Geographical Skills: Maps, Graphs and Statistics

Turning data into a statement

These skills are worth at least a tenth of the marks on their own, and they turn up all through the papers as well. It is tempting to treat them as a maths test hidden inside geography. They are not, and treating them that way is exactly what loses the marks. ⭐⭐ A geographical skill is a way of turning raw data, or a map, into a STATEMENT about a place that you can defend. The number or the grid reference is only half the job. Saying what it MEANS is the other half, and it is where the marks are. There are three families of tool, and each answers a different question. A MAP answers WHERE something is, how far it is from something else, and in which direction. It is about position on the ground. A GRAPH shows WHAT THE PATTERN is: whether something is rising, whether one place has far more than another, how a whole divides into parts. A STATISTIC says HOW TYPICAL a figure is, or HOW SPREAD OUT a set of figures is, in a single number that stands in for many. ⚠️ The commonest mistake is to stop halfway. A student works out an average and writes the number down, and never says the place is typically wetter than its neighbour. The technique was done; the geography was left out. Carry one question through the module: what am I asking of this data, and once I have the answer, what does it tell me about the place?

Three tools, three questions

Every skill in this paper is one of these three tools answering its own question. Match the tool to the question and the work is half done.

Tap the two a map answers

Tap the TWO tasks that a MAP is the right tool for, rather than a graph or a statistic.

• Work out how far apart two villages are on the ground.
• Work out the compass direction of a hill from a village.
• Find the value that appears most often in a list of figures.
• Show how a figure has risen over the past ten years.

Choosing the right graph

You want to show how the number of visitors to an unnamed site has changed across the twelve months of a year. Which graph suits that best?

• A line graph, because it shows how a figure changes over time
• A pie chart, because it shows parts of a whole
• A bar chart, because it looks clear
• A scatter graph, because it has two axes

Words for the skills paper

Six terms the skills questions expect you to use exactly. The three in the middle are the ones most often mixed up.

Match each statistic to what it tells you

Work out the mean

A survey at an unnamed bus stop counts the buses that pass on five days: 2, 3, 4, 8 and 8. Work out the mean number of buses per day.

Two ways to read a graph well

Select the TWO habits that make a reading of a graph or a statistic count for marks.

• Saying what the figure means for the place, not just writing the number down
• Reading the axis labels and units before drawing any conclusion
• Guessing the trend from the shape without checking the numbers
• Always choosing the statistic that gives the largest number

Do the technique, then say what it means

A skills question is answered in two moves, and most lost marks come from stopping after the first. ⭐ First, do the technique properly. Read the grid reference the right way round, along the bottom before up the side. Take the mean by adding and sharing out, not by guessing. Read the value off the correct axis, with its units. ⭐⭐ Then, and this is the half that scores, SAY WHAT IT MEANS FOR THE PLACE. Not just that the mean is a certain number, but that this place is typically busier, or wetter, or more crowded than another. The figure is evidence; the statement is the point. ⚠️ And do not be fooled by a graph. Check where the axis starts, because a scale that does not begin at zero can make a small change look enormous. Check the units. Check whether a single very high or very low figure is pulling the mean, in which case the median may describe the place better. Choosing the right statistic is part of the skill. The mean uses every figure but is pulled by an extreme one. The median ignores how far away the extremes are but is not pulled by them. The mode is only useful when figures actually repeat. Pick the one that answers the question honestly. Keep the one-line test to hand: what am I asking of this data, and what does the answer tell me about the place?

Order the way to answer with data

Put the steps of answering a question from a set of data into a sensible order.

• Work out exactly what the question is asking about the place
• Choose the right tool: a map, a graph, or a statistic
• Read the axes, units or map scale carefully before taking any figure
• Do the technique and get the figure or the reading
• Say what that figure means for the place in a sentence

Build a claim from a figure

A set of rainfall figures for an unnamed town has a high mean but one very wet month pulling it up. Assemble the most honest statement.

The skills quick-fire

Five quick decisions about maps, graphs and statistics. Three lives.

A class, in two numbers

Leave geography aside for a screen. A teacher has just marked a set of test papers for a whole class, thirty of them, and a parent asks how the class did. The teacher could read out all thirty marks. Nobody would be any the wiser; it is just a wall of numbers. So instead the teacher gives two numbers that stand in for the lot. ⭐ The first is a typical mark: the sort of score a student in that class tends to get. It sums the whole class up in one figure, so this class can be set beside another class in a sentence. ⭐⭐ But a typical mark on its own can mislead. Two classes can have the same typical mark while one is full of middling scores and the other is half brilliant and half struggling. So the teacher gives a second number: how spread out the marks are, from the lowest to the highest. With those two numbers, the parent knows more than the wall of thirty would ever have told them: what is normal for the class, and how much the students vary. ⚠️ And notice the honesty needed. If one student was away and scored zero, that single mark drags the typical figure down and makes the class look worse than it is. A good teacher would say so, and give a fairer figure that the one absence does not pull. Hold that picture. A place is a wall of numbers too, and the skill is choosing the one or two figures that sum it up without lying about it.

Complete the geographical skills facts

The typical value found by adding all the figures and sharing the total out equally is the _____. The middle value, once the figures are put in order, is the _____. The value that appears most often is the _____. How far apart the largest and smallest figures are is the _____, which measures the spread. On a map, the rule that relates a distance on the paper to a real distance on the ground is the _____.

Make sense of three datasets

You are handed three small sets of data about an unnamed town and must decide how to make sense of each. All the figures are supplied for the exercise.

• The first set is monthly visitor numbers across a year, and you must choose how to present the change through the year.
• The second set is daily rainfall for a week, and one storm day is far higher than the rest, and you must give a typical figure.
• The third task is a map showing two settlements, and you must state how far apart and in what direction they lie.

Explain what the data shows

You are given a set of figures and a map about an unnamed place, all supplied for the exercise. Explain how you would use geographical skills to turn them into statements about the place. Write about the skills, not a real named location.

• Explain how you would choose between the mean, median and mode for a typical figure, and when each is fair
• Explain what the range would add, and why a typical figure alone can mislead
• Explain which graph you would choose to show a pattern, and why it fits the data
• Explain how you would use a map scale and direction to describe where things are
• Stress that each technique must end in a statement about the place, not just a number
• Finish by explaining why choosing the right tool for the question is itself part of the skill