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A2 AQA Geography 3A Summer 2012

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Reply 780
Original post by lukas1051
Oh and I REALLY hope the tectonics essay is on plate tectonic theory, that's the stuff I read about in my free time :P although I supposed the extent of human and physical factors for earthquakes/volcanoes would be good too.


For the Plate Tectonics Theory 40 marker, the 2010 question "volcanic and seismic events are evidence for plate tectonics theory" what sort of things would you argue?

Do you have a rough outline/plan of what you can say?
Original post by lukas1051
Oh and I REALLY hope the tectonics essay is on plate tectonic theory, that's the stuff I read about in my free time :P although I supposed the extent of human and physical factors for earthquakes/volcanoes would be good too.


But what sort of things would you write for plate tectonic theory??
and how would you interpret your case studies??
Reply 782
Original post by buildalegohouse
Just reading everyone's predictions :smile:
I'd love anything to do with sustainable tourism/ecotourism/TNCs/Trade blocs for the essay question (though judging by the past papers this is pretty unlikely. I will actually cry if a question on NICs came up.) As for plate tectonics and world cities, I'm not fussed, though I have revised retailing until the cows come home.

I'm doing a very stupid thin for the exam. I don't know about other people, but we're taught four topics:
-world cities
-globalisation
-plate tectonics
-ecosystems.
I've done ZERO revision for ecosystems (I just don't get any of it) which means I don't have a back-up if the questions are awful.

I've done the exact same as you haha, going to miss out weather and climate and only do world cities, globalisation and plate tectonics
PRAYING for good questions haha
For plates are people just doing one case study of a tsunami? I have Indonesia one in 2004 only? Should I have Japan?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App
Original post by emilysadlerx
For plates are people just doing one case study of a tsunami? I have Indonesia one in 2004 only? Should I have Japan?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App


I have just gone over Japan, because it is highly unlikely the 40 marker will be purely on tsunami's cause its not in the silibus.
Can Anyone Help Me???????????
How can I make the 40 mark essay unique and different? I.e In my conclusion.
Because the examiner at a meeting claimed that this is what he looks for, so what sort of things could I do??
Original post by Harry.K
The grade boundaries are fairly low on this exam- last year you needed 58 out of 90 for an A.

Positive: You only need around 64% for an A.

Negative: low grade boundaries indicate that this is probably a bloody hard exam.


How do you know that the grade boundaries are set to be low this year?
They only come out a week before results day?
Reply 787
Original post by emilysadlerx
For plates are people just doing one case study of a tsunami? I have Indonesia one in 2004 only? Should I have Japan?


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App


Some quick facts on Japan
Original post by nickss
Started as a magnitude 9.0 Richter scale earthquake 70km off of the east coast of Japan, tsunami was a secondary hazard (much like Indonesia - same plate structure etc.)
Tsunami waves travelled up to 10km inland, submerging coastal cities such as Sendai, and a massive amount of farming land.

As the plate boundary was destructive, the land fell by around 2m which left
coastal defences inadequate (such as Sendai tsunami wall 10m high - breached as high of wave was 12.5m). This bit shows how Japan was prepared, but didn't take into account unpredictable shifts in the height of land.

Tsunami + earthquake led to approximately 18000 deaths (including those 'missing') - costliest natural disaster to date ($235 bn (2011 USD)). Also, the threat of a nucleur disaster at Fukushima let to massive social and political impacts on the surrounding areas, mass evacuation of the area meant huge implications on the population. = had an impact equivalent to 4% if Japan's GDP.


Hope this kinda helped :tongue:

Oh also, Japan has an advanced warning system; a warning message was sent to the phones of residents/on tv/on google -> high level of preperadness.
Reply 788
Anybody else doing the 40 marker on human topics???????
Original post by JSR94
Anybody else doing the 40 marker on human topics???????


me :smile: either development/globalisation or conflicts, not sure yet.
Going to do a PT essay. However if D&G is on TNCs, which is likely, then I'll do that. Will have to bite the bullet on Conflicts then :redface:
Original post by lewiswarby
How do you know that the grade boundaries are set to be low this year?
They only come out a week before results day?


For every exam there has been on this unit, the grade boundaries have always been low :smile:
Reply 792
Original post by emelizabeth
me :smile: either development/globalisation or conflicts, not sure yet.


I will either be doing development & gloalisation or world cities :/

Though I really am stuck on how to structure these essays!!
Original post by lewiswarby
But what sort of things would you write for plate tectonic theory??
and how would you interpret your case studies??


