SQA Standard Grade Examination

Ollie Bray

Wednesday 10 May 2006

It was the SQA Standard Grade Examination today. The exam seemed to go well, everyone turned up and the students seemed happy with the papers.

Here my quick rundown of the papers.

Foundation

Q1 (Mapwork) – Looks OK

Q2 (Contours) – Looks OK

Q3 (Weather) – Diagrams not very clear, might be difficult for the pupils to spot the rain in diagram B.

Q4 (Climate) – Looks OK

Q5 (Flooding) – First part OK, but I think foundation level pupils may struggle with the second part of the question on flood defence?

Q6 (Desertification) – Tricky. It would be good to have a definition of desertification, particularly as a definition of diversification is given in the General paper.

Q7 (Settlement) – Looks OK

Q8 (Industry) – Looks OK

Q9 (Farming) – Diagram not very clear and quite confusing. Might have been better as a picture rather than a map? It will be interesting to find out how students get on with naming an area of the UK where hill sheep farming takes place, in my experience foundation level pupils are not very good at this?

Q10 (Population) – Looks OK

Q11 (Development) – The first part of this question is awful! The second part is OK.

Q12 (Trade) – Fine

Q13 (Aid) – Looks OK.

General

Q1 (Mapwork) – Good questions, although pupils may struggle with part c. I guess the areas of woodland are meant to be a shelter belt to protect crops, aforestation to prevent soil erosion on steep ground and an orchard to grow fruit?

Q2 (Glacial Deposition) – I think this question is OK, however pupils normally don’t like glacial deposition questions.

Q3 (Weather) – Again I think the diagrams are poor here. The pictures of the radio presenter will be confusing for pupils.

Q4 (Climate) – Good question. Its nice to see a scatter graph in the examination.

Q5 (Sea Pollution) – Again the diagram is poor here. I think pupils will find it quite confusing with all of the oil pipelines crossing the map. It’s also difficult to see the seabird colonies.

Q6 (Farming) – Great question. Its good that a definition of diversification is given for less able students.

Q7 (Industry) – Looks OK

Q8 (Population) – Looks OK

Q9 (Trade) – Looks OK

Q10 (Aid) – Looks OK

Credit

Q1 (Mapwork) – Looks OK. Might have been good to have a picture of the Kinlochleven re-development?

Q2 (Weather) – Looks OK

Q3 (Deforestation) – Looks OK

Q4 (Farming) – Looks OK

Q5 (Urban) – Tricky question, but I quite like it. I wonder how many of the candidates will describe rather than explain?

Q6 (Population growth) – OK, but I think candidates will struggle with part b.

Q7 (Population distribution) – Looks OK

Q8 (Development) – Nothing wrong with the idea of this question. But I think its badly worded and that the diagram is quite confusing.

What did the rest of you think? Leave your comment below.

Comments

Credit paperd

Val Vannetavvvcx

Friday 12 May 2006

I will be very surprised if candidates have done well in the last few questions. The Credit paper is always long and involves a lot of writing and I reckon that taxing questions all coming at the end of a marathon 'write' will be too much for many pupils. The urban question was 'odd' to say the least and was then followed by a question on urban growth in LEDCs and MEDCs which the members of my department couldn't agree on. Presumeably pupils were meant to disagree with the statement... or were they?! If it's not obvious to geography teachers, what hope do the pupils have? Then there was a question on population distribution which frankly Higher candidates would have found difficult - not just expecting pupils to be able to explain the influence of a variety of factors on population distribution but also to answer a much more philosophical question - whether human or physical factors exert a greater influence. That is a question which could stretch many undergraduates. Then finally, just when the end was in sight, another question which confuses a straightforward issue.

Credit Paper

Rhona McNaughton

Thursday 11 May 2006

I agree with Ollie about the Urban question. My own son, who sat the exam yesterday, said "What was the point of that question?" until I pointed out to him that he should have explained rather than described. I suspect that most will get this wrong.
I also agree about the last question. The wording is confusing and I doubt that many will give advantages and disadvantages for the Trading Partners - I'm sure they'll stick to China.