To check your fieldwork or coursework route, ask your exam centre which route applies to your group, then read that route in the syllabus for your exam year. Preparation for the analysis skills can happen anywhere, but the route itself is your centre’s decision.
This lesson follows reading the paper structure. It also links to the practical and coursework route check.
Who is responsible for what?
- Cambridge describes the assessment options in the syllabus.
- Your centre chooses and runs the route for your group, and tells you the rules.
- You keep your own work original and follow safety guidance.
Online guides rarely know your centre’s choice. Treat their fieldwork advice as general until your centre confirms it.
How do you check, step by step?
- Message your teacher and ask which route applies to you.
- Write down the reply with the date.
- Open your year’s syllabus and read that route’s section.
- List the skills it tests, such as choosing a sampling method, recording data, drawing graphs and evaluating.
- Practise those skills on invented or class data before you use real data.
- Re-check if your centre updates its plans.
The fieldwork sample and graph planner helps you rehearse sampling and graph choices.
Worked example
This data is invented for practice. Eight sites each record how many pedestrians pass in ten minutes: 12, 15, 9, 14, 11, 18, 10, 13.
Total: 12 + 15 = 27, then + 9 = 36, + 14 = 50, + 11 = 61, + 18 = 79, + 10 = 89, + 13 = 102.
Mean: 102 ÷ 8 = 12.75. Check: 12.75 × 8 = 102.
Median: order the values: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 18. The middle two are 12 and 13, so the median is (12 + 13) ÷ 2 = 12.5.
The mean is slightly higher than the median because 18 pulls it up. A careful evaluation would note the small sample and the single ten-minute window.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to quote a mean without any comment on the size of the sample.
Mistaken statement: “The average is 12.75, so the street is always busy.”
Eight ten-minute counts cannot support “always”.
The correction is to state the limit: “In these eight counts the mean was 12.75, which suggests moderate footfall at those times.”
Check yourself
The data is invented.
1. Counts of 6, 8, 10 and 12. What is the mean?
Show answer
6 + 8 + 10 + 12 = 36. 36 ÷ 4 = 9. Check: 9 × 4 = 36.
2. Counts of 5, 9, 14 and 7. What is the range?
Show answer
Highest 14, lowest 5. 14 − 5 = 9.
3. Who confirms your fieldwork route?
Show answer
Your school or exam centre.
Where this leads next
Next, use the correct current specimen-task guidance. The statistics and distribution explorer gives more practice on means and medians.
Our Geography tuition works on the analysis and written evaluation, and leaves your route and assessed work to your centre.