Josh Tipping, former Head of Geography, talks to Tassomai about what parents need to know about the geography GCSE and how they can support their child with their revision.

Geography is one of Tassomai’s new subjects launching in 2022/23 so we have been working with teachers and experts to figure out exactly what parents and students need to know. Like many of your child’s other subjects, geography has a lot of content to cover in a short space of time, so get your flashcards at the ready because some simple retrieval practice goes a long way in humanities subjects!

Where to begin?

My first piece of advice to parents is to have a checklist at the start of the year of all the topics that need to be covered so that you can tick them off as your child covers them in class. This way you can really keep track of their progress and this list can develop over time to help identify where students need to revise. 

Do beware when you create this list that some of the topics are chosen by the teacher out of a list of options, e.g. their school may only cover one of these topics: rivers, coasts or glaciers. So make sure you know which ones your child is definitely covering so that they pick the right ones in their assessments!

Over the course of their GCSE, students will cover geographical issues that impact the physical environment, as well as topics that are focused on human or social aspects, and sit a paper on ‘geographical skills’ like fieldwork and map analysis. Geography is a broad subject that requires a range of skills as a result, but they will pick everything up in no time.

Trickiest topics

I think that case studies are probably the most difficult part of the geography course for students to remember, as there is just so much content to cover. Lots of schools study different case studies but students just need to focus on remembering a few key facts about each one and then, most importantly, think about how they can apply this knowledge in case study questions in the exams. 

Plate boundaries is a topic that crops up in every exam board and is always one that students tend to struggle with as they are covered right at the beginning of the GCSE years and are often forgotten about by the time exams come around. Make sure your child regularly brushes up on this topic throughout their GCSE years, particularly as it informs several other topics, like volcanoes and earthquakes.

It’s important to make sure that your child knows the social, economic and environmental impacts of each topic they are learning about or revising. This may seem obvious but it’s a common place where students lose marks. It helps if they can be as clear in their answers as possible so that the examiner can award marks confidently. This can be as blatant as saying ‘a social impact of this is…’ but it makes it clear that they know what is expected of them.

Parents can help with all of the above by using flashcards and talking through revision questions with their child to make sure they not only know the facts, but know how to apply them to different situations.

How to pick up more marks

One basic way that students often lose marks is by forgetting to mention the figures or images in the exam booklet. A simple reference to ‘in figure X it shows’ makes it much easier for students to pick up marks, as failing to mention the figure will lock them out of the top band of marks. 

My favourite piece of advice for parents is to ask students ‘SO WHAT?’ I had this phrase written in big letters all around the classroom to remind students to expand their answers beyond just stating facts. It’s all well and good to know that polar bears have white fur but if they don’t then say ‘because this helps them to camouflage against the white snow, so that they can hunt prey’ then that knowledge won’t help them to get the top marks.

As with any subject, if students, with the help of their parents, are able to be active in their revision and really apply themselves then they will increase their likelihood of success.