Geographical Skills Drill

You cannot revise this. Revise the tools

Section A is different from every other part of the course, and it frightens students who do not see how. ⭐ It is UNSEEN, and it awards NO marks for recall. So there is no content to revise, because you will not have seen the maps, graphs or photographs before. What you can revise, and what the whole section rewards, is a set of TOOLS you apply to whatever is put in front of you: reading a map, reading a graph, working out a simple statistic, and judging a photograph or an article. ⭐⭐ So the one move that unlocks the section is this: ask what KIND of resource this is, and what the question wants you to EXTRACT or JUDGE. Then reach for the matching tool. The tools fall into four groups: cartographic for maps, graphical for charts, numerical for statistics, and critical for images and articles. ⚠️ Carry one question through everything below: what kind of resource, and what does the question actually want from it?

Revising facts, and revising skills

The habit that works for the rest of the course is the wrong habit here, and seeing why saves a lot of wasted effort.

Order how to meet a resource

Put the steps of approaching any unfamiliar map, graph or photograph into order.

• Work out what kind of resource it is: a map, a graph, a table or an image
• Read its title, its labels or axes, and its key
• Work out whether the question wants you to extract a value or to judge something
• Apply the matching tool, cartographic, graphical, numerical or critical
• Check the answer makes sense against the resource

Mean, or median

A question asks for the median of a small set of values. A student works out the mean instead. Why does this matter?

• The mean and the median are different statistics: the mean is the total divided by how many values there are, while the median is the middle value when they are put in order, so the two usually give different numbers
• It does not matter, because the mean and median are always equal
• The student should have used the mode, which is always correct
• The mean and median both measure the spread of the values

Words for the tools

Five terms, each defined so you can use it in a sentence rather than only recognise it.

Find the mean

A small survey records three values: 2, 4 and 9. What is the mean of these three values?

Which are true of the tools

Select the TWO statements that are true.

• A six-figure grid reference locates a point more precisely than a four-figure one
• The range measures how spread out a set of values is
• The scale of a map does not affect how you work out a real distance
• A photograph or article can always be trusted to be neutral

Reading what a resource is for

One routine turns any unseen resource into a set of quick decisions. ⭐ Name the resource. Is it a map, a graph, a table, a photograph or a piece of writing? Each has its own family of tools. ⭐ Read the frame before the content. The title, the key, the axis labels and the scale tell you what the resource is measuring, before you read a single value. ⭐ Decide extract or judge. Some questions want a value pulled out or worked out; others want you to judge how fair or how well chosen the resource is. ⭐ Only then apply the tool, and give the working, because Section A rewards the applying, not a bare answer. ⚠️ The trap is treating it as a recall question and writing what you happen to know about the topic. There are no marks for that here; every mark is for using the resource in front of you.

Match each skill to its job

Map distance to real distance

On a map with a scale of one to fifty thousand, one centimetre on the map is fifty thousand centimetres on the ground, which is half a kilometre. How many kilometres on the ground does a map distance of six centimetres represent?

Plot the next point on the line

A line graph rises steadily. It passes through the point where x is 1 and y is 2, and the point where x is 2 and y is 4, both already marked. Following the same steady rise, plot the point on the line where x is 3.

How you pass a driving test

Leave geography aside and think about a driving test. ⭐ You are not told the route in advance, and there would be no point memorising one, because on the day you will be sent somewhere you have never practised. ⭐⭐ So nobody prepares by learning a route. They prepare by learning to DRIVE: to steer, to check mirrors, to read the road. Those abilities work on any route at all. On the day, the examiner can throw any junction at you, and it does not matter, because you are not remembering, you are doing. That is exactly the shape of this part of the exam. The particular map or chart is the unseen route. What carries you through is not having met that one before, but being fluent in the abilities that work on any of them.

Complete the skills facts

A four-figure or six-figure _____ reference locates a point on a map. The _____ of a map tells you how a distance on the map relates to the real distance on the ground. The _____ of a set of values is their total divided by how many there are, and the _____ is the difference between the largest and the smallest. Reading a photograph or an article critically means watching for _____, where it is presented to push one view. Section A gives no marks for _____, so you must apply a skill, not state a fact.

The skills drill run

Five quick decisions on the tools. Three lives.

Pick the tool for the resource

Three unfamiliar resources appear in the exam. For each, decide which tool the question needs.

• A map question asks for the exact location of a symbol. Which tool?
• A table of rainfall values asks for the typical amount and how spread out the values are. Which tools?
• A photograph is used in an article to argue that a place is thriving. The question asks how far you can trust it. Which tool?

Advise a worried student

A student says there is no way to revise for Section A because it is unseen, so they are going to skip preparing for it. Write them the advice that shows how it can be prepared for.

• Explain why memorising content will not help, since the resources are unseen and recall earns no marks
• Explain what can be practised instead: the cartographic, graphical, numerical and critical tools
• Explain the one move of asking what kind of resource it is and what the question wants
• Use the terms grid reference, scale and range correctly
• Reach a clear conclusion about how the student should spend their revision time