A Level | Geography – Leighton Park

A Level in Geography

Exam Board:      Cambridge International

Will the course suit me?

AS and A Level Geographers should be motivated, hardworking, have inquisitive minds and enjoy being able to link theories and ideas from the classroom to contemporary and real-life examples. Studying the subject at A Level will give you the tools to examine and explain human behaviour, understand how society functions and analyse how different countries, places and cultures interact. You will gain the ability to understand, use and interpret quantitative and qualitative research, manipulate statistical information, communicate well, and think laterally across different social phenomena. This breadth of skills serves geography students particularly well in the marketplace.

On the course you will encounter issues such as climate change and disaster management, the global debt crisis, poverty and migration. These are issues that are unlikely to diminish in importance, and the skills and critical insights you gain from investigating these and other challenges will continue to be globally relevant.

 

Benefits of the course:

Transferable skills

Geography sits like an octopus at the heart of the curriculum. It is largely a science, yet combines well with a wide range of other subjects in content and skills, including (but not limited to) Biology, Chemistry, Economics, History, Politics and English.

Geography prizes the ability to think laterally and draw on your experience and understanding from multiple disciplines, a key attribute for any STEAM specialist to be able to break out of ‘siloed’ thinking. More than any other discipline, geographers have a breadth of knowledge.

 

Future opportunities

Geography is highly valued by universities as an A Level choice, and beyond a straight Geography course, can open doors to other degrees such as business and administrative studies, law, engineering and technology, and the other social and physical sciences.

With the future of employment, skills and growth increasingly uncertain. With AI, remote working and automation, changes to how we live within our local and global environment, political turbulence and demographic change. Geography will provide you with the tools you need to navigate such a future. You will develop skills employers value – communication, collaboration, research and analysis, independence, creativity and adaptability – and will be able to build flexible careers which may move across a number of areas of employment while remaining resilient to economic downturns. (British Academy’s 2020 report ‘Qualified for the Future’).

Graduates who study Geography are highly employable across a range of sectors and roles. In a 2010 poll of over 200,000 graduates from UK universities, those with geography degrees had the lowest rate of unemployment six months after graduation of any discipline polled, bar none (Higher Education Career Services Unit). Geographers are employed in sectors which underpin the UK economy and are among the fastest growing – financial, legal and professional services, information and communication, and the creative industries – as well as in socially valuable roles in public administration and education.

If you are looking for more direct paths: Landscape architecture, Emergency management, Environmental management, Geopolitical analysis, Land surveying, Urban planning and GIS development are just a selection of those jobs it is easier to name and group. Each of these fields above will see significant growth as opportunities to make our physical impact on the planet greener and more sustainable blossom in the coming years.

 

Course Description:

Assessment

You will sit two AS Level Physical and Human papers at the end of the Lower Sixth, each is worth 25% of your final A Level. At the end of the Upper Sixth you sit a further two papers on Physical (Hazardous Environments, Coastal Environments) and Human (Economic Transitions and Global Interdependence) topics. Each of these papers is also worth 25% of your A Level.

 

AS Level

Paper 1: The Physical Core and Paper 2: The Human Core

The Physical CoreThe Human Core
·         Hydrology and fluvial geomorphology

·         Atmosphere and weather

·         Rocks and weathering

·         Population

·         Migration

·         Settlement dynamics

·         Assessment: External written paper (Paper 1)

·         Time: 1hr 30 mins

·         50% of AS Level

·         25% of A Level

·         Assessment: External written paper (Paper 2)

·         Time: 1hr 30 mins

·         50% of AS Level

·         25% of A Level

 

A2 Level

Paper 3: Advanced Physical Geography and Paper 4: Advanced Human Geography

Advanced Physical Geography – choose two optionsAdvanced Human Geography – choose two options
·         Tropical environments

·         Coastal environments

·         Hazardous environments

·         Hot arid and semi-arid environments

·         Production, location and change

·         Environmental management

·         Global interdependence

·         Economic transition

·         Assessment: External written paper (Paper 3)

·         Time: 1hr 30 mins

·         25% of A Level

·         Assessment: External written paper (Paper 4)

·         Time: 1hr 30 mins

·         25% of A Level

If you should have any queries about this course, please contact Head of Department: Oliver Staines

To apply for our Sixth Form please see our Admissions page.

 

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Shinfield Road
Reading
Berkshire, UK
RG2 7DE
+44 (0) 118 987 9600
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