AQA GCSE Geography Tutor | Online Exam Prep & Tuition

The 7 mark essay type questions are key to top grades.

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A common mistake students who armed with lots of geographical facts and understanding make is they answer the question they want to answer and not the one that is being asked.

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To avoid doing this allow yourself the time to think about the choices you have and choose think carefully about which of the options you can gain most marks from. And when it comes to the 7 mark question read it carefully, pay particular attention to the command word.

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For example: Explain the causes of an earthquake at a destructive plate boundary, using a named example.

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Most Geography students will have no trouble naming an example of an earthquake a plate boundary. Earthquakes of course happen at all plate boundaries. So the first potential tripping point is that the example given isn't at a destructive plate boundary. So don't ignore details like this, because if your example isn't at a destructive plate boundary the very best you could do is 5 out of 7, and more likely 3 or 4.

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Students who have successfully named an appropriate earthquake required by the question and make a simple statement of how earthquakes occur will achieve 3 marks. When the explanation goes into more detail about how the mechanics of earthquake work then the marks go up to 4 and then 5. To move into the top 6 and 7 mark you will need to state the plates involved and ideally the directions in which the plates move in relation to each other for the full marks.

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The final point I would like to make about answering 7 mark questions is you do not need to remember lots of facts, usually two or three will be suffice. What is more important is how you apply the facts to the question and that they are relevant to the questions asked.