Mock disaster.

[cjy]

After getting 5s 6s and 7s in my mocks, I completely bombed my Geography P3 (with a 3) and I thought it had been my best paper so far for Geo. I haven't had P1 or P2 back but I can only imagine how badly they've gone. Has anyone got any tips on how to do well in geography? I know the stuff I just can't seem to get higher marks

[Nabz]

Well i haven't been getting good grades in Geo but i would suggest going to this website created by my teacher. Have a look around and take notes on the topics through the links provided or references given. You can google search the key terms on every topic "globalization etc" and learn them by heart.

I think the hardest part where students including me, lose points are the definition questions because essay question isn't that hard normally but those little questions add up to a pretty big mark and if you don't get em, you score low.

So my advice is to try and focus on those little definitions...

[Laura Brandén]

i win my sevens in geography by incorporating very specific detailed case studies that are easily related to the questions, by far the most beneficial approach will be to intense study the case studies by writing them into essay formats based on former exam questions and ask your teacher to grade them for you.

Also, definition is key.

The only time you have to be extremely specific is when doing definitions and the 10 and 15 point questions, especially the 15 point. but other than that try to grab a general view upon the topics you are studying and try to summarize them with out the book.

it is hard to describe a way that will make it easier for you from my point of view as i have the general interest in the subject and therefore "just remember it" when doing the exam. When you sit down and read the text book and you feel like you are just "reading and reading" you are doing it wrong! while studying the text, try to pull up memory bits from the other chapters and link them together and how they seem to fit together and eventually you will build up threads of knowledge in your memory. While actually thinking deeply of what is written i tend to remember it better.

the key to geography is to link all the areas together from the geographical building blocks that can be discussed in any type of question.

[flinquinnster]

Geography, oh joyful geography. I guess that there is this (false) impression that it's easy, so it is somewhat easy to get lulled into a false sense of security. I guess the major thing that I do is make my own notes. I don't just read the textbook, I dot point every single subsection in the syllabus - yes, so I do know what concepts and definitions are - and try to have at least one case study/statistic/example, however ridiculous, to explain each point. However, the amount of content can also get confronting, so try and construct summaries of each area that are really short but have the key terms.

In terms of the exam, I am also sort of worried, to be honest. For long answers, case studies are critical. Our teacher's advice is to focus on one or two countries for which you know a lot about for nearly all the syllabus (for example, I use Australia, China and Bhutan), and then find specific case studies for each area. It saves you having to learn the geographical background of fifty different case studies from fifty different countries. Also, it's better to be shorter and more specific than long-winded and ambiguous in your short-answer questions. I wish I could take my own advice, but it's true. And yeah, doing practice is good, though obviously with only a few years worth of past papers it is hard. I would recommend making your own questions adapted from syllabus points (really, they don't vary that much) and practising extended responses for your teacher to mark.

Hope your later geography exams go better.