AQA · 8035
AQA GCSE Geography
31 topics and 334 questions for AQA's three papers.
The three papers
- Paper 1 Living with the physical environment. 88 marks, 90 minutes.
- Paper 2 Challenges in the human environment. 88 marks, 90 minutes.
- Paper 3 Geographical applications. 76 marks, 90 minutes.
Extended answers are worth 4, 6 or 9 marks and are marked in levels; Mia reads yours against the levels and names the level it reaches.
Natural hazards and climate AQA Paper 1 Section A
- AQA 3.1.1.1, AQA 3.1.1.2LessonPractice
Natural hazards and plate tectonics
- Define a natural hazard and explain what raises or lowers hazard risk
- Describe the Earth's layers and the global pattern of earthquakes and volcanoes
- Explain what happens at constructive, destructive and conservative plate margins
- AQA 3.1.1.2LessonPractice
Earthquakes and volcanoes: effects, responses and management
- Tell primary from secondary effects and immediate from long-term responses
- Compare a tectonic hazard's effects in places of contrasting wealth
- Explain why people live in hazardous areas and how monitoring, prediction, protection and planning reduce risk
- AQA 3.1.1.3LessonPractice
Global circulation and tropical storms
- Describe the global atmospheric circulation: cells, pressure belts and surface winds
- Explain where and why tropical storms form, and describe their structure
- Explain how climate change might affect tropical storms
- AQA 3.1.1.3LessonPractice
Tropical storm hazards, impacts and responses
- Describe the hazards a tropical storm brings: wind, rain, storm surge, flooding and landslides
- Explain why some countries are more vulnerable than others
- Weigh how monitoring, prediction, protection and planning reduce a storm's effects
- AQA 3.1.1.3LessonPractice
Weather hazards in the UK
- Name the weather hazards the UK experiences
- Explain the causes and social, economic and environmental impacts of an extreme weather event
- Weigh the evidence that UK weather is becoming more extreme
- AQA 3.1.1.4LessonPractice
Climate change: evidence and causes
- Read the evidence for climate change from ice cores, tree rings, records and sea level
- Explain natural causes: orbital changes, volcanic activity and solar output
- Explain how human activity strengthens the greenhouse effect, and why projections are uncertain
- AQA 3.1.1.4LessonPractice
Managing climate change: mitigation and adaptation
- Tell mitigation (reducing the causes) from adaptation (responding to the change)
- Weigh alternative energy, carbon capture, planting trees and international agreements
- Weigh changes to farming, water supply and defences against rising sea levels
The living world AQA Paper 1 Section B
- AQA 3.1.2.1LessonPractice
Ecosystems and global biomes
- Use producers, consumers, decomposers, food webs and nutrient cycling to explain how an ecosystem works
- Explain what happens when one part of an ecosystem changes
- Describe where the world's major biomes are and what controls them, and the goods and services they provide
- AQA 3.1.2.2LessonPractice
Tropical rainforests and deforestation
- Explain how climate, soils, plants, animals and people in a rainforest depend on one another
- Explain how plants and animals adapt to rainforest conditions
- Explain the causes and impacts of deforestation
- AQA 3.1.2.2LessonPractice
Managing forests sustainably
- Explain why tropical rainforests are valuable to people and the environment
- Weigh selective logging, conservation, ecotourism, international agreements and debt reduction
- Judge which strategies are most sustainable, and for whom
- AQA 3.1.2.3LessonPractice
Hot deserts
- Explain how a hot desert's climate, soils, plants, animals and people are linked
- Weigh the opportunities and challenges of developing a hot desert
- Explain the causes of desertification and the ways to reduce it
- AQA 3.1.2.4LessonPractice
Cold environments
- Explain how a cold environment's climate, permafrost, soils, plants, animals and people are linked
- Weigh the opportunities and challenges of developing a cold environment
- Explain why fragile cold environments need protecting and how development and conservation are balanced
Physical landscapes in the UK AQA Paper 1 Section C
- AQA 3.1.3.1LessonPractice
The UK's physical landscapes
- Locate the UK's main upland and lowland areas and river systems
- Explain how rock type, past tectonics and glaciation shaped upland and lowland Britain
- Explain how weathering, erosion, people and climate shape distinctive landscapes
- AQA 3.1.3.2LessonPractice
Coastal processes and landforms
- Explain weathering, mass movement, erosion, transport and deposition at the coast
- Explain how waves and geology form headlands, bays, cliffs, wave-cut platforms, caves, arches and stacks
- Explain how deposition forms beaches, spits, bars and sand dunes
- AQA 3.1.3.2LessonPractice
Coastal management
- Weigh the costs and benefits of hard and soft engineering at the coast
