Find your way around the questions, answer the correct combination, and always time your answers
You are probably worried that you do not know enough about the Leaving Certificate geography course but please remember that you know a very great deal and will certainly do a very good exam.
However, some students fail to maximise their marks because they don't follow the instructions on the examination paper. You should therefore make yourself very familiar with the examination paper.
The Higher-Level Paper
The higher-level paper has three sections. You must answer the Ordnance Survey map question in section A and one of the four regional geography questions in section C. Section B has three sub-sections, on physical, social and economic geography, each with four questions. You must answer one question from each of two of the sub-sections.
The Ordinary-Level Paper
The Ordinary-Level paper contains 18 questions and you must answer five. You must answer Q 1, the Ordnance Survey map question and one question from Qs 14-18 on regional and world geography. Select your other three questions from Qs 2-18. Remember to answer no more than two questions from any of the physical (Qs 2-5), social (Qs 6-7), economic (Qs 10-13) or regional and world (Qs 14-18) sections.
Time Is Of The Essence
Besides answering the correct combination of questions, you must give the appropriate time to each, about 45-50 minutes for each higher-level question or 35-40 minutes for each ordinary-level question. This year, you have three hours 20 minutes to answer the paper instead of three hours as heretofore. This extra time can be used to write more detailed answers but it might be better spent examining the questions in some detail so that you understand their requirements more fully and plan your answers accordingly.
Revision
It is unlikely that you will be able to revise the entire course between now and June. You should therefore work on those areas of the course which experience has shown to be central to the examination.
Ordnance Survey Map
The map-reading question is compulsory for all candidates. You can practise mapreading best by studying maps and questions from previous examinations. However, do not confine yourself to these questions alone but study the maps to extract as much information as possible from them. Do this systematically by examining the physical geography, the rural and urban settlement, the historical geography, the tourist potential, the distribution of forests and the communications networks shown.
Revise the basic skills of giving grid references, using scales, giving directions, calculating gradients, and drawing maps and cross-sections.
Physical Geography
Two or three of the physical geography questions are usually based on mainstream topics such as mountain-building, weathering and the features associated with mass movement, river, glacial, coastal and marine erosion, transport and deposition.
Answers usually require a description of landscape features, an explanation of how they were formed, specific examples and diagrams. Many questions demand a knowledge of the socio-economic significance of the features and processes under consideration.
Social And Economic Geography
Social and economic geography are very wide-ranging subjects. They are also "dynamic" in the sense that many questions are based on current events not covered by textbooks.
Most questions on social and economic geography include an element of discussion. Remember that it is better to discuss three or four points in detail than to give a superficial treatment of a large number of points. Aspects of population geography, urban geography and aerial photography have loomed large in the social geography section of the paper recently.
Photography questions are usually based on a town shown on the Ordnance Survey map. Practise making sketch maps from photographs, identifying the functions of the buildings, locating different land use zones and seeing how the map and photograph complement one another.
Economic geography questions often include statistical tables and diagrams. You must learn to extract information from them and use it in your answers to maximise your marks.
The fieldwork question is usually set in this section of the paper. Details differ from year to year but the same information is usually required. This includes the title and purpose of the field exercise, the preparation involved, the field trip itself, information collected, your conclusions, and how you presented your work.
Regional Geography
When revising regional geography you should concentrate on topics that appear most often on the exam paper. Recently, these have included core and periphery, regions (intra- and inter- national), primary, secondary and tertiary activities.
The World Map
Question 18 on the ordinary level paper involves identifying features on a world map and writing on a number of topics, many of them based on current affairs. If you wish to answer this question you should study a world map regularly and you should also make use of radio and television current affairs programmes.
Des O'Leary is a geography teacher at St Michael's, Loreto, Navan.