Not doing well in geography!

The make or break with A Level Geography is in the essays, consistent high marks in all six will comfortably allow you to get an A. Start by downloading The Guardian app, you may not agree with their points but take particular notice to their editorials and opinion pieces, you'll see how good writers string together the points they want to make into a coherent and well produced essay of sorts. Try and emulate how they go about conveying information: they'll begin with a short introduction that usually contains some succinct facts, they'll show a series of different viewpoints each supported with evidence, and they'll come to a conclusion based on their own judgement by taking into account the preceding content.

You need to be evaluative throughout, as you're making a point you should think about how people could argue against it and write the opposing argument. If you're asked whether you agree with a statement, don't fall into the trap of focusing on one angle and arguing for and against on that basis. I'll use an example, to the best of what I remember, from the 2019 exams. "Suburbanisation has been the leading cause of social and economic inequality in urban environments". Start with a small introduction relating to the statement, then begin with an argument that would agree, then display the counter argument, use your case studies and insert some facts to support both of them. Then look at a different angle altogether, maybe its deindustrialisation that's led to greater inequalities, but that's largely in HIC's and industrialisation has spurred inequalities in NEE's and LIC's. Maybe the leading cause in countries like the UK is gentrification and in coming years we can expect it to take a greater role, again use case studies to support this. Link every paragraph at the end back to the question, this should help to keep your essay grounded. Notice how I included both spatial and temporal scales, looking at a HIC compared to an LIC and then looking at how the causes of inequalities have changed over time using deindustrialisation from the 1970's and modern gentrification. At the conclusion, summarise all the preceding content and come to an overall conclusion as to whether you agree with the statement or not. Do not sit on the fence by saying 'I both agree and disagree' or words to that effect, that is a total cop out and not what the evaluative conclusion is about. Say you either agree or disagree and justify why, then acknowledge and briefly explain the alternative view point and why people may disagree with you, but then say why your conclusion has merit over the other.

Cherry pick your case study content, there's no need for written diarrhoea, stay succinct so that the facts you're presenting actually go about to support the argument. You also should look at how academic essays are written, just have a gander across Google Scholar, notice the advanced level vocabulary they use and then reflect back at your own in a previous essay. Time and time again I've read essays that sound childlike in the choice of language used, even an essay with poor content can pick up some marks if it is at least well written. Remember to keep yourself well read, think of recent examples and issues being talked about in the media, see if what you know from outside out of the specification lends itself to the essay and include it. Good luck!

Damn i've always followed a pattern but the way you write disregards it and exceeds. I'm curious did you do aqa? if so how did the exams go and how did you get around answering exam questions as there's so few past papers and i normally do better from practice. Did you write essays with your own questions etc?

I did AQA, geography has always been my strongest subject and I achieved an A* on both papers with full marks in the NEA. I do use the basic PEEL structure when writing a paragraph, but in terms of broader essay structure I never saw the point in subscribing to a rigid pattern as such.

There's a lot of exam questions available, download SAMS 1 for both the AS and A-level exams. SAMS 2 is locked on AQA's secure portal, but your teacher can give you access to the papers. You'll also have access to the 2018 and 2019 AS and A-level series, which should give you plenty of exam practice. The CGP revision guide has a fair share of practice questions, I also nabbed a couple from school textbooks. You won't find yourself in a shortage of practice questions any time soon.

The make or break with A Level Geography is in the essays, consistent high marks in all six will comfortably allow you to get an A. Start by downloading The Guardian app, you may not agree with their points but take particular notice to their editorials and opinion pieces, you'll see how good writers string together the points they want to make into a coherent and well produced essay of sorts. Try and emulate how they go about conveying information: they'll begin with a short introduction that usually contains some succinct facts, they'll show a series of different viewpoints each supported with evidence, and they'll come to a conclusion based on their own judgement by taking into account the preceding content.

