OCR A2 global issues case studies!

Hi everyone

Just wondering how people are memorising their case studies for the global issues exam??
I'm finding it so hard to remember them!!!

Thanks xx


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hi wow finally someone who is doing this exam what topics are you doing?
i'm doing earth hazards, climatic hazards, population and resources and development and inequalities.
the way i revise case studies is to write them out again by hand as bullet points, a few facts for each key part of the study and include a few figures as well (rounded up so they are easier to remember). i also think that with geography there are some questions where your geographical knowledge is key to doing well (e.g. i did a question that was based on my own knowledge and not a single cause study i learnt) so make sure you get as much experience of things as you can. read the news regularly, and make up your own case studies where possible. i did this for a few areas of earth hazards, climatic hazards and a little for development and they are a lot easier to remember and you don't have to revise them as much cause you made them yourself and researched them yourself. i have all my case studies for flooding made up from notes i took from my own research when the country had all those bad storms. i also write a blog that helps me remember case studies, i base my articles i write on essay questions or things discussed in my geography class cause it is a lot more fun than just writing an essay.
i do write practice essay questions though cause it is important to practice exam technique and also know how to apply the case studies as in a answer the case studies should back up your main points in the essay, not be the main points themselves.

very glad to find someone else who is doing ocr a2 geography, there are few of us on here apparently!
what investigation did you do for the skills paper?

Wow!

I'm doing pop and resources, development and inequalities and earth hazards also we are only doing 3.
That's kind of what I've been doing, we do all our class notes in skeleton note booklets so I've been writing them out, and then doing a page of notes and a mind map per case study.

Our teacher encouraged us to do that, we would each be given a case study and we had to write about it. It's quite good for flooding though cos we studied that last year too

We did practice essays all year also, averaging around 27/30 I've just been doing essay plans, only most of my essays I will discuss the question for each of my case studies. It sounds like what your doing is really good! For example if it was to what extent do economic inequalities result in social and environmental inequalities I would do a paragraph for each of my case studies discussing it then come to an overall answer.

I'm just finding it so difficult to remember all my case studies!! I don't have too many problems coming up with the points of analysis but I just cannot remember much about my case studies at all

Thankfully I only have to get a C this year

We did a river study and a tourist study, what about you??



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by what you described it seem you are doing the right thing. i average around 27 as well, i have had 3 essays that have got 30/30. just to plug my blog, might be helpful for revision http://vamoswearegolden.wordpress.com/geography/

we studied 4 topics to give us some option in the exam in case we didn't want to do one topic that was too hard or something. earth hazards is my best topic i think, the teacher who taught me that also teaches geology which helped with the earthquake and volcano stuff.

i did a sand dune succession study, only did one it rained all day and so i have plenty to right about in evaluation, but i enjoyed it, surprisingly it was fun.
i am going to study geography at uni and it is my favourite and best subject, hence the blog and the geography nerdyness that might be coming accross lol
do you watch many geography/geology documentaries?

Ahh that's good my teacher never gives us 30, he always finds something else we could have said hahaha!!! I have no idea how you've managed to do 4!! We hardly finished before study leave :s but we got 2 from economic issues thankfully!!! Earth hazards essays tend to be pretty similar
Thanks, I'll have a read! Yeah, well we actually did three but the third one I don't really understand so I'm just going to use my other two. aaaahhhh I see!!! Well I'm studying dentistry hopefully so completely different haha. We watched quite a few for population and resources and inequalities, but my main love is biology and chemistry so I tend to prefer those hahah xx


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we finished learning content at easter, i have two teachers who make the lessons so enjoyable so that may be why. i don't actually get study leave, my stupid school won't let us :P
oh right yeah that is different.
i only asked cause there are a lot of good documentaries on tectonics and stuff by prof Iain stewart who is a geology professor for plymouth uni and they are really good for case study material.

Same!! But we finished literally the day before we broke up for study leave aw thanks for letting me know, my school is quite good with case studies though we tend to study the more contemporary ones anyways e.g. The Washington oso mudslide


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my teachers don't use textbooks which is great cause they make learning so dull i think, we use journal articles, things that happened recently, in the news etc for case studies. i think for the whole of A2 i have only touched a textbook for a case study once. we once did a case study about a landslide that had literally just happened i.e. it happened that morning, can't get more recent than that.

We don't really tend to use it either, I've only looked at it to try and get a better case study than the ones I have but I tend to find it is not detailed at all!


