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Have I failed my Geography AS?

I think I lost 30+marks from 15 markers because ran out of time, could I still get a decent grade?
(edited 9 years ago)

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Reply 1
You sound like you're screwed, but I can't say different of me. GL
Original post by DannyA
Damn I wrote this post but then I lost it all.

Anyways, I ran out of time severely with the AQA Geog Unit 1 exam today.

Like missing 3 15 markers bad. The worst thing is I knew the content of them and could've easily gotten 11 marks from each.

But now I'm looking at getting 11 out of 60 for the 15 markers (7 for the one I rushed but completed and 4 for the 1 paragraph I did do for Population).

I think I've gotten more than 40 marks for the other 60 marks though, at most 46. I'm looking at getting 57 marks out of 120, which looks horrible to me :frown:

I know Unit 2 is 30% and this exam is 70%, say I get 50% on this exam which is 35% overall and get 25% on Unit 2 - is 60% enough to pass? Or even get above a C?

edit: never mind, just post-exam anxiety.


57 isn't that bad you definetley haven't failed you may even get a C depending on the grade boundaries and I think timing is a common issue due to figures taking time to read and interpret and the large number of them making timing tighter.Have you had this problem before because I have struggled with timing all year and as a result I do the 15 markers first and it has worked very effectively I think.
Reply 3
Original post by Dalek1099
57 isn't that bad you definetley haven't failed you may even get a C depending on the grade boundaries and I think timing is a common issue due to figures taking time to read and interpret and the large number of them making timing tighter.Have you had this problem before because I have struggled with timing all year and as a result I do the 15 markers first and it has worked very effectively I think.



Yep I have.

But this exam was different because I knew all the content to a tee unlike previous mocks I've done. I could've easily answered the 15 markers

Damn I should've done that :frown: probably would've had 30 mins - 45 mins to spare but could've finished it.
Last year's boundaries were 54 for a D, 61 for a C and 68 for a B.

My teacher said he wouldn't be surprised if boundaries go up this year as they raised the GCSE ones last year, though I shouldn't think they would be more than a few marks higher (2-3).

Ace the Skills and you'll pull it up to at least a C.
Reply 5
Original post by Paralove
Last year's boundaries were 54 for a D, 61 for a C and 68 for a B.

My teacher said he wouldn't be surprised if boundaries go up this year as they raised the GCSE ones last year, though I shouldn't think they would be more than a few marks higher (2-3).

Ace the Skills and you'll pull it up to at least a C.


Why would they raise them if people did worse?

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Original post by DannyA
Damn I wrote this post but then I lost it all.

Anyways, I ran out of time severely with the AQA Geog Unit 1 exam today.

Like missing 3 15 markers bad. The worst thing is I knew the content of them and could've easily gotten 11 marks from each.

But now I'm looking at getting 11 out of 60 for the 15 markers (7 for the one I rushed but completed and 4 for the 1 paragraph I did do for Population).

I think I've gotten more than 40 marks for the other 60 marks though, at most 46. I'm looking at getting 57 marks out of 120, which looks horrible to me

I know Unit 2 is 30% and this exam is 70%, say I get 50% on this exam which is 35% overall and get 25% on Unit 2 - is 60% enough to pass? Or even get above a C?

edit: never mind, just post-exam anxiety.


Last year that would have been a D, but I think/hope grade boundaries should be lower this year, because everyone's saying it was a really hard paper, so I'd imagine it would be a high D/low C. If you do really well in unit 2, you could definitely bring that up to a C, maybe even a B. But anyway, there's no point doing a post-mortem!
Original post by Kosovaa
Why would they raise them if people did worse?

Posted from TSR Mobile


If people did way worse than last year then yeah the boundaries either won't change or will remain the same. But if overall the cohort do better, boundaries will increase, and they may just put them up to make it harder to get certain grades - they're already pretty low in comparison to most other subjects!

