Chapter 1: What is the focus of this episode on Geography?
Now, continuing our Leaving Cert Countdown, reviewing some of the exam subjects for Study Hub 2026. Today, we take a closer look at geography. And joining me is Aisling McKean, geography teacher at Finn Valley College in Stranorler in County Donegal. Aisling, good morning to you.
Good morning, David. How are you?
I'm well. How are the nerves?
Oh, they're not too bad. They're staying settled. So they are so far, so far, so good.
OK, good to hear. Now, tell us a bit about geography. The good news is students have 20% of the marks already done.
They do, yeah. So before they go into their exam, they will all have completed their field investigation. It's normally in river or coastal studies there. So, yeah, it's nice knowing that they have that going on. So they're potentially walking in there with 20%. So that kind of gives you a wee bit of leverage going into the exam to work with.
Yeah, absolutely. Bit of confidence. You only need another 20% to pass, I suppose. Take us through the exam paper, if you would, Aisling. How is it laid out?
I will, yeah.
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Chapter 2: How do students earn marks before the Geography exam?
So the exam is laid out into two sections. So what I would say is when you get your exam paper, a small tip is to have a wee look at your aerial photograph. So you'll get an OS map and an aerial photograph. And just writing down the annotation for the type of aerial photograph that you get really helps because it'll save you time later in the paper.
And sometimes your head's clear and you have those things sitting waiting to go. It's nice to get them out in paper. And then during the exam, then your marks are gone through using SRPs. So for every SRP that you make, you get... Sorry, what's an SRP? So an SRP is... a significant relevant point.
And a significant relevant point is a definition, a fact or statistic, or it might be a few lines of relevant information, which is very relevant to the question that's being asked. So two marks for each of those. So for example, in your essays, if it's 30 mark essay, you're trying to get 15 SRPs into that essay to get full marks there.
Okay.
So the exam then, yeah.
So yeah, so section one, take us through section one.
Section one, yes. Section one is your short questions. So there's 12 short questions available and there's 80 marks going in this section. Each question is worth eight marks and you'll be marked on your best 10 there. I would advise you to attempt all of them. Your best 10 will be chosen anyway.
So answer the ones that you feel more confident in first and then come back for those that you might be unsure about. Give them all a go. The knowledge that you have in geography will allow you or should allow you to make an educated guess on any that you're kind of unsure about.
OK, how much time?
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Chapter 3: What is the layout of the Geography exam paper?
Okay, so 25 minutes to do 12 questions here. Yeah, one every two minutes or whatever. Yeah, you're going at a good pace. You are going at a good pace. How many SRPs do you want to get into each of those?
Well, in the short questions, then it's just going to be things like, you know, reading information, graphs, analysing data, answering questions based on small pieces of information. they're just marked there as short questions. So you're getting, it's kind of varied in terms of, but it's eight marks per question in total.
Okay, and that is a good way of picking up a few good marks as well before you tackle Section 2. So tell me about Section 2.
It is, yeah, and it'll warm you up as well in terms of the different topics and kind of refresh your memory on a lot of what you're going to do in Section 2. So Section 2 then is the essay section. So there is... a large variety of choice now on the paper for students, which is great, but definitely have some type of plan for yourself, I would say, going into that section.
It's kind of split into different categories. So your questions, one to three there, is physical geography. So that's your plate tectonics, your volcanoes, your earthquakes, your fault mountains, weather in the Burren, plate tectonics, all of that. So you'll choose one of those. And when you choose one of those questions, it'll be split into an A, B and a C. So your A is worth 20 marks.
And then your B and your C is where you get into your SRPs then. And that's where you'll be looking for your 15 SRPs per question. So that's your physical. Your questions four to six then are your regional geography. So that's going to be your Paris Basin, the Mesa Giorno, Brazil or India. It'll depend on what you've covered with your teacher there. And that's exactly the same layout as well.
So 20 marks, 30 marks and 30 marks. And your 20 mark question is will be shorter questions. So that will be something like drawing out a map of your region. So definitely revise the maps and how to draw them out because you'll definitely get a chance there to draw one of them. It'll either be Ireland or the Metsejourno or the Paris Basin.
And then you move into questions seven to nine, which is your economic elective, or 10 to 12, which is your population elective. So you choose one or the other? It's one or the other, yes. You need to be sure there which one you've covered and go straight to those questions then so that you're not confused about that. So clarify that with your teacher if you're not sure yourself at the minute.
And then, you know, the different topics within those, the economic elective, you're looking at your EU policies, your globalisation, and then your population elective is looking at overpopulation, migration, urban development and all of those types of things.
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Chapter 4: What tips are provided for answering short questions?
But just remember that finishing the paper is the priority. So once you have spent 25 minutes on your section, move on because you might be kind of thinking for a while, trying to get points. where you could be spending that time on another essay and you'll definitely have, you know, fresher chance of getting your SRPs on different essays.
Okay. Great advice, Ashley McKean, Geography teacher at Finn Valley College in Donegal. Thank you so much for that and best of luck to everybody sitting their geography exam and indeed sitting every other exam in the Leaving Cert.