Exam Connection

🎯 Exam Connection

Frequency: Issue Evaluation forms the entirety of OCR B Paper 3 (Decision-Making) and a significant section of AQA Paper 3. It is not optional — it is a full paper, and the extended decision-making question is worth 8–9 marks.

How the pre-release works (OCR B): You receive the resource booklet approximately 12 weeks before Paper 3. You may annotate your copy and bring it into the exam (check current OCR guidance). The exam contains approximately 4–6 shorter questions (1–4 marks each) and one extended decision-making question (8–9 marks). Together these are worth approximately 30 marks — a significant portion of your Paper 3 total.

Typical question types and what they need:

• 1-mark: "Name one stakeholder..." — single word or short phrase; name a specific stakeholder group.
• 2-mark: "Describe what Source 2 shows..." — identify the main pattern and a specific figure from the data.
• 4-mark: "How reliable is Source 3 for evaluating Option A?" — identify the producer, explain the specific bias or limitation, explain what this means for reliability, state what would make it more reliable.
• 4-mark: "Explain why stakeholder X would favour Option A..." — name the stakeholder, explain their specific interest, link to specific source evidence, explain why they would oppose Option B.
• 6-mark: "How far does the evidence support the view that Option A is better for the environment?" — weigh evidence FOR the view (with source references), weigh evidence AGAINST, reach a supported conclusion using own geographical knowledge.
• 8–9-mark: "Using the sources and your own geographical knowledge, which option do you recommend? Justify your decision." — full IDEALS response; see the Level 3 structure above.

What moves you up levels:

Level	Marks (OCR B)	What it looks like
Level 1	1–3	Vague general claims. No source evidence cited. No own knowledge. "Option A is better for the environment." No counter-argument considered. No decision, or a decision without any reasoning.
Level 2	4–6	Uses specific source evidence (Source X shows...). Identifies advantages AND disadvantages of at least one option. May acknowledge a counter-argument. But: no own geographical knowledge; conclusion not fully justified; does not explain why advantages outweigh disadvantages.
Level 3	7–8	Specific source evidence with interpretation. Own geographical knowledge (named case study or concept). Stakeholder perspective with explanation. Clear recommendation stated upfront. Counter-argument acknowledged and explicitly outweighed. Decisive, resolved conclusion.

The most common reason students drop from Level 3 to Level 2: They use source evidence but do not apply any geographical knowledge from outside the booklet. If you do not reference a case study, theory, or named place from your course in the extended question, you cannot score Level 3.