Also, my geography teacher showed us the AS paper this morning (I'm doing A2) and it was a way nicer paper than the one we had last year. I would thus expect boundaries to be at least a little higher than last year.
Original post by Kosovaa
Why would they raise them if people did worse?

Posted from TSR Mobile


Michael Gove wants to toughen up GCSEs and A Levels.
But guys there aren't any jan modules anymore so people would generally do worse leading to poorer grades overall.
Original post by Paralove
If people did way worse than last year then yeah the boundaries either won't change or will remain the same. But if overall the cohort do better, boundaries will increase, and they may just put them up to make it harder to get certain grades - they're already pretty low in comparison to most other subjects!

Also, my geography teacher showed us the AS paper this morning (I'm doing A2) and it was a way nicer paper than the one we had last year. I would thus expect boundaries to be at least a little higher than last year.

It certainly was not! You're paper was pretty easy last year looking at the paper and grade boundaries
Original post by bbadonde2
It certainly was not! You're paper was pretty easy last year looking at the paper and grade boundaries


The population and energy topics were WAY better than the ones we had!
Original post by Paralove
The population and energy topics were WAY better than the ones we had!

The river question was a lot easy as well. However, I would say except for our first coasts questions our coast section was easier!
Original post by Paralove
The population and energy topics were WAY better than the ones we had!


I got 15/15 in my mock Population 15 marker(I revised my case studies and applied figures and did very well) its a very known about topic that students will have gone over and over(I completed the case studies of France and China for homework for example) but the population 15 marker was on a very small part of the syllabus and had so many splits it was confusing because I think you had to work out which ones were relevant enough(I got 3/15 for a similar question in my January Mock but have done better this time about 8-9/15) no way have I got anyway near 15 for this question.The energy 15 marker was on a much smaller part of the syllabus than last year's 15 marker which was based on common knowledge you would have if you revised of who consumes/produces the most and least of the energy resources and what trades occurred detailed case study information wasn't required but sustainability of transport is much vaguer.I admit the first 5 marks on population were easier than the Ordinance Survey Maps and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the realities but there was a really hard Geopolitics Graph that was very unclear and renewable energy is much easier to define than agreements in Geopolitics, the figures were much nicer to use and very clear just picking out stuff about Limpet and commenting on the renewable sources in each country but acid rain was a tough question with the comment word confusing me and little to talk about compared to solar energy but 4 marks of advantages there isn't that much to talk about luckily I came up with some good answers.Overall I think June 14 was harder than June 13 but I still think it was up to the general recent standards of papers and there was a few difficult questions but the paper went pretty well I feel-should be 70 for an A I think.
Original post by bbadonde2
The river question was a lot easy as well. However, I would say except for our first coasts questions our coast section was easier!


The first coasts question wasn't really that bad I just think it took a while to interpret with all the arrows but it really only tested basic knowledge hence the word outline eg.higher wind speed causes destructive waves more erosion, high tides cause more erosion,transportation of heavier sediment which is deposited further up the beach,wave refraction cause wave trains to converge at headlands causing erosion there and diverge at bays causing deposition.Once I had taken the question in I thought it was a great question which gave you a choice of things to talk about because there were several arrows.The sediment cell question asking how sediment is moved along the coast was a real pain.I'm not sure about Coasts being harder last year because sketch and explain landforms of submergence is straight out of the textbook compared to our questions-I struggled on the Sketch bits though and got 0 for that because I didn't label it.The 15 marker for Coasts was slightly easier but similar to last years with a choice of things to talk about but the fact that last year's paper asked for the shape of the coast, which I found hard to refer to I only got 10/15.

