidence: maximum 90 minutes, after a separate research stage.
- Generic research and evidence skills: 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
Fieldwork and independent assessment
The assignment has a separate research stage and a supervised production stage of maximum 90 minutes. Fieldwork is included where appropriate.
Processed Information cannot contain a draft report. Do not use generic examples here as a project-specific assessed writing frame.
Case and example requirement slots
Check the requirements for each example you study. Assign saved examples to these roles from Your practice.
- Forced or voluntary migration flow: Origins and destinations; Causes; Impacts
- Rainforest or semi-arid land degradation: Impacts; Management
- Glaciated or coastal land-use conflict: Conflict; Management
- Developed-world housing and transport: Recent change; Management; Impacts
- Developing-world housing and transport: Recent change; Management; Impacts
- Selected river basin management (option): Characteristics; Water-control projects; Consequences
- Water-related disease (option): Causes; Impacts; Management
Published assessment percentages are rounded: 46%, 27%, 27%. Paper 1 raw marks scale from 100 to 50; paper 2 from 60 to 30.
Soil formation, the full heat budget and ITCZ treatment, named river/coastal/glacial landform sequences and water-related disease require further teaching.
The migration content revision in September 2025 allows forced or voluntary flow. Assignment rules differ from England’s A-level NEA.
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
- Physical environments
- Human environments
- Global issues
- Applications of geographical skills
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.
- River flooding and managementSeparate the catchment, affected settlement and intervention.; Explain rainfall, flows, exposure and response.; Assess residual risk and avoid promising complete protection.
- 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.
- Migration and population changeDefine the origin, destination and period.; Distinguish internal migration from international movement.; Use evidence about differing household choices.