Exam Board: Edexcel Specification 4370

Qualification

Geography IGCSE represents a highly suitable course for students from a variety of international backgrounds. It provides a suitable foundation for AS and A2 Geography. The course can be covered in either one year or, more thoroughly, over two years. The one-year course is recommended only for students with an acceptable standard of English, as it is very intensive.

Geographical skills, including mapwork, graphs and other data presentation methods, are covered in the first term (or first half term for the one year course). This provides an essential basis for the rest of the course. We then move on to study four major themes:

Unit 1-People and the natural environment
How people interact with and manage the physical environment:

Water

hydrological cycle, river processes, flooding and management.

Hazards

tectonic processes and hazards, volcanoes, earthquakes), climatic and atmospheric hazards (tropical revolving storms, tornadoes, severe gales, drought).

Unit 2- People and work
Human geography themes, including Production (economic activity: agriculture, manufacturing industry and services), and Development (examination of More Economically Developed and Less Economically Developed countries, and Newly Industrialising Countries). Attempts to improve economic conditions are considered, and future patterns discussed.

Unit 3- People and places
Movement of people within and between countries, and the places where they settle. Types of Migration including voluntary international migration for economic reasons, and forced or involuntary migration due to natural or man-made disasters;

Urban Environments, including examples of cities in the Developing and Developed worlds, and future changes to these environments.

Unit 4- Global issues
The major world themes of fragile environments examines the idea that environmental abuse has serious consequences which need to be tackled to ensure future sustainability. – soil erosion and desertification, causes and consequences of deforestation, management of rainforests, the greenhouse effect and global warming.

Assessment

Candidates answer six compulsory short-answer, structured questions testing understanding of Units 1, 2 and 3; followed by one structured question testing understanding of Unit 4. In addition, all candidates take Paper 3 – alternative to coursework, which consists of three compulsory questions, two skills-based and one enquiry-based, to test the skills and experience gained by candidates from practical work and fieldwork undertaken during the course.

Entry Requirements

A good command of the English Language is necessary but no previous study of Geography is required to undertake this course.

For more information on this course, please go to http://www.edexcel.org.uk/