You need to be evaluative throughout, as you're making a point you should think about how people could argue against it and write the opposing argument. If you're asked whether you agree with a statement, don't fall into the trap of focusing on one angle and arguing for and against on that basis. I'll use an example, to the best of what I remember, from the 2019 exams. "Suburbanisation has been the leading cause of social and economic inequality in urban environments". Start with a small introduction relating to the statement, then begin with an argument that would agree, then display the counter argument, use your case studies and insert some facts to support both of them. Then look at a different angle altogether, maybe its deindustrialisation that's led to greater inequalities, but that's largely in HIC's and industrialisation has spurred inequalities in NEE's and LIC's. Maybe the leading cause in countries like the UK is gentrification and in coming years we can expect it to take a greater role, again use case studies to support this. Link every paragraph at the end back to the question, this should help to keep your essay grounded. Notice how I included both spatial and temporal scales, looking at a HIC compared to an LIC and then looking at how the causes of inequalities have changed over time using deindustrialisation from the 1970's and modern gentrification. At the conclusion, summarise all the preceding content and come to an overall conclusion as to whether you agree with the statement or not. Do not sit on the fence by saying 'I both agree and disagree' or words to that effect, that is a total cop out and not what the evaluative conclusion is about. Say you either agree or disagree and justify why, then acknowledge and briefly explain the alternative view point and why people may disagree with you, but then say why your conclusion has merit over the other.

Cherry pick your case study content, there's no need for written diarrhoea, stay succinct so that the facts you're presenting actually go about to support the argument. You also should look at how academic essays are written, just have a gander across Google Scholar, notice the advanced level vocabulary they use and then reflect back at your own in a previous essay. Time and time again I've read essays that sound childlike in the choice of language used, even an essay with poor content can pick up some marks if it is at least well written. Remember to keep yourself well read, think of recent examples and issues being talked about in the media, see if what you know from outside out of the specification lends itself to the essay and include it. Good luck!

The make or break with A Level Geography is in the essays, consistent high marks in all six will comfortably allow you to get an A. Start by downloading The Guardian app, you may not agree with their points but take particular notice to their editorials and opinion pieces, you'll see how good writers string together the points they want to make into a coherent and well produced essay of sorts. Try and emulate how they go about conveying information: they'll begin with a short introduction that usually contains some succinct facts, they'll show a series of different viewpoints each supported with evidence, and they'll come to a conclusion based on their own judgement by taking into account the preceding content.

You need to be evaluative throughout, as you're making a point you should think about how people could argue against it and write the opposing argument. If you're asked whether you agree with a statement, don't fall into the trap of focusing on one angle and arguing for and against on that basis. I'll use an example, to the best of what I remember, from the 2019 exams. "Suburbanisation has been the leading cause of social and economic inequality in urban environments". Start with a small introduction relating to the statement, then begin with an argument that would agree, then display the counter argument, use your case studies and insert some facts to support both of them. Then look at a different angle altogether, maybe its deindustrialisation that's led to greater inequalities, but that's largely in HIC's and industrialisation has spurred inequalities in NEE's and LIC's. Maybe the leading cause in countries like the UK is gentrification and in coming years we can expect it to take a greater role, again use case studies to support this. Link every paragraph at the end back to the question, this should help to keep your essay grounded. Notice how I included both spatial and temporal scales, looking at a HIC compared to an LIC and then looking at how the causes of inequalities have changed over time using deindustrialisation from the 1970's and modern gentrification. At the conclusion, summarise all the preceding content and come to an overall conclusion as to whether you agree with the statement or not. Do not sit on the fence by saying 'I both agree and disagree' or words to that effect, that is a total cop out and not what the evaluative conclusion is about. Say you either agree or disagree and justify why, then acknowledge and briefly explain the alternative view point and why people may disagree with you, but then say why your conclusion has merit over the other.

Cherry pick your case study content, there's no need for written diarrhoea, stay succinct so that the facts you're presenting actually go about to support the argument. You also should look at how academic essays are written, just have a gander across Google Scholar, notice the advanced level vocabulary they use and then reflect back at your own in a previous essay. Time and time again I've read essays that sound childlike in the choice of language used, even an essay with poor content can pick up some marks if it is at least well written. Remember to keep yourself well read, think of recent examples and issues being talked about in the media, see if what you know from outside out of the specification lends itself to the essay and include it. Good luck!

I'm doing edexcel so will this structure still help. Also does SAMS have edexcel question papers as well

The make or break with A Level Geography is in the essays, consistent high marks in all six will comfortably allow you to get an A. Start by downloading The Guardian app, you may not agree with their points but take particular notice to their editorials and opinion pieces, you'll see how good writers string together the points they want to make into a coherent and well produced essay of sorts. Try and emulate how they go about conveying information: they'll begin with a short introduction that usually contains some succinct facts, they'll show a series of different viewpoints each supported with evidence, and they'll come to a conclusion based on their own judgement by taking into account the preceding content.

