Geography- Physical Essays.

PictureFrame

Doing the Leaving next June and would really like (and desperately need) an A1 in Geography. I intend to put a massive effort into the project and hope to achieve full marks (which i'm told isn't hugely difficult to do).

So i've been back at School around 2 weeks and started straight away with learning essays for Geography. I'm doing the Physical section at the minute and have learnt the following:

• Geothermal Energy
• Formation of 2 Sedimentary Rocks
• The processes influencing a Feature in a Karst Landscape (Cave)
• The impact of Folding & Faulting on the Irish Landscape (with examples).
• The Measurement and Effect of 2 Earthquakes (Pakistan 2005, and Mexico City 1985).

My question is what to learn next?. If anyone has any idea to any essays that appear often on the paper please leave them here! ..

All suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks! :pac:

brian93

Human use of the rock cycle - ie. Gas/Oil Exploration, although I think Geothermal energy might cover this!

Erosion/Deposition of a river (or sea/ice!) - I learned a waterfall, and even though I wrote absolutely everything the book had in the LC, I only got 22/30, so maybe go for something different for erosion, and probably delta as deposition.

Another question is the question about the river Rhine, or the Hoover Dam, whichever one you learned!

The most important thing is to keep going over the essays, and learning your facts off by heart

spurious

Another important thing is to answer the question asked, not what you think it is asking or what you want it to be asking, or what you have prepared for that topic - answer the question asked.

You might be surprised how many people do not.

irish_man

Physical Geography is the longest unit in leaving cert geography. Here are the ones I did and you left out:

Isostacy (came up in '11 so may give it a miss)
Plate tectonics (Convergent etc)
Volcanoes (2 landforms Shield volcano and caldera)
River Erosion
River Deposition
Chemical Weathering
Physical Weathering (freeze-thaw)
Human interaction with rivers
River flooding

That's all I can think. Hope it helps!

stressedleaver

the best way to achieve an a1 would be to bullet point all essays and on opposite side of sheet leave clues for yourself before turning over for full answers! this is what i do and iv never got lower than 93 in a geography test

Nic Neptune

Hey. I'm looking for an A1 in Geography too (and I haven't started studying yet but I do intend to start this week).

What might be a good idea for you to do is go through the various exam papers and answer the Physical Geography questions after you learn the given essay. Timing is crucial in the LC and, if I were you, I'd start practising your timing of each answer NOW. The Mocks are good for teaching you about time that you should spend on each question, but if you start practising now, it will help you in your Mocks, and as opposed to time causing a drop in your potential result, you will realise what you have to learn the most, which will be more beneficial imo.

As regards the chapters you have to learn next, someone listed all the other stuff from physical geography that I can think of. Between what you've written, and what they've written, everything is there.

I have a list of Physical Geography questions that our teacher gave us last year to study for the summer. If you think they might help, I can post them here??

Good luck getting your A1 anyway.

PictureFrame

Nic Neptune wrote: »

Hey. I'm looking for an A1 in Geography too (and I haven't started studying yet but I do intend to start this week).

What might be a good idea for you to do is go through the various exam papers and answer the Physical Geography questions after you learn the given essay. Timing is crucial in the LC and, if I were you, I'd start practising your timing of each answer NOW. The Mocks are good for teaching you about time that you should spend on each question, but if you start practising now, it will help you in your Mocks, and as opposed to time causing a drop in your potential result, you will realise what you have to learn the most, which will be more beneficial imo.

As regards the chapters you have to learn next, someone listed all the other stuff from physical geography that I can think of. Between what you've written, and what they've written, everything is there.

I have a list of Physical Geography questions that our teacher gave us last year to study for the summer. If you think they might help, I can post them here??

Good luck getting your A1 anyway.

Thanks Nic Neptune and all the other posters, you've been a big help!.

Yes, I do agree with the timing thing btw I always test myself after I learn a question by going through the exam papers and timing myself. I always give myself 12 minutes for part B's and C's and have had no bother with the timing at all!. I think I got an Earthquake essay (with a diagram and examples of two earthquakes done in about 8 minutes so I don't think my timing will be a massive problem(fingers crossed).

I've actually decided to take a break from the Physical stuff for a while as the teacher has to finish stuff off. Going to switch my focus to learning my essays for the Option Question for about a Month. I have 4 A1 essays regarding Geoecology and am going to learn 1 a week and hopefully i'll be covered for the question on my mock and the real exam. I'm going to learn the following, if anyone has any other suggestions on what to learn for the Geoecology Section leave them here

- Human Impact on Biomes

- Human Impact on Soils

- Characteristics of a Biome

- Plant and Animal adaptations in a Biome

brian93

PictureFrame wrote: »

- Human Impact on Biomes

- Human Impact on Soils

- Characteristics of a Biome

- Plant and Animal adaptations in a Biome

These are the exact ones I had learned off for my leaving cert, and two of them came up so I was lucky! I think you've covered pretty much all of biomes, but be wary of how they phrase the question and how you answer it! For safety you could learn another geoecology one, but hopefully you'll be ok!

wayhey

PictureFrame wrote: »

Doing the Leaving next June and would really like (and desperately need) an A1 in Geography. I intend to put a massive effort into the project and hope to achieve full marks (which i'm told isn't hugely difficult to do).

So i've been back at School around 2 weeks and started straight away with learning essays for Geography. I'm doing the Physical section at the minute and have learnt the following:

• Geothermal Energy
• Formation of 2 Sedimentary Rocks
• The processes influencing a Feature in a Karst Landscape (Cave)
• The impact of Folding & Faulting on the Irish Landscape (with examples).
• The Measurement and Effect of 2 Earthquakes (Pakistan 2005, and Mexico City 1985).

My question is what to learn next?. If anyone has any idea to any essays that appear often on the paper please leave them here! ..

All suggestions greatly appreciated, thanks! :pac:

Regarding karst, I'd cover a surface feature as well, specifically the limestone pavement (with clints/grikes). Make sure you can describe limestone's formation and its unique chemical erosion due to acidified rainwater.

I'd also cover igneous rock formations and features, specifically granite and basalt. With granite you'll have the Leinster Batholith and with basalt The Giant's Causeway. I'd also cover metamorphic rock formation too (it has come up, a year that a lot of people avoided it).

You haven't mentioned plate tectonic theory and continental drift. Know the plate divisions, some evidence for plate tectonics and be able to explain continental drift. Know the different fold periods (Armorican/Caledonian), the plates involved and the resulting features.

Associated features of plate collision come in then, like the type of features formed at a colliding/separating plate. The formation of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is an important one I'd say, and it's part of the evidence for continental drift anyway. Remember that earthquakes occur at a transverse fault. Start going over volcanoes, the different types of volcano, different types of lava, benefits/disadvantages of volcanoes.

Be aware that even if you're doing fluvial (river) features in your erosion/deposition/transportation instead of coastal or glacial, you'll still have to be able to identify features from the others for short answer questions. I'd recommend doing coastal features over the river ones- the waterfall is the typical answer and it's generally answered very poorly. It's mainly based on differential, physical erosion of the riverbed, but with a cliff you've got hydraulic action, compression, abrasion... it's easier in my opinion, but it's all personal opinion and what you'll remember. Try to get extra SRPs in there in your answer, because people hand up the same stuff all the time.

Cover isostasy regardless of it coming up last year. If you want the A1 you have to be thorough. That's all I can think of for now, I haven't looked at a Geography book in a long time. If I think of anything else I'll try to add it.