Rivers was about the same both years probably slightly easier due to the confusion of flood-magnitude analysis even though really all it was asking you to do was define both terms and say how they are linked together to help predict how often floods of that size occur but the figure about flooding limited your response where as the dam ones were much more open and the 15 marker in Rivers last year was exactly what most people dreamed for and I really don't think they dreamed for Soft Engineering, which is definetley more applied because you have to link the Soft Engineering types to what exactly they do to prevent flooding where as you can just name the things needed to cause high discharge levels in last year's 15 marker.
Original post by Dalek1099
I got 15/15 in my mock Population 15 marker(I revised my case studies and applied figures and did very well) its a very known about topic that students will have gone over and over(I completed the case studies of France and China for homework for example) but the population 15 marker was on a very small part of the syllabus and had so many splits it was confusing because I think you had to work out which ones were relevant enough(I got 3/15 for a similar question in my January Mock but have done better this time about 8-9/15) no way have I got anyway near 15 for this question.The energy 15 marker was on a much smaller part of the syllabus than last year's 15 marker which was based on common knowledge you would have if you revised of who consumes/produces the most and least of the energy resources and what trades occurred detailed case study information wasn't required but sustainability of transport is much vaguer.I admit the first 5 marks on population were easier than the Ordinance Survey Maps and Socio-Economic Characteristics of the realities but there was a really hard Geopolitics Graph that was very unclear and renewable energy is much easier to define than agreements in Geopolitics, the figures were much nicer to use and very clear just picking out stuff about Limpet and commenting on the renewable sources in each country but acid rain was a tough question with the comment word confusing me and little to talk about compared to solar energy but 4 marks of advantages there isn't that much to talk about luckily I came up with some good answers.Overall I think June 14 was harder than June 13 but I still think it was up to the general recent standards of papers and there was a few difficult questions but the paper went pretty well I feel-should be 70 for an A I think.


Word of advice: should you continue to A2 and study the conflict section, that really does take a small part of the syllabus should you do the essay question on it. As it can for World Cities and the Weather and Climate topics (Plate Tectonics almost always incorporates everything!).
Original post by Paralove
Word of advice: should you continue to A2 and study the conflict section, that really does take a small part of the syllabus should you do the essay question on it. As it can for World Cities and the Weather and Climate topics (Plate Tectonics almost always incorporates everything!).


Last Year's Geography Class studied Ecosystems,Plate Tectonics and Mega Cities so I should be able to avoid Conflict.Please say they didn't ask a question on a small part of the syllabus for the 40 markers:eek:(at least you get a choice of 3 though:biggrin:).
Original post by Dalek1099
Last Year's Geography Class studied Ecosystems,Plate Tectonics and Mega Cities so I should be able to avoid Conflict.Please say they didn't ask a question on a small part of the syllabus for the 40 markers:eek:(at least you get a choice of 3 though:biggrin:).


We study four topics so we actually get a choice!!!! Whereas you HAVE to do a physical geography essay and can't do a human one at your school as they only teach three topics...

And yep. Conflict covers local conflict,international conflict, separatism, poverty, security and development, and multiculturalism. The essay question last year was on separatism. So yeah, they can!!
Original post by Paralove
We study four topics so we actually get a choice!!!! Whereas you HAVE to do a physical geography essay and can't do a human one at your school as they only teach three topics...

And yep. Conflict covers local conflict,international conflict, separatism, poverty, security and development, and multiculturalism. The essay question last year was on separatism. So yeah, they can!!


I didn't realise you have to do one Physical one from Section A and one Human one from Section B and that means only a choice between ecosystems and tectonics.Generally you should always study the least amount of topics because that means you will spend less time studying the 4 and that makes a huge difference at A2 I would imagine with the units being very large.
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Dalek1099
I didn't realise you have to do one Physical one from Section A and one Human one from Section B and that means only a choice between ecosystems and tectonics.Generally you should always study the least amount of topics because that means you will spend less time studying the 4 and that makes a huge difference at A2 I would imagine with the units being very large.


Whatever topics you pick in the Sections A and B you cannot do for section C, the essay. So really, 4 is better as you don't know which is going to be the nicer essay question to do, and only having one human topic automatically takes two options out for your essay.

Doing 4 also means you can not revise the one you hate most, like I still don't know whether to bother with conflict as I've pretty much decided the tectonics will be the essay, so I have to do weather, while the world cities topic is easier and less varied than conflict. However, others in my class are just not bothering with weather.

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