1. Feedback from AS Mock
Some poor, bad, or very bad!
Lots of revision needed!
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – You
cannot blag A Level
A level is “Advanced Level” – General
Certificate of Secondary Education won’t do!
2. Grade boundaries
Mark Grade
A 59
B 54 (should be looking to get an A/full marks!)
C 49
D 44
E 40
Ungraded Anything under 40 (revise, practice, revise!)
With revision you should be able to move up
significantly!
3. Not going through it question by
question
• You have the mark scheme, you must check through
and see where you went wrong.
• Common problems
– Not knowing key processes/topics and/or not showing that
you did
– Not using examples and missing important marks (every
4/5 mark question and above needs an example) “this is
like…”, “eg…”, “for example….”, “such as….”
– Not reading the question properly
– Wasting time re-writing the question “Europe’s
Mediterranean coastline attracts migrants from within the
EU because….”. Just dive in there “Migrants move there
because ….”
4. Common problems identified by the
exam board and the same for you?
• Question 1(b) - El Nino and droughts poorly understood
• Question 2(b) - widespread misconceptions about the role
large volcanic eruptions play
• Question 2(c) – still talking about ozone in a question about
greenhouse gas emissions
• Question 3(b) – poor understanding of food insecurity
• Question 5(c) - poor delivery of push and pull factors, with
weak evidence
• Question 6(c) - poor understanding of consumption
• Question 9(b) - superficial knowledge of how trade blocs
stimulate the growth of TNCs and global trade.
5. These were marked to Edexcel
standards
• If you want to do better you will have to do lots
of revision!
• Learn key terms (definitions) and use them
• Learn the basics:
– What is climate change and how is it caused
– What are hydro-meteorological/geophysical hazards
and their causes
– Different networks in globalisation
– Urban processes and why cities are different
– Different types of migration and impacts.
6. Learn case studies
• Important to at least know the compulsory ones:
– Hazards in California and Philippines
– Climate change impacts Arctic (ecological) and Africa
(socio-economic)
– Megacities (Bangalore and London)
– Migration within the EU (Eastern Europe and Costas)
– Ageing population
• Others which are important:
– TNCs
– The rise of NICs (eg India)
7. Some of you aren’t careful enough
• Read questions more carefully or get 0 marks!
• If you can’t read numbers off a graph/map
correctly, take more time. Use a ruler to help
you.
• Take a calculator in the exam with you if you
can’t do simple maths (you won’t have your
phone with you!)
8. Use the resources they give you!
• It’s vital if they say “study figure…” that you do!
• So, in question 3a)iii) refer to some of the
“changes shown”, not just rainfall or temperature
• In question 5b)1 refer to the variation in size ,
“less than 1/10th of the numbers leave Egypt than
Morocco” and think of a reason why!
• In the long answer questions the first part a) is
always data response. It is vital that you use the
data, refer to it, “figure 7 shows….”, “the map
shows…”
9. Don’t be vague
• Better to stop and move onto the next
question than waffle on to fill the space!
• You get nothing extra for repeating what
you’ve said in a different way.
• If in doubt throw in an example.
• Don’t cross stuff out. There is no negative
marking!