New Edexcel GCSE Geography Exams Harder

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I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but Edexcel have been sneaky and changed around their GCSE specification for linear from 2012.

Luckily Unit 1 remains the same.

Unit 2 in the old specification consisted of a 1 hour exam. The first question was a choice between the 4 topics studied: Coastal Landscapes, Glaciated Landscapes, Tectonic Landscapes OR River Landscapes. Only 1 of the 4 had to be done. The second question was a choice between 2 units covered: A Watery World or A Wasteful World.

Unit 2 has now changed and students with now have a 1 hour 15 min exam, except they will have questions on Coastal Landscapes, Tectonic Landscapes AND River Landscapes and they ALL must be answered. Section B remains either A Watery World or A Wasteful World.

15 minutes more time with 3 more questions to answer? That's pretty damn rough when you see that each topic consists of a large 6 marker, thats about x4 6 markers in 1 test. Hopefully Edexcel are planning to skim down the size of the questions for each of the topics.

It's the same case with the Unit 3 exam. The first questions were once a choice between 3 topics, now all 3 must be answered.

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hey, i was lucky enough to sit the old syllabus - the one that you're sitting is no doubt much harder than what i did! but in all honesty i think it's good that the exam board has increased the amount of topics and only slightly increased the time - the reason for this is that when you come to A Levels, you'll experience the same thing, so in my personal opinion, i do think it will benefit you (i do A Level Geography)!

I would expect the grade boundaries to drop quite significantly though due to the huge step up from the previous syllabus. All you can do is practice - timing is key now, just make sure you nail those 6 markers - i'm sure you'll do well

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yellowcopter

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(Original post by V95)
hey, i was lucky enough to sit the old syllabus - the one that you're sitting is no doubt much harder than what i did! but in all honesty i think it's good that the exam board has increased the amount of topics and only slightly increased the time - the reason for this is that when you come to A Levels, you'll experience the same thing, so in my personal opinion, i do think it will benefit you (i do A Level Geography)!

I would expect the grade boundaries to drop quite significantly though due to the huge step up from the previous syllabus. All you can do is practice - timing is key now, just make sure you nail those 6 markers - i'm sure you'll do well

Lucky!

I'm sure Edexcel won't make us do four 6 markers, but I'm pretty damn worried because I've studied all the units and I'm a B at Tectonics, A at Rivers (only because of SPaG otherwise I would have been a B), an A at 'A Watery World' and then for Coastal Landscapes I'm a U grade. So I think coastal landscapes will probably lower me down in the real exam to a D grade.

I guess I'll just have to revise really hard - but hopefully I might be able to be entered for the last examinations and certifications for the old specification now in the end of Year 10, but for most of my subjects we're all being entered linear at the end of the school year. I'm not really planning on doing Geography at A-Level anyway, but I don't want anything under an A either.

Not sure why this got moved to study help as this is more of a 'announcement thread' so people are aware rather than a ask for help.

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(Original post by yellowcopter)
Lucky!

I'm sure Edexcel won't make us do four 6 markers, but I'm pretty damn worried because I've studied all the units and I'm a B at Tectonics, A at Rivers (only because of SPaG otherwise I would have been a B), an A at 'A Watery World' and then for Coastal Landscapes I'm a U grade. So I think coastal landscapes will probably lower me down in the real exam to a D grade.

I guess I'll just have to revise really hard - but hopefully I might be able to be entered for the last examinations and certifications for the old specification now in the end of Year 10, but for most of my subjects we're all being entered linear at the end of the school year. I'm not really planning on doing Geography at A-Level anyway, but I don't want anything under an A either.

Not sure why this got moved to study help as this is more of a 'announcement thread' so people are aware rather than a ask for help.

dont worry mate, keep up the hard work and you'll do fine. i did coasts at AS and i'm doing plate tectonics at A2, so if you need any help then let me know

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yellowcopter

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(Original post by V95)
dont worry mate, keep up the hard work and you'll do fine. i did coasts at AS and i'm doing plate tectonics at A2, so if you need any help then let me know

Awesome, thanks.

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The Know It All

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(Original post by yellowcopter)
I'm not sure if anyone else has noticed, but Edexcel have been sneaky and changed around their GCSE specification for linear from 2012.

Luckily Unit 1 remains the same.

Unit 2 in the old specification consisted of a 1 hour exam. The first question was a choice between the 4 topics studied: Coastal Landscapes, Glaciated Landscapes, Tectonic Landscapes OR River Landscapes. Only 1 of the 4 had to be done. The second question was a choice between 2 units covered: A Watery World or A Wasteful World.

Unit 2 has now changed and students with now have a 1 hour 15 min exam, except they will have questions on Coastal Landscapes, Tectonic Landscapes AND River Landscapes and they ALL must be answered. Section B remains either A Watery World or A Wasteful World.

15 minutes more time with 3 more questions to answer? That's pretty damn rough when you see that each topic consists of a large 6 marker, thats about x4 6 markers in 1 test. Hopefully Edexcel are planning to skim down the size of the questions for each of the topics.

It's the same case with the Unit 3 exam. The first questions were once a choice between 3 topics, now all 3 must be answered.

Hi im doing the smae exam but in the 2015 series. How did your exam go? Any tips to revise? My Geography teacher doesn't teach us **** and shes only covered 3 of the units.

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(Original post by The Know It All)
Hi im doing the smae exam but in the 2015 series. How did your exam go? Any tips to revise? My Geography teacher doesn't teach us **** and shes only covered 3 of the units.

Didn't do anything the whole year, **** teacher who marked me a D for coursework and then just revised the night before for all 3 exams and got a C overall.

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(Original post by yellowcopter)
Didn't do anything the whole year, **** teacher who marked me a D for coursework and then just revised the night before for all 3 exams and got a C overall.

Okay thanks

I'm aiming for the A*.
How was the exam layout- as in how many questions per topic?
How did you manage to fit in all the units because we are never going to get them done in class?

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(Original post by The Know It All)
Okay thanks

I'm aiming for the A*.
How was the exam layout- as in how many questions per topic?
How did you manage to fit in all the units because we are never going to get them done in class?

Good luck, try not to slack. Which, by the way, can happen in Year 11 since I was hoping for an A at the start of the year 11 and ended up with a C. This was only because I wanted to focus on getting B, A and A* grades in all my other subjects so I sacrificed putting effort into both Art and Geography since I thought they were my least important two.

At my school we did in Year 10 Unit 2 and Section A of Unit 1 and then in Year 11 Unit 3, Section B of Unit 1 and CW.

There was a question on each topic, I can't remember which topics in particular had large mark questions but I remember some topics had less questions than others.

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