Geography

Head of Department: Mr D W Dalton
Exam board: AQA
Qualification name: Geography
Qualification codes: GCE A Level 7037

What you will study
Lower Sixth
Component 1: Physical Geography and People and the Environment.
Section A: Either Water and Carbon Cycles or Coastal Systems or Glacial Systems and Landscapes.
Section B: Either Hazards or Contemporary Urban Environments.
Component 2: Human Geography and Geography Fieldwork Investigation.
Section A: Changing Places.
Section B: Geography Fieldwork Investigation and Geographical Skills.

Upper Sixth
Component 1: Physical Geography.
Section A: Water and Carbon Cycles.
Section B: Either Hot Deserts Systems and Landscapes or Coastal Systems and landscapes or Glacial Systems and Landscapes.
Section C: Either Hazards or Ecosystems Under Stress.
Component 2: Human Geography
Section A: Global Systems and Global Governance.
Section B: Changing Places.
Section C: Either Contemporary Urban Environments or Population and the Environment or Resource Security.
Component 3: Geography Fieldwork Investigation.

How you will be assessed
A Level
Component 1: A two-hour and 30-minute written exam. (40% of A Level)
Multiple choice, short answer, levels of response and extended prose.
Component 2: A two-hour and 30-minute written exam. (40% of A Level)
Multiple choice, short answer, levels of response and extended prose.
Component 3: Individual Study 3,000-4,000 words. (20% of A Level).

Why choose Geography?
Michael Palin, President of the Royal Geographic Society, offers many reasons:
“Geography is a living, breathing subject, constantly adapting itself to change. It is dynamic and relevant. For me, geography is a great adventure with a purpose. So many of the world’s current issues – at a global scale and locally – boil down to geography, and need the geographers of the future to help us understand them. Global warming as it affects countries and regions, food and energy security, the degradation of land and soils from over-use and misuse, the spread of disease, the causes and consequences of migration and the impacts of economic change on places and communities – these are just some of the challenges facing the next generation, which geographers must help solve.”

Course requirements
There is no requirement to have studied Geography at GCSE, but students should have a good awareness of current affairs.

Related subjects at Sixth Form
Geography acts as a good bridging subject between the arts and the sciences and therefore can be studied with a wide range of other disciplines.

Where could this lead?
Geographers traditionally enter a wide range of careers from banking to farming, advertising to architecture, teaching to planning, and the Forces. Those going on to read Geography at university find their choices of careers widening even further for employers in many fields seek graduate geographers. It is a subject which traditionally produces people with a high level of literacy, numeracy and computing skills, and geographers’ range of skills makes them highly employable.

Further important information
Geographers spend almost as much time outside the classroom as they do inside. Fieldwork is undertaken at various points throughout the course and is an important aspect of the subject. As well as being a practical subject, it deals with current affairs, and an awareness of contemporary issues is therefore important.