AQA GCSE Geography Pre-Release Materials: 2024

At the end of March, those of you studying for the AQA Geography GCSE will receive a resource booklet at school. These are the pre-release materials for Paper 3, Section A. 

There are 37 marks (including SPaG, or Spelling & Grammar) available for this section - these marks make up approximately 14% of your final grade.

To help you understand what is involved in this part of the final exam, our team has compiled this guide. It includes information about the issue evaluation and an outline of the resources Save My Exams will provide to help you ace this part of the exam.

What is the Issue Evaluation?

Issue evaluation involves the use of secondary sources to examine a particular issue. The assessment allows you to demonstrate that you can apply the knowledge and understanding you have gained to a specific issue. The issue evaluation aims to assess your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.

The six page booklet sent to schools contains a wide range of information that you will use to prepare for Paper 3. The theme for this booklet will be taken from any part of the compulsory sections of the specification and may cover more than one topic. It could be UK based or on a global scale.

Past ‘issues’ have included:

• Tourism in the Cayman Islands

• Energy production and the location of a wind farm

• Squatter settlements

• Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest

• Water management in the UK

• Changing energy mix in the UK

You will find a range of materials including:

• Graphs

• Text - newspaper extracts, stakeholder opinions and general information

• Photographs

• Infographics

• Maps

• Fact files

• Satellite images

During the preparation period, you need to:

• Learn about the issue

• Consider the views of stakeholders

• Study options to solve the issue

• Decide what you think is the best solution

It is important to study all the information carefully and work out its meaning and how it connects.

Pre-Release Materials for AQA GCSE Geography Exam

In the exam, you will need to answer several questions about the issue. You will have about 35-40 minutes for this section of the exam. 

There will be a series of short skills questions (2-3 marks), followed by 6-mark extended questions, and then a final 9-mark question that asks you to make a decision, i.e., should a wind farm be located in a specific place and why? 

You will be asked whether you agree or disagree with a statement, and then you will be expected to explain your answer. It does not matter whether you agree or disagree; what matters is how you justify your answer using evidence from the materials in the resource booklet and your knowledge.

Your answer to the 9 mark questions will also be awarded marks for spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Can you take your pre-release booklet into the AQA GCSE Geography exam?

You cannot take your booklet and notes into the examination room, but you will be given a new copy of the booklet with the question paper.

How Save My Exams can help you study the pre-release materials

To help you prepare for this section of the exam, the geography team at Save My Exams will be providing a range of resources:

• A glossary of keywords from the pre-release materials

• Suggestions of possible questions based on the materials

• Highlight the links to the specification

• Annotated versions of the resources to identify the key points and identify patterns as seen in these examples

How to use these resources to prepare for your GCSE Geography exam

You can use them alongside our guide to the AQA GCSE Geography Issues Evaluation and our 2023 preparation materials. These will help you understand what the examiners are looking for in your answers. 

Our guide includes examples of past questions and exam tips from our expert geography team. The exam tips and worked examples will help you avoid common mistakes. 

We will advise you on how to interrogate the resources and apply them to questions rather than simply lifting information from the sources.

The resources will also help you identify the key information from the pre-release materials you have been given and support you in starting to consider the questions that may be asked about the sources.

Information will be provided on structuring your 9-mark decision answer to ensure that you evaluate it by:

• Considering both sides

• Use the evidence provided

• Come to a conclusion

Examiner feedback on past issue evaluations

There are several common errors identified in the examiner's feedback over the last few years. 

Understanding of key terms

Examiners have highlighted that students often do not understand key terms such as ‘physical geography'; this prevents them from answering the question correctly because they are then identifying the incorrect issues. To avoid this error when you are preparing for the exam ensure that you know all the keywords and their definitions; perhaps use flashcards to help you remember them.

Understanding of command words

The command words are there to tell you how to answer the question. The examiner’s reports regularly mention that students not knowing command words leads to errors in answering the questions. 

The command words or terms used in the longer sections of the issue evaluation questions are ‘discuss’ and ‘to what extent’’. These are often the ones that students struggle to understand.

What do ‘discuss’ and ‘to what extent’ mean? 

• To discuss is to set out both sides of an argument – for and against.

• To evaluate, you need to set out both sides and then reach a conclusion that relates to the validity of the statement

In the final question, you are required to make a decision and then explain it 

• You should ensure that the strongest part of the evidence is used to support your chosen position. 

• Consider the advantages/benefits and disadvantage/costs, then write a conclusion that clearly brings your answer back to your chosen decision.

Use of resources

Many students simply copy information from the resources provided. To show understanding, many of the questions require you to extend the information available. 

A significant number of students failed to complete the graph-based questions. Make sure that you understand how to read and interpret a range of graph types.

For the 9 mark question, it is important to use all the resources available and consider the links between them.

More AQA GCSE Geography Resources

• AQA GCSE Geography: All Resources

• AQA GCSE Geography Revision Notes

• AQA GCSE Geography Topic Questions

• AQA GCSE Geography Past Papers