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UPDATED TO 2023-26 SYLLABUS

CAIE IGCSE
GEOGRAPHY
SUMMARIZED NOTES ON THE PRACTICAL SYLLABUS
CAIE IGCSE GEOGRAPHY

Advantages:‎ Disadvantages:‎

1. Safety Features You can study a larger area

Information may include a
larger area than your study
area
Protection from the weather (waterproof jacket, umbrella,
May include data that you
hat, sun cream) May not know how data was
Always carry out coursework in groups
cannot obtain personally e.g.
collected and who collected it
Always tell an adult or teacher where you area carrying
salaries
out coursework Data might be in the wrong
Always carry a mobile phone with you format e.g. in a graph and not
Never do coursework near a river or the sea without an raw figures
adult or teacher and without them checking that it is safe
Carry out coursework in day light and wear reflective Census: a survey carried out by nearly all countries every
clothes 10 years. Is a very detailed survey that is compulsory for
Check that your study area is safe. everyone to fill in.
Don't display valuables making you more vulnerable to Quantitative data: Any data that involves figures. Is very
crime e.g. if you have a camera or a phone keep it out of easy to present and analyse however it can be ‎very
sight general and excludes some data.‎
Qualitative data: This is written data or photographs.
Tends to be individual/personal, and can be hard ‎to
2. # Data collection: present and analyse. Often comes as results of interviews
with open questions.‎
Objective: when data collection is not influenced by Pilot Survey: a test you carry out before data collection.
people's personal opinion. Important to test forms to ensure you ask right ‎questions
Subjective: when personal opinion has an influence on the and forms contain all right categories. It is too
outcome of the data collection. expensive/time consuming to go and ‎collect data a
Primary data: Any data that is personally collected by you. second time, if you missed it the first time.‎
Primary data may include traffic counts, pedestrian
counts, environmental indexes, questionnaires or land
use surveys. 3. Questionnaires
Advantages: Disadvantages:‎ Open ended questions: questions that have infinite
Data may include some numbers of answers. The respondent has no ‎restriction
It is up to date (current)‎
personal bias on how they might answer
You know how the data has Closed questions: when there is a limited number of
Data collection can be time responses. These questions are often multiple ‎choice in
been collected i.e. what
consuming style
technique
Includes data relevant to Can be expensive to collect Open ended questions
coursework data
Pros: Cons:
It is hard to study temporal
Only covers your study area You are getting respondents
changes
personal opinion. They are Some responses irrelevant
Some data might be not limited in their response.‎
Collected in the format that
unavailable or too dangerous
you want Results very hard to analyse
to collect
using graphs or tables
Only possible to cover a small
area
Closed questions
Pros: Cons:
Secondary data: Any data that has been collected by
someone else. Secondary data collection maybe found in All answers relevant to your Results lack personal opinion;
books, on the internet, in academic journals, etc. research very generalized
If "other" box ticked, you don't
Advantages:‎ Disadvantages:‎ Results are easy to analyse
know what the respondent
using graphs and tables
Can study temporal changes thinks
It is out of date
e.g. over a number of year Your personal opinion has
It can be quicker, especially if More information than you been placed on the questions
the data is on the internet need (subjective).‎

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4. Photographs
Advantage of Photographs Disadvantage of Photographs
They are more accurate than People often include
field sketches irrelevant photos
People forget to label,
Can be good for showing data
annotate or refer to photos,
collection techniques e.g.
which then makes them
measuring a river's load
irrelevant
People often only photograph Flowmeter: used for measuring velocity of rivers. Have a
Can support data collection the nice things (pretty view) small propeller which you place just under ‎surface of the
findings e.g. show an example and forget more ugly areas water. Depending on the speed of propeller, a small
of a poor environment that are important (area of digital read out then gives speed ‎of river.‎
pollution)
They can show temporal They can often contain too
changes, especially if you can much information e.g. people
find historical photos. and vehicles
Because they are two-
You can annotate and label
dimensional, depth can be
them.
deceptive

5. Fieldwork Equipment for

coasts:
Pebbleometer: A very basic device for measuring the size
and shape of material found on a beach or in ‎a river.
Quadrat: Used for measuring vegetation cover. Normally
50cm2 and divided into 100 small squares. By ‎placing
quadrat over an area of vegetation, can calculate area
covered in vegetation or % of ‎different vegetation types.

\n Ranging poles: Has a

pointy end so that it can be properly anchored into the

Callipers: used to measure width, depth or length of small

objects like load.

Clinometer: used for measuring slope angle (gradient).

soil/sand.

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5.2. For weather and climate:

Weather and Climate

equipment:

6. Evaluation and Conclusion

6.1. Conclusion
Refer back to original hypothesis
Use some data to support your findings
Refer to theory (if mentioned in introduction) - do your
findings agree or disagree with theory
State what you have learnt from your investigation

6.2. Evaluation
What went well (keep this brief)‎
Any problems with data collection e.g. bad weather,
missing data, sampling technique, questions, data
‎collection form
Data that could be useful in the future e.g. secondary data
from government, more questionnaires ‎( bigger sample)‎
Additional hypothesis you could have used
Time/money problems changed

7. Data Presentation
Strengths Weaknesses
Can disguise intra-region or
Shows spatial distribution e.g.
intra-country variations e.g.
dot map
choropleth map

