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AQA A2 Geography unit 4A 16/06/14

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Original post by Zozzy
Just wondering if anybody has done a psammosere succession or anything similar for their fieldwork investigation because I'm freaking out a little what I can write about it?!


Yeah I did it at Kenfig in Wales and you say about Clements theory of succession and mainly you will say if your results followed your aim. Out of my 2 hypothesis %Veg cover and soil moisture increase inland and my other hyp number and variety of species increase inland on the veg cover now was found to follow Clements theory. You more need to know how you carried out your experiments and why you did it the way you did. What graphs did you produce and why, what statistical tests you used and why. And results from these to put in conclusion questions if they for example ask how your results could be used. As I went to a nature reserve the results could be used by them to see if there doing enough to counteract plagioclimax


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Reply 21
Does anyone have any predictions on what might come up??
Original post by EmmmmmaX
Does anyone have any predictions on what might come up??


In section A (fieldwork), with presentation techniques on last years paper, it is likely they will ask you about the analysis of your fieldwork, e.g. using spearmans rank.

I'm not going to revise the use, strength or weaknesses of any graphical techniques as they were asked in section B for the last two years. There is good chance they may ask about Mann Whitney U tests or Chi Squared as they havent been on for a few years now.

So i am going to focus on ICT Skills, (e.g. use of remote sensed data, such as digital images including those captured by satelite), Statistical Skills (e.g. Mann Whitney U test & Chi-squared) and Cartographic Skills (e.g. use of Atlas maps)

Don't worry too much about section B, it is only worth 20 out of total 60 marks... focus on section A
(edited 9 years ago)
Does anybody have any notes on the topic? I am actually in the midst of a breakdown, our teacher refused to teach the topic because 'we did it last year'. How inadequate! Help anybody? :frown:
Reply 24
Original post by tomcrayston
In section A (fieldwork), with presentation techniques on last years paper, it is likely they will ask you about the analysis of your fieldwork, e.g. using spearmans rank.

I'm not going to revise the use, strength or weaknesses of any graphical techniques as they were asked in section B for the last two years. There is good chance they may ask about Mann Whitney U tests or Chi Squared as they havent been on for a few years now.

So i am going to focus on ICT Skills, (e.g. use of remote sensed data, such as digital images including those captured by satelite), Statistical Skills (e.g. Mann Whitney U test & Chi-squared) and Cartographic Skills (e.g. use of Atlas maps)

Don't worry too much about section B, it is only worth 20 out of total 60 marks... focus on section A


Any tips on how to gain full marks/drag out answers for the 8-12 mark questions when it doens't seem you can write as much? Also best way to prepare, just remember answers? Any exam technique?

Thanks for the help
Original post by Livaren
Any tips on how to gain full marks/drag out answers for the 8-12 mark questions when it doens't seem you can write as much? Also best way to prepare, just remember answers? Any exam technique?

Thanks for the help


Just pad it out as much as you can, as long as the information is relevant, obviously. I'd look at mark schemes as the same questions come up year after year. I've personally memorised all of my results from my fieldwork so I'll probably draw a results table. But it just depends on your fieldwork techniques etc. :smile:
I really want to know what's the best way to get above 50 in this paper, it seems so difficult!
Reply 27
hey guys its not he investigation i am worried about its the section B skills bit... how do you even revise for that? x
Explain how and why one of the techniques you used to analyse your data was useful in developing your understanding (8 marks)

I used spearmans rank to assess whether there was a correlation between settlement population size and the number of services in each settlement... SO WHAT COULD I WRITE FOR THIS? IM STUMPED!
Reply 29
For the Aims, is it better to do something short like: 'My aim was to investigate how the discharge and the cross-sectional area of the River Penberth change with the distance from the source.' Or to expand it to, 'My aim was to investigate how the discharge and the cross-sectional area of the River Penberth change with the distance from the source. I want to compare my results to the Bradshaw Model which suggest that they should increase with distance from the source. If my results do not fit this model, I wish to discover the reasoning behind this.'?
Heya does anyone have any results of measuring river characteristics downstream? I know everything about my fieldwork but I have lost my sheet with all my results on?! :smile:
Original post by tomcrayston
In section A (fieldwork), with presentation techniques on last years paper, it is likely they will ask you about the analysis of your fieldwork, e.g. using spearmans rank.

