AQA AS/A2 Geography Student Unit Guide: Units 2 and 4a Geographical Skills Including Fieldwork

Summary:
Student Unit Guides are perfect for revision. Each guide is written by an examiner and explains the unit requirements, summarises the relevant unit content and includes a series of specimen questions and answers.
This guide deals with the practical skills required by Units 2 and 4A in AQA geography. A range of geographical skills and techniques are tested in both these units, and there are also questions on the fieldwork undertaken by students
The first section of the guide provides activities relating to the geographical skills students need to be familiar with, and answers to these activities. The second section gives information on the fieldwork students have to undertake, examplar fieldwork activities, and example exam questions on fieldwork with answers and commentary by examiners.

• A revision guide specifically written to meet the requirements of the unit
  

• Written by an examiner with commentary on key points and concepts 
  

• Features specimen questions and answers, together with examiner's comments
  

Table of Contents:
Introduction
About this guide
Activities
Basic skills
Labelling and annotation of photographs
Annotation of other illustrative material
Use of overlays
Literacy skills
Cartographic skills
Maps with located proportional symbols
Maps with located proportional circles
Flow lines
Choropleth maps
Isolines
Graphical skills
Line graphs/bar graphs
Scattergraphs
Proportional divided circles (pie charts)
Triangular graphs
Kite diagrams
Graphs using logarithmic scales
Dispersion diagrams
Statistical skills
Measurement of central tendency: mean, median and mode
Measures of dispersion: dispersion diagrams, inter-quartile range and standard deviation
Spearman rank correlation coefficient and the application of significance testing
Comparative tests
Answers
Basic skills
Labelling and annotation of photographs
Annotation of other illustrative material
Literacy skills
Cartographic skills
Maps with located proportional symbols
Maps with located proportional circles
Flow lines
Choropleth maps
Isolines
Graphical skills
Line graphs/bar graphs
Scattergraphs
Proportional divided circles (pie charts)
Triangular graphs
Kite diagrams
Graphs using logarithmic scales
Dispersion diagrams
Statistical skills
Measurement of central tendency: mean, median and mode
Measures of dispersion: dispersion diagrams, inter-quartile range and standard deviation
Spearman rank correlation coefficient and the application of significance testing
Comparative tests
Assessment of fieldwork at AS and A2
Aim, research questions and hypotheses
Methodology and data collection
Data presentation
Results and analysis
Conclusion and evaluation
The writing up?
AS Unit 2
A2 Unit 4A
Example fieldwork enquiries
Enquiry 1: Rivers based
Enquiry 2: Ethnic segregation
Enquiry 3: Does the village of Y match the characteristics of the rural area in which it lies?
Example fieldwork questions and answers
Unit 2 questions
Unit 4A questions

About the Author(s):
Amanda Barker is a senior examiner and teaches at Stowe School in Buckinghamshire.

David Redfern is a chief examiner and former deputy head at De Aston School, Market Rasen.

Malcolm Skinner is a former chair of examiners, chief examiner and head of geography.