AQA GCSE Geography (8035): complete guide to the three papers, topics and exam skills

AQA GCSE Geography (specification 8035) is a linear course assessed by three written papers at the end of Year 11. There is no coursework grade, but you must complete two fieldwork enquiries. This page is the index: below is a map of the three papers, the topics in each, the named case studies you must learn, and the exam skills that run across the whole course.

The three papers

AQA splits the course into three papers covering physical geography, human geography, and applications and skills.

• Paper 1: Living with the physical environment. The challenge of natural hazards, the living world, and physical landscapes in the UK. 1 hour 30 minutes, 88 marks, 35%.
• Paper 2: Challenges in the human environment. Urban issues and challenges, the changing economic world, and the challenge of resource management. 1 hour 30 minutes, 88 marks, 35%.
• Paper 3: Geographical applications and skills. The issue evaluation (from a pre-release resource booklet) and fieldwork. 1 hour 15 minutes, 76 marks, 30%.

Marks for spelling, punctuation, grammar and specialist terminology are awarded on the extended answers across the papers.

Paper 1: Living with the physical environment

This is the physical geography half of the course.

The challenge of natural hazards

Types of hazard and hazard risk, plate tectonics and the three margins, contrasting tectonic hazards (such as Nepal and LAquila), tropical storms (such as Typhoon Haiyan), UK extreme weather, and climate change.

The living world

Ecosystems, food webs and nutrient cycling, tropical rainforests and deforestation in the Amazon, and hot deserts and desertification in the Thar Desert.

Physical landscapes in the UK

An overview of UK uplands, lowlands and rivers, then coastal landscapes and at least one of river landscapes and glacial landscapes, with their processes, landforms and management.

Paper 2: Challenges in the human environment

This is the human geography half of the course.

Urban issues and challenges

Global urbanisation, a major city in an NEE (Rio de Janeiro and the Favela Bairro Project), a major UK city (London and the Olympic Park), and sustainable urban living.

The changing economic world

Measures of development, the Demographic Transition Model, the development gap and how to reduce it, a newly emerging economy (Nigeria), and the changing UK economy.

The challenge of resource management

The overview of food, water and energy, then one chosen option studied in depth, with large-scale and sustainable strategies.

Paper 3: Geographical applications and skills

This paper brings everything together and tests skills directly.

Issue evaluation

Using a pre-release resource booklet (issued about 12 weeks before the exam) to analyse a contemporary issue and reach a justified decision.

Fieldwork

The six-stage enquiry process, applied to your own one physical and one human enquiry, and to unfamiliar fieldwork.

Geographical skills

Cartographic skills with OS maps, graphical skills, and numerical and statistical skills, assessed across all three papers.

The skills that run across the course

Each topic rewards content knowledge, but the marks come from applying it through a fixed set of question types.

1. Process explanation. Describing how a landform develops or how a hazard or human process works, often with a labelled diagram.
2. Case-study application. Using named facts, figures and place names to support an answer.
3. Decision making and evaluation. Weighing options and reaching a justified conclusion, especially in the issue evaluation and 6 and 9 mark questions.
4. Geographical skills. Reading OS maps, interpreting graphs and data, and using basic statistics across every paper.

The topics, dot point by dot point

Each module has overview guides, dot-point answer pages and quizzes. Browse the full set at /gcse-aqa/geography/syllabus.

For the official specification

AQA publishes the full specification (8035), past papers and mark schemes at aqa.org.uk. Always revise from the current specification and AQA's own past papers, because question style and the pre-release issue evaluation topic are board-specific.