You need to be evaluative throughout, as you're making a point you should think about how people could argue against it and write the opposing argument. If you're asked whether you agree with a statement, don't fall into the trap of focusing on one angle and arguing for and against on that basis. I'll use an example, to the best of what I remember, from the 2019 exams. "Suburbanisation has been the leading cause of social and economic inequality in urban environments". Start with a small introduction relating to the statement, then begin with an argument that would agree, then display the counter argument, use your case studies and insert some facts to support both of them. Then look at a different angle altogether, maybe its deindustrialisation that's led to greater inequalities, but that's largely in HIC's and industrialisation has spurred inequalities in NEE's and LIC's. Maybe the leading cause in countries like the UK is gentrification and in coming years we can expect it to take a greater role, again use case studies to support this. Link every paragraph at the end back to the question, this should help to keep your essay grounded. Notice how I included both spatial and temporal scales, looking at a HIC compared to an LIC and then looking at how the causes of inequalities have changed over time using deindustrialisation from the 1970's and modern gentrification. At the conclusion, summarise all the preceding content and come to an overall conclusion as to whether you agree with the statement or not. Do not sit on the fence by saying 'I both agree and disagree' or words to that effect, that is a total cop out and not what the evaluative conclusion is about. Say you either agree or disagree and justify why, then acknowledge and briefly explain the alternative view point and why people may disagree with you, but then say why your conclusion has merit over the other.

Cherry pick your case study content, there's no need for written diarrhoea, stay succinct so that the facts you're presenting actually go about to support the argument. You also should look at how academic essays are written, just have a gander across Google Scholar, notice the advanced level vocabulary they use and then reflect back at your own in a previous essay. Time and time again I've read essays that sound childlike in the choice of language used, even an essay with poor content can pick up some marks if it is at least well written. Remember to keep yourself well read, think of recent examples and issues being talked about in the media, see if what you know from outside out of the specification lends itself to the essay and include it. Good luck!

Thank you, this helped a lot in the way of understanding what top mark essays looks like.
I have few more questions: how do you structure your 6 analysis questions? and also 9 markers (space on paper is less than one page and im finding it hard to not write more than space provided). do you use PEEL for both?
Many thanks.

The make or break with A Level Geography is in the essays, consistent high marks in all six will comfortably allow you to get an A. Start by downloading The Guardian app, you may not agree with their points but take particular notice to their editorials and opinion pieces, you'll see how good writers string together the points they want to make into a coherent and well produced essay of sorts. Try and emulate how they go about conveying information: they'll begin with a short introduction that usually contains some succinct facts, they'll show a series of different viewpoints each supported with evidence, and they'll come to a conclusion based on their own judgement by taking into account the preceding content.

You need to be evaluative throughout, as you're making a point you should think about how people could argue against it and write the opposing argument. If you're asked whether you agree with a statement, don't fall into the trap of focusing on one angle and arguing for and against on that basis. I'll use an example, to the best of what I remember, from the 2019 exams. "Suburbanisation has been the leading cause of social and economic inequality in urban environments". Start with a small introduction relating to the statement, then begin with an argument that would agree, then display the counter argument, use your case studies and insert some facts to support both of them. Then look at a different angle altogether, maybe its deindustrialisation that's led to greater inequalities, but that's largely in HIC's and industrialisation has spurred inequalities in NEE's and LIC's. Maybe the leading cause in countries like the UK is gentrification and in coming years we can expect it to take a greater role, again use case studies to support this. Link every paragraph at the end back to the question, this should help to keep your essay grounded. Notice how I included both spatial and temporal scales, looking at a HIC compared to an LIC and then looking at how the causes of inequalities have changed over time using deindustrialisation from the 1970's and modern gentrification. At the conclusion, summarise all the preceding content and come to an overall conclusion as to whether you agree with the statement or not. Do not sit on the fence by saying 'I both agree and disagree' or words to that effect, that is a total cop out and not what the evaluative conclusion is about. Say you either agree or disagree and justify why, then acknowledge and briefly explain the alternative view point and why people may disagree with you, but then say why your conclusion has merit over the other.

Cherry pick your case study content, there's no need for written diarrhoea, stay succinct so that the facts you're presenting actually go about to support the argument. You also should look at how academic essays are written, just have a gander across Google Scholar, notice the advanced level vocabulary they use and then reflect back at your own in a previous essay. Time and time again I've read essays that sound childlike in the choice of language used, even an essay with poor content can pick up some marks if it is at least well written. Remember to keep yourself well read, think of recent examples and issues being talked about in the media, see if what you know from outside out of the specification lends itself to the essay and include it. Good luck!

hi do you know the exact question for this, the suburbanisation one thanks for the help!