When you use a specimen question, check that it belongs to your exam year, then answer exactly what the command word asks. A good question from the wrong version teaches you the wrong layout.
This lesson follows checking your fieldwork route. It is part of assessment-version transitions.
How do you choose and use specimen tasks?
Specimen material comes from Cambridge and shows the style of questions for a syllabus. It is useful only if its syllabus year matches your own. The mark guidance on the same document tells you how answers are credited for that year.
Use it as a practice route, not as a prediction. Topics in your syllabus content list are fair game, but a specimen is not a list of what will appear.
Step by step
- Find the syllabus year on the specimen cover and compare it with your exam year.
- Read the command word in the question and write down what it asks for.
- Underline the data the question gives you, with units.
- Plan your answer in point form before writing.
- Check against the mark guidance for the same year.
- Log the gap between your answer and the guidance in your mistake log.
Worked example
The data below is invented. A table shows three towns: Town A has a population of 12,000, Town B has 30,000 and Town C has 45,000.
Question: “Describe the pattern shown in the table.”
A strong description states the pattern with figures: “Population rises from Town A to Town C. Town C has 45,000 people, which is 33,000 more than Town A.” Check: 45,000 − 12,000 = 33,000.
It can add a comparison: 45,000 ÷ 12,000 = 3.75, so Town C is 3.75 times larger. Check: 12,000 × 3.75 = 45,000.
A description does not give reasons. If the question said “Explain”, the answer would add why, such as jobs or services drawing migrants, linked to the data.
The mistake to watch for
A common slip is to explain when asked to describe.
Mistaken answer: “Town C is bigger because it has more jobs.”
The question asked what the table shows, and the answer gives no figures.
The correction is to state the pattern first, quote the numbers, and give reasons only if the command word asks for them.
Check yourself
The data is invented.
1. A town grows from 20,000 to 50,000. What is the increase, and the percentage increase?
Show answer
50,000 − 20,000 = 30,000. 30,000 ÷ 20,000 = 1.5, so 30,000 and 150%. Check: 20,000 × 1.5 = 30,000.
2. A value falls from 80 to 60. What is the percentage decrease?
Show answer
80 − 60 = 20. 20 ÷ 80 = 0.25, so 25%. Check: 80 × 0.25 = 20.
3. A question starts with “Explain”. What must the answer include?
Show answer
Reasons, linked to the geography and the data, not only a description.
Where this leads next
Next, keep old useful concepts while replacing obsolete instructions. The statistics and distribution explorer and the food-web and energy-flow explorer give practice with data and systems.
Geography tuition can mark your specimen answers with you and look for patterns across them.