The Enquiry Process Map

The only part nobody can revise for you

Paper 3 is worth 76 marks over an hour and a quarter and counts for 30 per cent of the whole qualification. Section B, the fieldwork section, is 39 of those marks, and spelling, punctuation and grammar are worth 6 marks on this paper, double their weight on Papers 1 and 2. It is a bigger slice of the grade than most people assume. It is also unique, because half of what it asks about is your own work. The specification requires two enquiries using data you collected yourself, in contrasting environments, covering both physical and human geography, with at least one showing how the two interact, carried out beyond the classroom and the school grounds on at least two occasions. The exam then asks about those enquiries directly, using questions nobody can write a revision guide for, because the examiner does not know where you went and is relying on you to tell them precisely. That is the thing to take from this module before anything else. A student who can recite the enquiry process perfectly and cannot say the title of their own investigation, where it was, what they measured or what they found will lose marks that no amount of content revision can recover. Those details are recoverable now, from your notes and your write-up, and they are not recoverable in the exam hall. The other half of the section gives you an unfamiliar scenario, somebody else's fieldwork, and asks you to think about it. The same six-strand structure answers both. This module maps those six strands, then goes into the first one in detail: deciding what you are actually asking, working out what data will answer it, and assessing the risks of going to get it.

Five terms for strand one

The first three are what you are asking and what will answer it; the last two are distinctions the exam expects you to make precisely.

Order the six strands

Every fieldwork question sits somewhere on this sequence. Put the six strands of the enquiry process in order.

• Decide the question or hypothesis, the theory behind it, and assess the risks
• Select, measure and record the data, choosing and justifying how the sample is taken
• Process and present the data using graphical, cartographic and visual methods
• Describe, analyse and explain what the data shows, including any anomalies
• Reach a conclusion supported by the evidence and tied back to the original aim
• Evaluate the method, the data and the reliability of the conclusion

Why start with a hypothesis?

A class is told to investigate a stretch of river. One group sets out to find out about the river; another sets out to test whether the river gets wider and deeper downstream. Which answer explains why the second group is better placed?

• A hypothesis names the variables, so it decides what to measure, how often and where, before anyone leaves. It also defines what would count as evidence against it, which means the group can recognise a negative result rather than quietly ignoring it, and it makes the sampling strategy an obvious consequence of the question rather than a decision made in the field. A general aim to find out about the river leaves every one of those choices unmade, so data gets collected that nothing can be concluded from.
• The second group already knows the answer, so their data will be correct.
• Testing a hypothesis takes less time in the field.
• Examiners give more marks for hypotheses than for questions.

Three phases, six strands

The six strands group naturally into what you do before you go, what you do while you are there, and what you do afterwards. Reading them this way makes it obvious which strand a question is sitting in, and the last row of each column says where that strand is dealt with in depth.

Match each item to what it is

Two kinds of question, one structure

Section B asks two kinds of question and students prepare for only one of them. The first gives you somebody else's fieldwork: a scenario, some data, a method described. Here the examiner is testing whether you can think about an enquiry rather than perform one, and the specification note is explicit that these should be evaluated critically rather than described uncritically. Asked about a sampling method, do not explain what it is; say what it would and would not capture in that situation. Asked about a graph, do not read the highest bar aloud; say what the presentation makes clear and what it conceals. The second asks about your own two enquiries, and this is the part that catches people. The examiner does not know where you went. You will be asked for a title, a location, a method, a result, a difficulty you met. There is no way to bluff a specific answer to that, and no revision guide contains it. Fix the details now, while your write-up is still in front of you: the exact title of each enquiry, where it was and why there, what you measured and with what, how you chose your sites, what you concluded, and one thing that went wrong. Six facts per enquiry, twelve in total, and they are worth a disproportionate number of marks. One habit serves both kinds of question. Whatever you are asked, identify which of the six strands it belongs to, and answer inside that strand. A question about why you chose those sites is strand two and wants justification, not a description of the sites. A question about whether your conclusion is trustworthy is strand six and wants limitations, not a restatement of the conclusion. Most lost marks here are answers aimed at the wrong strand.