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Strengths Weaknesses Good coverage of the study area can be more easily
Shows variations between achieved - better representation of the total population.
Hard to see trends and
regions and countries e.g.
anomalies → Disadvantages:
choropleth map
Visually interesting More biased as not all members have an equal chance of
Very complicated to read
(interesting colors, symbols) being selected.
Symbols take up too much May lead to over or under representation of a particular
Very bold and clear pattern/subpopulation.
room
Easy to understand
Clearly shows trends and 9.4. Stratified sampling:
anomalies
→ Advantages:

Can be used alongside random or systematic sampling,

9. # Sampling methods: and with point, line or area techniques.
Can generate results which are more representative of
It is hard to collect data from the whole population hence the whole population.
geographers do sampling which is the process of Flexible and applicable to many geographical enquiries
collecting data from certain people which represent the and investigations.
whole population. Correlations and comparisons can be made between
There are three types of sampling techniques: subpopulations.
Random sampling.
Systematic sampling. → Disadvantages:
Stratified sampling.
Proportions of the subpopulations must be the same; up-
to-date data may not be available which makes the
division into subpopulations difficult.

10. # COASTS:
10.1. Beach profile:
1. Person A stands at a safe distance from the edge of
9.2. Random sampling: the sea holding a ranging pole
2. Person B stands holding a second ranging pole further
Action of randomly selecting . up the beach where there is a break of slope
→ Advantages: 3. The distance between the two ranging poles is
Can be used with large sample populations. measured using a tape measure
Avoids bias. 4. The angle between matching markers on each
ranging pole is measured using a clinometer
→ Disadvantages: 5. Repeat this process at each break of slope until the
top of the beach is reached.
Can lead to poor representation of the overall population
(certain subpopulations might be over or
underrepresented, eg. there might be more teenagers
than elderly people sampled).
Made worse if the study area is very large.
Practical constraints in terms of time available and access
to certain parts of the study area

9.3. Systematic sampling:

Done in regular intervals or pattern that is followed by every
nth time.
→ Advantages:

More straightforward than random sampling.

Longshore drift:

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1. Lay the measuring tape parallel to the coast, next to
the water
2. Mark out a 10m section
3. Place a float or an orange in the swash zone at the 5
metre middle mark
4. Record the direction in which the object travels (left or
right) and how long it takes to travel 5 metres
5. Repeat the experiment and take an average.
\ other
Wave counts:
1. Place a pole in the water
2. Using a stopwatch, count the number of times the
waves hit the pole per minute
3. Repeat this 5 times and take the average
1. Rest ruler / rod on the riverbed vertically upright /
perpendicular
2. Make a mark of the water level
3. Repeat this at intervals along a river
Wetted perimeter:
1. Lay a chain across the river bed from one bank to the
2. Mark the distance on the chain and remove it from the
river
3. Measure the distance of the chain
Hydraulic radius:
Cross Sectional Area ÷ wetted perimeter

Material/ trash count: River gradient:

1. Place quadrats along the transect/throw the transect 1. Using a tape measure, measure a 10m transect
over shoulder downstream of the cross section
2. Count number of squares with different types of beach 2. Place the ranging poles along the transect
material/trash 3. The person at the lower ranging pole uses the
3. Convert to percentage clinometer to place it at the 1.5m mark on the pole
4. Have multiple people count as well to increase and look directly at the 1.5m mark on the other pole
reliability of the findings 4. Repeat this at every 1m interval
OR
4. Use caliper and pebbleometer to measure length and River surface velocity:
width of the material
RIVERS: 1. Using a tape measure, measure a 10m stretch
downstream of the cross section
2. One person stands at one end of the 10m stretch and
10.2. River crosssection: releases a tennis ball as the stopwatch is started
3. Stop timing when the tennis ball reaches the 10m
1. Lay the measuring tape from one bank to the other
mark
2. Measure the width of the stream
4. Repeat the experiment for the left, right and middle of
3. Use the ranging poles to measure the depth of the
the river and average out the results
river at equal intervals

Cross-sectional area: River flow velocity:

1. Calculate the average velocity using a flowmeter,
channel depth x channel width (measure both using tape
carrying out these measurements at intervals along
measures)
the transect
2. Place the flowmeter below the surface of the water
Width of river: 3. Blades should face upstream
4. Stand upstream of the flowmeter and next to it, so as
1. Students stand on opposite sides of the river bank / to not impede river flow
place a ranging pole on each side of the bank
vertically upright
2. Use a measuring tape to measure the distance
Water quality: (multiple strategies)
between the two poles
1. Use visual pollution survey (ranked numerically)
3. Keep the tape measure taut / horizontal
2. Measure level of oxygen in water
4. Measure perpendicular / at right angles to bank
3. Measure pH of water using a meter / universal
indicator
Depth of river: 4. Count number of species of animals and plants /
number of creatures / number of plants

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5. Evaporate a water sample and weigh solid residue

6. Filter water sample and weigh solid residue

Pebble length and roundness:

USING A CALIPER
· Put pebble into mouth / teeth of calipers
· Close calipers to hold the pebble into place
· Use scale of calipers / measure the gap between the
‘teeth’ with a ruler

OTHER METHODS:
· Electronic caliper (Reduces risk of human error, more
accurate)
· Pebblometer

Safety:
A class of students were studying how a river changes
downstream. Suggest 3 things they should consider in
choosing their fieldwork sites.
· Safe to access: Sharp rocks and Strength of current
· Accessibility from road / school
· Depth of water
· Away from waterfalls / rapids
· Away from human impacts eg. dams and hydroelectric
stations
· Equal distance from other investigation sites

Weather and Climate

equipments:

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Geography

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