AQA GCE Geography Unit 3- 7th June 2013

Original post by liabhimani

my writing is reputedly illegible as many of my teachers have warned me! Do the examiners actually try hard to read writing or just give up and scrap the marks? :s-smilie:

Varies on the examiner. Although if writing is really bad, it tends to get to referred to another examiner, and unit 3 is marked by several examiners anyway usually, as they usually specialise on certain units and just mark those.

Most will try their best to read it and award marks where they can read it, and will then ask for it to be marked by someone else, who may stand more chance. Papers generally aren't scrapped unless the writing is so bad that no marks can be given at all.

Reply 3263

Original post by DavidCrow

But if you did 4B you are still at a slight disadvantage as the MWU is explicitly covered in 4A and not in 4B. I agree that it is your responsibility to look at the specification, but it does seem rather harsh to those who never studied 4A to put a question in on it, particularly as it's only included in a very small part of the spec at the very bottom of a page!

MWU is not in 4A, well it is, but it is covered in 3.6 of the specification which also applies to unit 3, and things on that skills checklist should be covered in unit 3, irrespective if you do 4A or 4B.

Reply 3264

SamEastie

2

Original post by bluekipper

Prob 31-32/90 Raw for this exam.

really? aha i hope so! thanks

Reply 3265

Original post by ElChapo

I see a lot of complaints, people complained in my school and it's the most complained about question in this thread. I found it easy ( I do 4a) but spare a thought for those who dont

Posted from TSR Mobile

but MWU is expected to be covered in unit 3 as well, it is not just specifically to unit 4A. I can quote the part of the specification that specifically says A2 and not Unit 4A for MWU, and it is only listed in ONE place in the specification and that is a general skills list that refers to skills for AS and skills for A2 (3.6 page 16). It states nowhere in the specification that it is just a 4A skill.

Reply 3266

Sophster101

3

Original post by ElChapo

I see a lot of complaints, people complained in my school and it's the most complained about question in this thread. I found it easy ( I do 4a) but spare a thought for those don't

Posted from TSR Mobile

I mean complaining by blaming the exam board. Yes people have complained because it was a hard question, statistical tests are not easy, but I mean people aren't going out of their way to say the exam board are in the wrong for setting a hard question. Every exam paper, regardless of the subject has hard questions, this is alevel after all.I myself did 4A so I can sympathise with those who did 4B so felt hard done to. But if the skills weren't on the unit 3 spec then they wouldn't have asked questions on it.
It's you college/sixth form that choose which unit you do so maybe if people who did 4B felt unprepared then it poses questions about whether that unit is a good option.
If you did unit unit 4A then you should have prepared more, or your college should have made you more aware of the specification.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 3267

Sophster101

3

Original post by ElChapo

I see a lot of complaints, people complained in my school and it's the most complained about question in this thread. I found it easy ( I do 4a) but spare a thought for those who dont

Posted from TSR Mobile

I mean complaining by blaming the exam board. Yes people have complained because it was a hard question, statistical tests are not easy, but I mean people aren't going out of their way to say the exam board are in the wrong for setting a hard question. Every exam paper, regardless of the subject has hard questions, this is alevel after all.I myself did 4A so I can sympathise with those who did 4B so felt hard done to. But if the skills weren't on the unit 3 spec then they wouldn't have asked questions on it.
It's you college/sixth form that choose which unit you do so maybe if people who did 4B felt unprepared then it poses questions about whether that unit is a good option.
If you did unit unit 4A then you should have prepared more, or your college should have made you more aware of the specification.

Reply 3268

the skills checklist is a page that everyone should be given and is fairly obvious in the specification.

I am confused what it so hard about skills not just being 4A and that skills is the whole of A2 so unit 3 AND unit 4A/unit 4B

Reply 3269

I have left the dust settle after that exam and reflecting on it, I don't think I done as bad as a first thought. In general, the tectonics questions where quite nice although the world cities questions were a bit nasty. The ecosystems essay was nice, but I think my case study knowledge let me down considerably.

Reply 3270

Original post by clareramos

the skills checklist is a page that everyone should be given and is fairly obvious in the specification.

I am confused what it so hard about skills not just being 4A and that skills is the whole of A2 so unit 3 AND unit 4A/unit 4B

It doesn't effect me as much, but looking at the 4B content, you can see why teachers wouldn't teach it. If I was in the scenario I wouldn't learn it, and I think the blame might go to the teachers as I would assume a lot of them would have not taught it.

Reply 3271

Original post by joereed

It doesn't effect me as much, but looking at the 4B content, you can see why teachers wouldn't teach it. If I was in the scenario I wouldn't learn it, and I think the blame might go to the teachers as I would assume a lot of them would have not taught it.

I can see that very much happening. But if it's taught properly, then it should be intertwined with unit 3 and the skills list links very nicely with unit 1 for AS skills and unit 3 for AS and A2 skills.

Reply 3272

Original post by clareramos

the skills checklist is a page that everyone should be given and is fairly obvious in the specification.

I am confused what it so hard about skills not just being 4A and that skills is the whole of A2 so unit 3 AND unit 4A/unit 4B

Also, sorry to bombard you with questions, but what did you make of the world cities question 'define the term world city and explain its role'

Reply 3273

Original post by joereed

Also, sorry to bombard you with questions, but what did you make of the world cities question 'define the term world city and explain its role'

something any student should be able to rattle off without to much thought, very easy question. Explaining its role is slightly harder, but if you've defined the term properly, explaining it should be easy.

Reply 3274

Original post by clareramos

I can see that very much happening. But if it's taught properly, then it should be intertwined with unit 3 and the skills list links very nicely with unit 1 for AS skills and unit 3 for AS and A2 skills.

I took the 4A exam in Jan and, having not looked at the MWU test for a while, I did get a bit confused. My teacher never once said about needing the skills for GEOG3.

Reply 3275

JenniS

2

Original post by clareramos

MWU is not in 4A, well it is, but it is covered in 3.6 of the specification which also applies to unit 3, and things on that skills checklist should be covered in unit 3, irrespective if you do 4A or 4B.

If I've possibly lost the A* I need for uni because my teachers didn't tell me I needed to learn the A2 skills as we did GEOG4B I will never forgive them, I knew the unit 3 spec for my 3 topics back to front

Reply 3276

Original post by clareramos

something any student should be able to rattle off without to much thought, very easy question. Explaining its role is slightly harder, but if you've defined the term properly, explaining it should be easy.

Well I think that was the problem, I defined it easily enough but then I felt like I was just 'blagging' a load of points. Very small section in the text book and I felt that there was so little to write about for 8 marks.

Reply 3277

Original post by JenniS

If I've possibly lost the A* I need for uni because my teachers didn't tell me I needed to learn the A2 skills as we did GEOG4B I will never forgive them, I knew the unit 3 spec for my 3 topics back to front

Exactly! I was hoping for an A* and, as I haven't looked at the test since January, I had basically forgotten it.

Reply 3278

Original post by joereed

I took the 4A exam in Jan and, having not looked at the MWU test for a while, I did get a bit confused. My teacher never once said about needing the skills for GEOG3.

Look at page 16 (3.6) of the specification. Is something I've heard a lot over the years.

Original post by JenniS

If I've possibly lost the A* I need for uni because my teachers didn't tell me I needed to learn the A2 skills as we did GEOG4B I will never forgive them, I knew the unit 3 spec for my 3 topics back to front

See what I put above in this post. Always look at the specification and question teachers why you haven't learnt something, skills checklist is very important, especially as a foundation for most geography based degrees.

Reply 3279