OCR A (J249) — Greenhouse Effect Is a Repeat Extended-Response Question

Very High Risk — Back-to-Back Repeat

On OCR A Gateway Physics, the greenhouse effect mechanism and global-warming evaluation appeared as a 6-mark extended response (ER) question in both the Jun 2023 and Jun 2024 Higher tier 4H papers (P8 Global Challenges) — two consecutive sittings, which is unusually persistent for a board that typically rotates its ER topics between sittings. Treat this as the single strongest predictive signal in the whole OCR A dataset for a repeat appearance.

OCR A's ER format asks for three things in one answer, and marks are lost for missing any of them:

• Describe the mechanism — greenhouse gases absorb outgoing infrared radiation and re-emit it in all directions, so some returns to Earth and the surface must warm to restore the balance between absorbed and emitted radiation
• Name human contributions — burning fossil fuels (CO₂), agriculture and landfill (CH₄), deforestation (reduces CO₂ absorption)
• Evaluate proposed solutions — compare renewable energy, reforestation and carbon capture, weighing effectiveness against cost, scale or speed of impact rather than just listing them

This is the same physics already taught above — OCR A does not examine anything AQA, Edexcel or Eduqas do not — the difference is purely in exam format: expect a full 6-mark "describe + name + evaluate" ER question rather than shorter part-questions.