National 5 Geography
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
- Cold environments
- Glacial landscapes
- Development and inequality
- 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.
The course includes a question paper and assignment; it is not a GCSE.
SQA-branded documents remain valid under Qualifications Scotland. Assignment support here is limited to generic skills with fictional data.
2027 assessment route
| Component | Duration | Marks | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical, human and global geography | 140 minutes | 80 | 80% |
| Geography assignment | Independent assessment | 20 | 20% |
Assessment objectives
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.
Physical, human and global geography
Physical: 30 marks. Human: 30 marks. Global issues: 20 marks.
- Weather: no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Glaciated uplands (option): Glacier change and measurement — partial
- Coastal landscapes (option): Coastal processes and management — partial
- Upland limestone (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Rivers and valleys (option): Drainage basins as systems — partial
- Development and population: Measuring development — partial
- Urban change: Urban transport and access — partial
- Rural change: no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Climate change (option): Adaptation to changing conditions — partial
- Natural regions (option): Ecosystem interdependence, Forest conversion and distant demand — partial
- Environmental hazards (option): Hazard, exposure and vulnerability — partial
- Trade and globalisation (option): Global value chains — partial
- Tourism (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
- Health (option): no dedicated concept lesson yet
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 60 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
Assignment research is separate from supervised production of evidence. The maximum production time is 60 minutes.
Processed Information has strict format and content rules; it must not include a draft report. Generic methods practice does not provide an assessed topic or project-specific write-up.
Case and example requirement slots
Check the requirements for each example you study. Assign saved examples to these roles from Your practice.
- Land-use conflict in a studied landscape: One selected landscape; Conflict; Management
- Developed-world urban change: Land-use zones; Recent changes
- Developing-world informal housing: Recent developments; Management
Landscape choices are two specified pairs, not any two of four.
Weather systems, limestone landforms, detailed rural farming change, tourism and disease-specific health content remain substantial gaps.
Only selected geographical examples are mapped; this is not an exhaustive Scottish course or assignment support service.
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
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.