Paper 3 issue evaluation: reading the resource booklet
The pre-release booklet arrives twelve weeks before the exam. Knowing it well converts the hardest paper into the most predictable one.
Lesson overview
What you'll learn in this lesson
Plan enquiries, select sampling and presentation methods, analyse data and evaluate conclusions.
Key learning points
- • What the booklet is for
- • Working with the figures
- • The decision-making question
- • Structuring the nine-mark decision
This lesson at a glance
- 30 minutes
- 20 parts to scroll through
- 4 quick checks
- Marked quiz at the end
- Gentle pace: short sittings with pauses
Words to know
Scroll down — the lesson carries on below
Watch & discover
Part 1 of 20
Visual introductionPicture this
Paper 3 issue evaluation: reading the resource booklet
The pre-release booklet arrives twelve weeks before the exam. Knowing it well converts the hardest paper into the most predictable one.
In a nutshell
Plan enquiries, select sampling and presentation methods, analyse data and evaluate conclusions.
Learning cycle
Part 2 of 20
Learning cycle 1 of 2
Part 1 · What the booklet is for
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 3 of 20
Learn
What the booklet is for
It sets out a geographical issue with maps, graphs, text and photographs. You may not take annotations into the exam, but you can learn the content thoroughly, so the reading time in the exam is spent thinking rather than decoding.
Reset break
Part 4 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 1 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Explore the idea
Part 5 of 20
Learn
Working with the figures
Answer using the numbered figures explicitly: 'Figure 3 shows…'. Cross-reference two figures where possible, because linking evidence is what separates the higher levels.
Quick check
Part 6 of 20
Quick check
Part 7 of 20
Reset break
Part 8 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 2 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Learning cycle
Part 9 of 20
Learning cycle 2 of 2
Part 2 · The decision-making question
A short piece of teaching, then a check to make sure it has landed.
Explore the idea
Part 10 of 20
Learn
The decision-making question
You choose one of three options and justify it. There is no correct option; marks come from using evidence from the booklet, considering the alternatives you rejected, and referring to sustainability, cost and the people affected.
Explore the idea
Part 11 of 20
Learn
Structuring the nine-mark decision
State the option, give three evidenced reasons drawn from named figures, explain why you rejected one alternative, and close with a judgement about long-term sustainability. Around a page, written in twelve to fifteen minutes.
Reset break
Part 12 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 3 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Quick check
Part 13 of 20
Quick check
Part 14 of 20
Explore the idea
Part 15 of 20
Worked example
Model answer: opening of a decision-making response (9 marks, extract)
I would choose Option 2, the restored wetland with a raised embankment protecting the settlement. Figure 3 shows that peak discharge in this catchment has risen by roughly a third over twenty years, so a strategy that stores water upstream addresses the cause rather than only the symptom. Figure 5 shows that the settlement lies almost entirely within the one-in-hundred-year floodplain, meaning some hard protection remains necessary, which Option 2 provides while Option 1 does not. I rejected Option 3 because, although the flood wall offers the highest standard of protection, Figure 6 indicates a cost per household more than double the alternatives and no habitat gain, making it hard to sustain as maintenance costs rise.
Reset break
Part 16 of 20
Pause
That's sitting 4 of 5 done
Stretch, get a drink, look out of the window. There is no timer and nothing is counting down — your place is saved, so you can come back in five minutes or tomorrow.
Challenge round
Part 17 of 20
Game · Sort it
Which of these are true?
Drag each card into the right column. Tap a card first if dragging is fiddly.
True
Not true
Challenge round
Part 18 of 20
Game · Recall cards
What may you take into the Paper 3 exam?
Card 1 of 4
Mastery quiz
Part 19 of 20
Marked quiz
End of lesson quiz: Paper 3 issue evaluation: reading the resource booklet
4 questions, marked with the reasoning shown. No timer.
1. What may you take into the Paper 3 exam?
2. How should you reference evidence?
3. In the decision-making question, is there a correct option?
4. Which element is essential to reach the top level?
Lesson round-up
Part 20 of 20
Lesson round-up
Ready when you are
Quiz score
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Points this lesson
0
Best run
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Luna: 0 out of 4 on the practice checks. Only if you feel up to it — one more?
Ask LunaPart 1 of 20 · Watch & discover