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Wow I finally found people doing OCR!
So at my school we were taught all 6 sections, yup all 6- but this meant that we had to kinda rush and not do each section in a lot of detail, which kinda sucks A LOT :/
So with essays are we supposed to do it point based and then back up each point with a case study? I try it do this but for some essays, especially with the environmental topics, it's pretty hard. So for example how would you answer 'Impacts from tropical storms are essentially the same wherever they occur. Discuss' (Jan 13 q11) as a points based essay? Because surely you couldn't take each individual impact as a point, or would you have social/ env/ eco impacts as separate points? I hope that makes sense
I've decided to learn Climatic, Pop+Resource and Dev+Inequalities but there's still SO MANY case studies to learn, I don't think my mind can cope with so many facts and figures UGH :/ I NEED an A in geography, I'm hoping to do a Physics and Astronomy Degree so if I miss out because of geography I will be very upset
Wow that was quite a rant.

Wow I finally found people doing OCR!
So at my school we were taught all 6 sections, yup all 6- but this meant that we had to kinda rush and not do each section in a lot of detail, which kinda sucks A LOT :/
So with essays are we supposed to do it point based and then back up each point with a case study? I try it do this but for some essays, especially with the environmental topics, it's pretty hard. So for example how would you answer 'Impacts from tropical storms are essentially the same wherever they occur. Discuss' (Jan 13 q11) as a points based essay? Because surely you couldn't take each individual impact as a point, or would you have social/ env/ eco impacts as separate points? I hope that makes sense
I've decided to learn Climatic, Pop+Resource and Dev+Inequalities but there's still SO MANY case studies to learn, I don't think my mind can cope with so many facts and figures UGH :/ I NEED an A in geography, I'm hoping to do a Physics and Astronomy Degree so if I miss out because of geography I will be very upset
Wow that was quite a rant.

Oh my gosh!!! Same, I'm doing dentistry and I do not want it to cause me to not get in...
I get what you mean, I find it extremely difficult to make a point then back it up!!
School has encouraged us to think of the case study first then think about what point they prove, this is much easier!!
......

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my teacher says it is best to base your essay around a couple of big points that are shown through case studies. the case studies are there to back up your opinion and to help you argue. for that specific question i would do a few points on why they are not the same where ever they occur e.g. population density, levels of development, intensity of the individual storm etc. and then use different examples to illustrate them . of course you would need to do a counter argument so your answer is analytical.
as for facts and figures don't worry about knowing them all learn a few cause you won't use them all anyway in the exam, the most important thing is knowing how to apply your case studies.

so you like astronomy then? that's cool it has been my main hobby for the past 5 years, i love it too although i haven't studied it, my interest has taught me a lot. i am going geography at uni, i need AAB for my choice and the A needs to be in geography really

Yeh for that one I first talked about why impacts aren't the same everywhere but wasn't sure how detailed to go - because I could probably talk for a whole essay about why the impacts differ :P
I got so annoyed last year when I learnt sooooo much but could only used like 5% of my knowledge in the exam :/
Thanks for the help
Yup I like astronomy very very much oh that's cool do you not study physics then?
Agh I'm jealous of you needing ABB... I need A*AA ooooops I'm hoping that if I get a B in geography I can beg them to take me :P
what uni have you firmed?


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Yup my teachers say to focus on case studies and argue what the prove/disprove about the title, but I get the feeling that the board prefer backed up points, idk :/
Hmm yeh I did that essay a few weeks ago and did Sandy in an MEDC vs Mitch in LEDC's, which act as good contrasting case studied but it's such a broad essay title it was hard to focus on specific impacts without waffling
Thanks for the help, it's good to have others opinion on it
I think in the exam I'm just gonna evaluate loads and hope I do decently :P

What grades do you need? Which uni are you hoping to go to?


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Ooo! Others doing OCR geography. Some really useful points raised here. I too am struggling to remember and recall information of my case studies.

Part of my problem is my other subjects, maths and physics, seem so much easier to revise, just do a past paper and mark it. With Geography I struggle to motivate myself even though I really like the subject.

I will also check out you blog you linked to earlier, should be useful, thanks. :-)

Posted from TSR Mobile

Ooo! Others doing OCR geography. Some really useful points raised here. I too am struggling to remember and recall information of my case studies.

Part of my problem is my other subjects, maths and physics, seem so much easier to revise, just do a past paper and mark it. With Geography I struggle to motivate myself even though I really like the subject.

I will also check out you blog you linked to earlier, should be useful, thanks. :-)

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