Complete the fieldwork requirements

Paper 3 is worth _____ per cent of the qualification, and Section B, the fieldwork section, carries 39 marks. The specification requires _____ enquiries using data you collected yourself, in contrasting environments, covering both physical and human geography, and carried out beyond the classroom on at least two occasions. Data you gathered yourself is called _____ data, while census figures or published maps you used are secondary. The enquiry process has six strands, running from settling the question through to the final one, which is _____. Spelling, punctuation and grammar carry _____ marks on this paper, double the weight they have on Papers 1 and 2.

Spot the three sound statements

Select the THREE statements that are true about fieldwork assessment.

• Part of Section B asks directly about the enquiries you carried out yourself, so the title, location, method and conclusion of each are examinable facts that no revision guide can supply.
• Data that fails to support your hypothesis is a legitimate result, and writing it up honestly can earn full marks, because the credit is for the reasoning rather than for being right.
• Identifying which of the six strands a question belongs to is the quickest way to avoid answering the wrong thing, since a question about site choice wants justification while one about trustworthiness wants limitations.
• When given an unfamiliar fieldwork scenario, the safest approach is to describe the method carefully and in full.
• One enquiry is sufficient provided it covers both physical and human geography.
• Spelling, punctuation and grammar carry the same weight on Paper 3 as on the other two papers.

An own-enquiry answer, marked

State the title of one of your fieldwork enquiries and explain why the data you collected was suitable for answering it. [6 marks] The worked answer below uses an invented enquiry as a model of the shape. Yours must describe your own. "My enquiry was titled: Does the width and depth of the River Wye increase with distance downstream? It was carried out at three sites along a four kilometre stretch in October. The data I collected was suitable because the hypothesis named two specific variables, width and depth, so I measured exactly those rather than gathering whatever seemed interesting. At each site I measured channel width with a tape across the water surface and depth at five points across that width using a metre rule, then averaged the five, because a single depth reading would have depended entirely on where I happened to stand. Taking the same measurements in the same way at all three sites made the sites genuinely comparable, which is what a question about change downstream requires. I also recorded velocity with a flow meter, because although the hypothesis did not mention it, width and depth alone cannot show whether the channel is carrying more water, and I took photographs and a field sketch at each site so I could describe the bank material and the surroundings when writing up. The main limitation was that three sites is a small number from which to claim a downstream trend." What earned the marks: an exact title stated rather than a topic; a location and a time; the link made between the variables named in the hypothesis and the things actually measured; a reason for the method, the five depth readings averaged, rather than a description of it; consistency across sites identified as what makes comparison possible; and a limitation acknowledged without being asked. Note how much of this is impossible to invent in an exam hall, and how easy it is to write down now.

Find the two that evaluate

Five sentences responding to an unfamiliar fieldwork scenario. Three of them only describe what was done. Tap the TWO that actually evaluate it.

• Counting pedestrians for ten minutes at each site captures the flow at that moment but not the pattern across the day, so a lunchtime reading and a mid-afternoon one are not comparable.
• The group measured pedestrian numbers at five sites along the high street using a tally chart.
• Choosing sites at equal intervals along the street gives even coverage, but it will miss the concentration around the station entrance unless that happens to fall on an interval.
• They used clipboards, tally charts and a stopwatch to record the data.
• The fieldwork was carried out on a weekday morning in June.

Build the hypothesis sentence

Assemble a sentence explaining what a hypothesis does for an enquiry.

Four moments in an enquiry

Each stage is a decision made before or during fieldwork. Choose the response that would stand up in the exam.

• Your group is told to investigate an area of coastline and has a free choice of focus. Someone suggests simply going and seeing what you find.
• The site is a rocky shore with a rising tide and slippery surfaces. A group member says the risk assessment is paperwork and can be filled in afterwards.
• Your data does not support your hypothesis. One group member suggests adjusting a few readings so that the write-up has a clearer conclusion.
• It is three months after your fieldwork and the exam is approaching. You can remember roughly what you did but not the exact title or the figures.

Write up your own enquiry

Using ONE of your own fieldwork enquiries, state its title and explain how you decided what data to collect and why that data suited the question. [9 marks]

• The title, not the topic
• An enquiry needs something to be testing
• What you measured follows directly from the variables
• Why you repeated a reading or took an average, not a description of the equipment