GCE GEOGRAPHY. Unit 4A Geography Fieldwork Investigation Report on the Examination June Version: 1.0

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1 GCE GEOGRAPHY Unit 4A Geography Fieldwork Investigation Report on the Examination 2030 June 2014 Version: 1.0

2 Further copies of this Report are available from aqa.org.uk Copyright 2014 AQA and its licensors. All rights reserved. AQA retains the copyright on all its publications. However, registered schools/colleges for AQA are permitted to copy material from this booklet for their own internal use, with the following important exception: AQA cannot give permission to schools/colleges to photocopy any material that is acknowledged to a third party even for internal use within the centre.

3 General It is pleasing to be able to commend centres and candidates for their evident diligence in undertaking fieldwork to prepare candidates for the examination. As centres recognise the best preparation for the paper is for candidates to have first-hand experience of fieldwork with some write-up of the investigation. Centres have become increasingly confident in preparing candidates for this unit and this is reflected in the great variety of fieldwork being studied and used in responses. Approaches included all candidates undertaking the same investigation, varied investigations in small groups and completely individual investigations. Fieldwork on rivers continues to be popular, and coasts, sand dunes, microclimates and settlement studies continue to be well represented. Centres do need to ensure that the candidates themselves gain a full experience of planning, data collection, presentation, analysis and conclusion in order that they are fully prepared for the examination. 40 marks are allocated for the examination of the candidates own fieldwork investigation in Section A, whilst 20 marks are allocated for the assessment of fieldwork related skills in Section B. What was good: Candidates continued to demonstrate that they had undertaken fieldwork, developed their investigative skills and confidence in applying the fieldwork experience. The great majority of candidates worked to a well-focused aim. The best candidates offered specific detail about the fieldwork location, relevance to the underpinning theory, detail on data collection, analysis, results, conclusions and evaluation/extension of these, thus demonstrating with confidence what they had learned from undertaking the fieldwork investigation, according to the requirements of the questions. Candidates made a clear effort to respond to all sections and questions of the paper. Candidates increasingly continued to respond appropriately to the command words. There was continued evidence of clearly expressed and well-presented argument, couched in geographically appropriate terminology, demonstrating that a good number of candidates continue to think like a geographer. The application of knowledge in unfamiliar contexts was demonstrated by a competent interpretation of the cartographic skills in Section B. Centres are reminded that this section can refer to any of the skills from the list in the specification. What needs further development: There is still the need for some candidates to recognise, understand and respond appropriately to the command words. Explain, evaluate, justify, assess are examples of command words that trigger access to the higher mark bands. A minority of candidates are still unable to fully respond in this way. The requirements of questions vary from series to series. Centres should encourage candidates to be prepared to adapt their responses to the question actually set, rather than responding to questions set in previous series. Candidates who were unable to adapt the information at their disposal, could not gain access to the highest marks. It appeared that some centres are over-preparing candidates by preparing uniform responses. This was most evident in responses involving methods of data collection, where whole centres appeared to have experienced problems in data collection, such as equipment malfunction, which might have been expected to affect one group. Such preparation tends to limit candidates responses as they are not thinking for themselves and demonstrating their individual fieldwork experience. 3 of 5

4 The consistent application of detailed knowledge of the fieldwork undertaken to show explicit rather than implicit knowledge is required to access the highest mark bands. Question 1 Most candidates were able to access Level 2 by offering some explanation for the choice of their investigation, in varying degrees of range and depth. Explanation was frequently offered with regard to theory, and was best applied in consideration of the suitability of the characteristics of the location. Reference to accessibility, equipment availability, safety or location with respect to the centre was also frequently suggested. Many candidates demonstrated the freedom and confidence to adapt their knowledge to the question set and provide detailed explanations for their choice. The best candidates were able to refer convincingly to their fieldwork experience in the explanations offered. Question 2 Candidates were able to provide information on their method of data collection. However, many then found evaluation of the effectiveness (for access to Level 2) more challenging. Many candidates wrote responses commenting on accuracy and/or reliability of data collection, rather than adapting their knowledge to formally evaluating the effectiveness. Many candidates used simple considerations of strengths and limitations of the method of data collection. Both of these latter approaches tended to evaluate effectiveness by implication, rather than more directly. Consideration of sampling methods was used by better candidates to demonstrate rigour in data collection and thus reference the effectiveness of the method. Again, the best candidates were able to refer with confidence to their experience in the field. Question 3 The great majority of candidates were able to identify a valid method of data analysis. The most popular technique was Spearman s Rank Correlation Co-efficient and there were also many creditworthy responses on Mann-Whitney and Chi-Squared. Standard deviation also featured. A larger number of candidates than expected selected presentational techniques, including scatter graphs, GIS or line graphs. These were creditable if the response justified the usefulness in analysis. Most candidates who had selected a presentational technique were unable to make this conversion and wrote about the strengths and weaknesses of the technique selected. The great majority of candidates were able to assess the usefulness of their selected technique in analysing data collected to access Level 2. Again, the best candidates were able to refer to their statistical results in some detail, including reference to use of significance to enable them to access the highest marks Question 4 Responses to this question were almost always invariably competent. Most candidates were able to provide details of their conclusions and/or results. The explanation of how fieldwork had developed understanding of the topic was more variable. Most candidates were able to link the results/conclusions to their understanding, some in a more generalised manner. Those who demonstrated explanation of the link with understanding by detailed reference to their fieldwork investigation were able to access the highest marks. 4 of 5

5 Question 5(a) Line and bar graphs are techniques well known to candidates. The best candidates were able to specifically refer to the data shown in the figures, whilst explaining the usefulness in presenting data. Some candidates commented on generalised strengths and weaknesses of the figures, without referring to the diagrams themselves. Question 5(b) Candidates were, in general, less well prepared for this question. They were able to identify appropriate techniques and could assess their strengths and weaknesses, but were less confident in assessing the value of a variety of techniques as applied in geography. The most popular choices of presentational techniques were scatter graphs, triangular graphs, GIS, pie charts, choropleth, dot, isoline maps and located symbols. The great majority of candidates demonstrated some assessment of the value and uses of the techniques suggested, though references to variety were less well developed. The best candidates made reference to examples from their geographical studies and assessed the value of the techniques to show how the variety allowed different techniques to change the emphasis on what was being shown. A number of approaches were used in response to this question. For example, the depiction of population information by dot, choropleth and isoline maps shows the value of variety, as each shows the same or similar information, say on population, in a different way. Others saw the value of variety in terms of different audiences to be addressed. Reference to techniques used in, and referring to, the candidate s own fieldwork was a generally successful approach. Mark Ranges and Award of Grades Grade boundaries and cumulative percentage grades are available on the Results Statistics page of the AQA Website. Converting Marks into UMS marks Convert raw marks into Uniform Mark Scale (UMS) marks by using the link below. UMS conversion calculator 5 of 5