- Explain managed retreat and why some coasts are left to erode
- Judge a coastal management scheme and the conflicts it creates
- AQA 3.1.3.3LessonPractice
River processes and landforms
- Describe how a river's long and cross profiles change downstream
- Explain erosion, transport and deposition in a river
- Explain how waterfalls, gorges, meanders, ox-bow lakes, levees and floodplains form
- AQA 3.1.3.3LessonPractice
Flooding and river management
- Read a flood hydrograph: lag time, peak discharge and the rising and falling limbs
- Explain the physical and human causes of flooding
- Weigh hard and soft engineering for managing flood risk
- AQA 3.1.3.4LessonPractice
Glacial landscapes
- Explain freeze-thaw, abrasion, plucking, transport and deposition by ice
- Explain how corries, arêtes, pyramidal peaks, troughs, hanging valleys, ribbon lakes and moraines form
- Weigh the opportunities and conflicts of land use and tourism in glaciated uplands
Urban issues and challenges AQA Paper 2 Section A
- AQA 3.2.1LessonPractice
Urbanisation and megacities
- Describe global urban trends and where megacities are growing fastest
- Explain the roles of rural-urban migration and natural increase
- Explain how economic change drives urban growth and changing land use
- AQA 3.2.1LessonPractice
A growing city in a developing or emerging country
- Explain the opportunities a growing city offers: jobs, services and investment
- Explain the challenges of squatter settlements, the informal economy, services and pollution
- Weigh top-down and bottom-up schemes that improve quality of life
- AQA 3.2.1LessonPractice
Change in a major UK city
- Explain how migration shapes a UK city's growth and character
- Explain the opportunities and challenges urban change brings: deprivation, housing, derelict land and the rural-urban fringe
- Weigh regeneration and rebranding projects
- AQA 3.2.1LessonPractice
Sustainable urban living
- Explain what makes urban living sustainable: water, energy, green space and waste
- Explain how traffic management reduces congestion
- Judge how sustainable a city's plans are
Development and the changing economy AQA Paper 2 Section B
- AQA 3.2.2LessonPractice
Measuring development and the development gap
- Use GNI per head, HDI, birth and death rates, literacy and access to water to measure development
- Read the demographic transition model and population pyramids
- Explain the physical, economic and historical causes of uneven development and its consequences
- AQA 3.2.2LessonPractice
Reducing the development gap
- Weigh investment, industry, aid, intermediate technology, fair trade, debt relief, tourism and microfinance
- Tell top-down from bottom-up strategies
- Judge how far one strategy reduced the gap in one country
- AQA 3.2.2LessonPractice
Development in an emerging country
- Explain an emerging country's location, links to the world and changing industrial structure
- Weigh the role of transnational corporations, aid and international links
- Explain how rapid economic growth changes quality of life and the environment
- AQA 3.2.2LessonPractice
The changing UK economy and population
- Explain deindustrialisation, globalisation and the growth of the post-industrial economy
- Explain the north-south divide and the changing rural landscape
- Explain how migration and an ageing population change the UK
Resource management AQA Paper 2 Section C
- AQA 3.2.3.1, AQA 3.2.3.2, AQA 3.2.3.3LessonPractice
Resource management: food and water
- Explain why food, water and energy are unevenly distributed and in rising demand
- Explain food and water security, and why some places face deficits
- Weigh large-scale and local schemes that increase food or water supply
- AQA 3.2.3.1, AQA 3.2.3.4LessonPractice
Energy resources and security
- Classify energy resources as renewable or non-renewable and explain who has access to them
- Explain why global energy demand is rising and what energy insecurity means
- Weigh new fossil fuel supplies against renewables, efficiency and conservation
Skills, fieldwork and decisions AQA Paper 3 and section 3.4
- AQA 3.4.1, AQA 3.4.2, AQA 3.4.3, AQA 3.4.4LessonPractice
Maps, graphs and numbers
- Read grid references, scale, direction and contours on Ordnance Survey maps
- Read and draw climate graphs, choropleth maps, scatter graphs and population pyramids
- Work out percentages, means, medians, modes, ranges and interquartile ranges
- AQA 3.3.2LessonPractice
Fieldwork and enquiry
- Write a fieldwork question that can be answered with data
- Choose sampling methods and primary and secondary data, and explain the risks
- Present, analyse and evaluate fieldwork results and conclusions
- AQA 3.3.1LessonPractice
Issue evaluation and making decisions
- Read a resource booklet and pick out the evidence that matters
- Weigh the economic, social and environmental costs and benefits of each option
- Choose and justify an option, and say why you rejected the others