Information from Data

An example of this could be climate charts for different locations in the UK. You could be required to state which location is the driest, which has the highest average temperature or be challenged to suggest possible locations for each place based on your knowledge and understanding of the climate of the UK.

Data could be from any location in the world. A favourite of the examiners is to take data from a location that has not been studied and ask you some questions to test your understanding of geography. When answering questions like that, remember to apply the general principles that you have learnt. Very often, these questions will be about contrasts and similarities between LEDCs and MEDCs, so you should have all the understanding that you need to obtain the required information from the data.

Population pyramids are sometimes used for this type of question - the examiners want to find out what you understand about global population changes and management. You could be given the population pyramid for a small country like Equatorial Guinea, since it is highly unlikely that it will have featured in any of your case studies. The questions would range from simple (e.g. in which age ranges do females outnumber males) to more complex ones such as deciding in what stage of economic development the country is or having to explain the shape of the pyramid. In the latter case, you would need to use your knowledge and understanding of population patterns in MEDCs and LEDCs.