Geography syllabus, dot point by dot point

Key Idea 6.2: the causes and consequences of uneven development at the global scale and within one low-income country (LIC) and one newly industrialised country (NIC), the physical, economic, historical and political causes, the consequences of uneven development, and the strategies used to reduce the development gap.

Key Idea 6.1: measuring global inequalities, what development means, the economic and social indicators used to measure it (GNI per head, the HDI, birth and death rates, literacy and life expectancy), the limitations of single indicators, and the global pattern of development (the development gap and the LIC, NIC, HIC classification).

Key Idea 6.4: regional economic development, the changing economic structure of a country (primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary sectors), the causes of regional inequality within a country, the role of transnational companies, and the strategies used to reduce regional differences.

Key Idea 6.3: water resources and their management, the global pattern of water supply and demand, the causes of water surplus and water deficit (scarcity and stress), the impacts of an inadequate water supply, and the strategies used to manage water resources sustainably.

Unit 3 Fieldwork Enquiry: the stages of the geographical enquiry process (asking questions and forming a hypothesis, collecting primary and secondary data, presenting data, analysing and interpreting it, reaching a conclusion and evaluating the enquiry), applied to one physical and one human investigation, plus the geographical and cartographic skills the exam rewards.

Key Idea 1.2 (coasts): the processes that operate along a coastline (weathering, mass movement, erosion, transportation and deposition), constructive and destructive waves and longshore drift, and the formation of distinctive coastal landforms of erosion (headlands, bays, caves, arches, stacks) and deposition (beaches, spits and bars).

Key Idea 1.1: the distinctive landscapes of Wales and the UK, what makes a landscape distinctive, the location and characteristics of upland, lowland and glaciated landscapes, and the physical and human factors that shape them, using maps, photographs and OS map skills.

Key Idea 1.3: the drainage basins of Wales and the UK, the drainage basin as an open system (inputs, stores, flows and outputs), the storm hydrograph and the factors affecting it, the physical and human causes of river flooding, and the hard and soft engineering used to manage flooding.

Key Idea 1.2 (rivers): the processes that operate in a river landscape (erosion, transportation and deposition), how the long profile and cross profile change downstream, and the formation of distinctive fluvial landforms such as waterfalls, meanders, ox-bow lakes and floodplains.

Key Idea 2.2: population and urban change in Wales and the UK, the causes and patterns of population change, the changing provision of retailing and services (decline of high streets, growth of out-of-town and online retail), and the regeneration of urban areas.

Key Idea 2.1: the urban-rural continuum in Wales and the UK, the links and flows between urban and rural areas, the processes of counter-urbanisation, suburbanisation and the growth of commuter and dormitory settlements, and the impacts on rural communities.

Key Idea 2.3: urban issues in contrasting global cities, the global pattern and causes of urbanisation (rural-to-urban migration and natural increase), the growth of megacities, and the challenges (squatter settlements, services, traffic, pollution) and opportunities of rapid urban growth, especially in a lower-income or newly industrialised country.

Key Idea 8.1 (Theme 8): consumerism and its impact on the environment, the growth of consumerism and the rising demand for resources and energy, the ecological footprint, and the environmental impacts including pollution, waste, resource depletion and climate change.

Key Idea 8.2 (Theme 8): managing environmental challenges sustainably, the meaning of sustainability, strategies to reduce resource use and waste (reduce, reuse, recycle), the move to renewable energy and sustainable living, and the role of individuals, governments and international agreements.

Key Idea 7.1 (Theme 7): measuring social development, the difference between economic and social development, the indicators of social development (health, education, gender equality and access to services), and the reasons social development varies within and between countries.

Key Idea 7.2 (Theme 7): the consequences of and responses to uneven social development, the effects of poor health, education and gender inequality, and the strategies used to improve social development, including aid, education and health programmes, the role of governments and NGOs, and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Key Idea 4.2 (Theme 4): managing coastal hazards, the use of hard engineering (sea walls, groynes, rock armour, gabions) and soft engineering (beach nourishment, managed retreat, dune regeneration), and the costs, benefits and sustainability of different coastal management strategies.

Key Idea 3.1 (Theme 3): tectonic processes and landforms, the structure of the Earth and plate tectonics, the three main plate boundaries (constructive, destructive and conservative) and the landforms and hazards (earthquakes and volcanoes) associated with each.

Key Idea 3.2 (Theme 3): vulnerability and hazard reduction, why people live in tectonically active areas, why the impacts of earthquakes and volcanoes differ between richer and poorer countries, and how hazards can be reduced through prediction, protection (building design) and preparation (planning and education).

Key Idea 4.1 (Theme 4): vulnerable coastlines, the physical and human factors that make a coast vulnerable to erosion and flooding, the threat of coastal erosion and retreat (for example soft cliffs), and the increasing risk of coastal flooding from storm surges and sea-level rise.

Key Idea 5.1: climate change during the Quaternary period, the evidence for natural climate change (ice cores, tree rings, pollen and historical records), the natural causes of climate change (orbital changes, sunspots, volcanic activity), and the contribution and consequences of recent human-induced (anthropogenic) warming.

Key Idea 5.4: human activity and ecosystem processes, the interdependence of the tropical rainforest (climate, soils, nutrient cycle, plants and animals), the causes and impacts of deforestation, and strategies for the sustainable management of an ecosystem.

Key Idea 5.3: processes and interactions within ecosystems, the components of an ecosystem (biotic and abiotic), the flow of energy through food chains, food webs and trophic levels, the cycling of nutrients, and the global distribution and characteristics of major biomes.

Key Idea 5.2: weather patterns and processes, the difference between weather and climate, the air masses and low-pressure (depression) and high-pressure (anticyclone) systems that bring UK weather, and the causes, effects and management of weather hazards including UK storms and tropical storms.