I'm not going to revise the use, strength or weaknesses of any graphical techniques as they were asked in section B for the last two years. There is good chance they may ask about Mann Whitney U tests or Chi Squared as they havent been on for a few years now.

So i am going to focus on ICT Skills, (e.g. use of remote sensed data, such as digital images including those captured by satelite), Statistical Skills (e.g. Mann Whitney U test & Chi-squared) and Cartographic Skills (e.g. use of Atlas maps)

Don't worry too much about section B, it is only worth 20 out of total 60 marks... focus on section A


by spear mans rank question do you mean a question like this? Explain how and why one of the techniques you used to analyse your data was useful in developing your understanding (8 marks)

I used spearmans rank to assess whether there was a correlation between settlement population size and the number of services in each settlement... SO WHAT COULD I WRITE FOR THIS? IM STUCK :frown:
Reply 32
I hope 2 days is enough to revise for this! Too many other exams!!


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When answering questions in section A, is it important that I remember data from my investigation? Also, for section B is it best just to memorise all the skills and their advantages and disadvantages?
Reply 34
Original post by CurtisDean
When answering questions in section A, is it important that I remember data from my investigation? Also, for section B is it best just to memorise all the skills and their advantages and disadvantages?


Yes, you need to prove to the examiner that you actually 'did the fieldwork.' So data will help bump you into the higher bands. Effectively yes, you basically want to be able to briefly describe how they work and what their advantages & disadvantages are.
Original post by CurtisDean
When answering questions in section A, is it important that I remember data from my investigation? Also, for section B is it best just to memorise all the skills and their advantages and disadvantages?


Yes it is important - and it can also be very useful for you too. I've personally memorised my results table, saves me writing out the results again and again in your paragraph (you can just write... 'See table'). I think most people just revise the strengths and weaknesses, an example of when the skill would be used, and it's purpose :smile:
Reply 36
Presuming section B is on stats techniques. What are we expecting the 8 and 12 markers to be?

Bit worried on how to answer a question which asks you to e.g "compare which stats technique would be better to show this data" or anything like that.

Does anyone have model answers prepared on this they'd be willing to share or any good links for this kind of thing?

Thanks
Can anybody help answer the following question pls?

'Explain how the use of statistical techniques may help in the analysis of data and increase geographical understanding'
Its from June 2012.

I know I have to speak about Mann Whitney U, Chi Squared and Spearman's rank, but what exactly do I have to say???
Original post by Zozzy
Just wondering if anybody has done a psammosere succession or anything similar for their fieldwork investigation because I'm freaking out a little what I can write about it?!


We did a psammosere at Bridlington Sands for ours, which is an unmanaged dune system. If it talks about extending our study, I'm going to talk about comparing our study to a managed dune system (e.g. Bamburgh Dunes SSSI), comparing it with 'textbook' examples of a sand dunes (e.g. Ainsdale Dunes) and with previous years results (our school has been doing the same trip for 25 years +) to see if anything has changed. This is especially apt for us as a park and ride recently opened behind the dune. My teacher has put a big emphasis on the impacts of this, e.g. reduced species diversity due to trampling. I can also say that comparing changes in the dunes might be of use to others, e.g. Natural England, the Town Council, to see if management is needed, that sort of thing. In terms of weaknesses of our investigation, I'm talking about using old fashioned pH testing, not pH meters, the problems with species identification (especially as we went in December, it was -3C!! :s-smilie: ), and the fact that due to time constraints we only took samples every 4m. Sorry it's so long, but hope it helps. If you've got any questions, feel free to ask as we've done fieldwork questions to death at school! :smile:
Original post by newgu
Presuming section B is on stats techniques. What are we expecting the 8 and 12 markers to be?

Bit worried on how to answer a question which asks you to e.g "compare which stats technique would be better to show this data" or anything like that.

Does anyone have model answers prepared on this they'd be willing to share or any good links for this kind of thing?

Thanks


Could it be on sampling techniques? That hasn't been up since 2010?

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