There is a lot of evidence for plate tectonic theory, more than is written in the textbook, I think quality is more important than quantity though, so pick a few and maybe read a bit deeper into them. I think paleomagnetism really nailed it though, previous evidence seemed to suggest that the continents were once together and in different places, but paleomagnetism provided the mechanism as to how this happened. The Atlantic is undeniably expanding, and if this is happening then there must be destruction elsewhere, and the whole theory fits together very nicely. Case studies of events are quite difficult to fit in, and won't be expected in detail because it's irrelevant, but look at the physical characteristics of your event. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, in the 2011 Japanese earthquake there were huge amounts of crustal displacement as a result of the earthquake because it occurred on a destructive boundary.

Original post by d_aan
For the Plate Tectonics Theory 40 marker, the 2010 question "volcanic and seismic events are evidence for plate tectonics theory" what sort of things would you argue?

Do you have a rough outline/plan of what you can say?


I did this question for homework ages ago, you can have a look at my answer. Admittedly I think it could be much better, I don't think it's well written enough and I don't think I've been synoptic enough (this topic doesn't lend itself to synopticity very well which I think the examiner would understand, but I think I could have still mentioned some more places), but it was the first practice essay I did.
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 794
What are people using for their TNC case study?
Reply 795
Original post by lewiswarby
How do you know that the grade boundaries are set to be low this year?
They only come out a week before results day?


Because an A grade has always been around that mark for all the previous papers of this exam. The boundaries only change by a few marks.
Reply 796
Original post by M.dale
What are people using for their TNC case study?


Nike and Coco Cola, with some info on some other TNC's like Dyson, Nissan, etc.
Reply 797
Original post by lukas1051


I did this question for homework ages ago, you can have a look at my answer. Admittedly I think it could be much better, I don't think it's well written enough and I don't think I've been synoptic enough (this topic doesn't lend itself to synopticity very well which I think the examiner would understand, but I think I could have still mentioned some more places), but it was the first practice essay I did.


Not bad. The basic structure is there, but it really needs more. 25/40

Wegener -> Biological, Climatological, Geographical, Continental Fit.
-> NO MECHANISM, WEGENER FAILED TO EXPLAIN
->Come 1948-1950s, undefloor sea mapping.
->Age of crust/paleomagnetism either side of Mid Atlantic Ridge.
->PROBLEM WITH THIS, AS THE EARTH ISN'T GROWING IN SIZE
->Discovery of marianas trench, crust is being subducted.

Theory now in place.

Volcanoes > Ring of Fire (you did this good), lots around there. Here you should get in a strong paragraph about hot spots. They don't occur at boundaries HOWEVER we know that we can still apply plate tectonic theory because they have trails. Line of islands, suggesting that either the hotspot is moving, or the plates are moving. (:biggrin:)
Earquakes > Good.

For top marks you need to talk about landforms at different boundaries, island arcs, fold mountains (Andes is a great one to do), Himalayas. We're talking about everything here.

Convergent->Oceanic/Oceanic, Oceanic/Continental, Continental/Continental, one landform for each.

Divergent-> MAR, Iceland perhaps?

Once you have done this you can bang out a paragraph about volcanoes/earthquakes. Yes they do, but look at all the other glorious pieces of information.

Hope that helps you.
Reply 798
Original post by M.dale
What are people using for their TNC case study?


BP and Mattel, with information on others like Apple, Mars, Starbucks, Royal Dutch Shell.
Original post by acedlol
Not bad. The basic structure is there, but it really needs more. 25/40

Wegener -> Biological, Climatological, Geographical, Continental Fit.
-> NO MECHANISM, WEGENER FAILED TO EXPLAIN
->Come 1948-1950s, undefloor sea mapping.
->Age of crust/paleomagnetism either side of Mid Atlantic Ridge.
->PROBLEM WITH THIS, AS THE EARTH ISN'T GROWING IN SIZE
->Discovery of marianas trench, crust is being subducted.

Theory now in place.

Volcanoes > Ring of Fire (you did this good), lots around there. Here you should get in a strong paragraph about hot spots. They don't occur at boundaries HOWEVER we know that we can still apply plate tectonic theory because they have trails. Line of islands, suggesting that either the hotspot is moving, or the plates are moving. (:biggrin:)
Earquakes > Good.

For top marks you need to talk about landforms at different boundaries, island arcs, fold mountains (Andes is a great one to do), Himalayas. We're talking about everything here.

Convergent->Oceanic/Oceanic, Oceanic/Continental, Continental/Continental, one landform for each.

Divergent-> MAR, Iceland perhaps?

Once you have done this you can bang out a paragraph about volcanoes/earthquakes. Yes they do, but look at all the other glorious pieces of information.

Hope that helps you.



Don't you have Psychology to do? :cool:

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