GCSE Geography

I have spoken to all Year 9 geographers this week about GCSE Geography... As a reminder and for those who were too busy playing in the snow to come to school today, here's the presentation I used. Many thanks to Liz Smith and Jo Blackmore as several of the slides were borrowed from their presentations.

GCSE Geography

View more presentations from vikellis.

And the Geography Matters video here:


Don't forget, if you have any questions about the course, or about GCSE Geography in general, speak to your Geography teacher or come and see me...

Yr 11 - Revision....

I was pleased to hear today that some of you are thinking about revision!

For those of you who were asking about revision guides... Having worked very hard since the start of Yr10 and made sure all the work we've done is complete, the best revision guide is your exercise book!!

However... there are a good number of revision guides available from bookshops/WHSmiths, etc. These are general ones and are fairly useful. If you do buy one of these, remember that they cover all the material for all the different exam boards - make sure that you refer back to the specification that you were given at the start of Yr10 to prevent you a) spending time learning things you don't need to know, and b) panicking about things that you think we should have done in class!

There is also a revision guide that has been written specifically for the course that we do (OCR C - Bristol Project) - it is slightly more expensive, but covers all the topics that you need to know, with case studies, practice questions and information and advice about the DME. It is by Liz Hattersley, and published by Heinemann. We have some copies left at school - come and ask if you want one! Otherwise, if you click on the picture below it will take you to the Amazon site where you can order a copy.

A very helpful man by the name of Noel Jenkins!!

I've pointed out Noel Jenkins' very useful summary of the idea of levels marking before, but as some of the Yr11s at today's revision session who are not in my group and who have not been fortunate/unfortunate enough to listen to me wittering on about it for months were unsure about it, here it is again... http://noeljenkins.wordpress.com/2007/01/13/level-marking-at-gcse/

And while I was looking for that link, I noticed that Noel has got LOADS of useful information/links/resources on his blog for GCSE students... http://noeljenkins.wordpress.com/ . His last few posts are GCSE related, but to check that you have seen everything, click on the Yr11 label at the bottom of one of the posts, and that will take you to a page with all the Yr11 posts...

Don't forget though, not everyone is doing the same course as us (OCR 'C') - just because something is covered on a revision site doesn't mean you need to know it... If you spot something you are concerned about, check your course overview sheet, or come and see one of us!

Noel is also doing some work with his Yr 8 students about personal geographies.... Well worth a read anyway, but of particular interest to Yr9 who are looking at some similar ideas, particularly the concept of place and "My Place"...

Enjoy!!

GCSE Revision

As I know my Yr10 group will be busily revising all weekend for the exam on Thursday, here are a few sites to help you out. Also useful for you conscientious Yr11s who've recently had your mock exam results back....

GCSE Bitesize and S-Cool both have revision notes and questions so you can test yourself...

Alan Parkinson's GeographyPages has a good revision section.

Rob Chambers' school website, GeoBytes, has loads of revision bits and pieces and Rob is also blogging for his GCSE students: GCSEGeoBytes.

And don't forget about SAM Learning.

Let me know if you find any other useful sites by leaving a comment or emailing geogtastic@yahoo.co.uk. Don't forget though, that - assuming you've been completing classwork and homework thoroughly - your exercise book is the best place to revise from...

Tips and things to remember:
- make sure you know your case studies, and make sure you know where they are! Check your maps that you should have been labelling as we've mentioned new places...

- maps... if your map skills are a bit shaky, get practising - be sure that you can read/give 6-figure grid references and that you know your east from west!

- them proper words that geography people use... otherwise known as geographical terminology! Get revising those geographical terms - and use them!

- I've just been reading Noel Jenkins' blog for his students, and amongst the many useful and interesting things on there, I noticed this post about Levels Marking at GCSE. This is something I've struggled to explain clearly to you in the past so if you're still confused, get over to Noel's blog and read about it!