Summer 2022 arrangements for GCSE, AS and A Level Geography
13 August 2021
In June 2021, Ofqual published the non-exam assessment (NEA) and fieldwork arrangements for geography in summer 2022. For GCSE and AS Level, this confirms there won't be any questions about students' own fieldwork experiences, however, the non-exam assessment will continue for A Level Geography.
Although the outcomes of the Ofqual consultation on the assessment of GCSEs, AS and A Levels in 2022 have not yet been published, we want to support you and your students as much as possible. We can therefore confirm we will be rolling over some of the changes we made for summer 2021 to the exams in summer 2022.
The updates we are rolling over from 2021 to 2022 are as follows:
Carrying out fieldwork
We encourage centres to engage with fieldwork activities ‘in the field’ wherever possible. ‘In the field’ could include in the school grounds and local area (to the school or student’s homes). Virtual fieldwork could be used to support the enquiry process and development of fieldwork skills.
We have worked with the other exam boards to update our joint guidance on carrying out fieldwork and NEA in 2022. Please see the links below:
You can also access these documents on our qualification web pages under the Planning and teaching > Planning section.
Context of the unfamiliar fieldwork questions for GCSE Geography A and B
The unfamiliar fieldwork questions in our GCSE question papers relate to both physical and human geography fieldwork contexts. The contexts in the 2022 papers are as follows:
- The human fieldwork context is urban
- The physical fieldwork context is rivers
There will be further assessment information and support to follow on our geography qualification pages.
If you have any queries about this update, please call our Customer Support Centre on 01223 553998 or email geography@ocr.org.uk.
Qualifications