GCSE Geography Revision - Guides, Quizzes & Videos

From climate change to ecosystems, Geography is a subject that spans the globe. Its scope is vast, varied, and undeniably exciting to teach, while much of the subject matter is crucial for the future safety of our world. But with such a broad (and important) curriculum, this can also be a daunting subject for both teachers and students. That’s why setting aside time for focused revision is essential, giving your class the chance to revisit key ideas and tackle tricky topics that might not have clicked the first time around.

If you’re planning GCSE Geography revision sessions, this guide is for you. We’ve compiled top tips and resources for effective exam prep to help your students achieve their potential. Let’s jump into it.

Key Takeaways

• Identify key units to focus on by tracking progress, reviewing mock papers, and gathering student feedback.
• Use our Revision Jams for engaging 20-minute revision sessions covering key concepts and practice questions.
• Embrace visual revision aids like maps, diagrams, and videos to make topics clearer and boost engagement.
• Focus on exam techniques by practising questions and helping students apply knowledge.
• Maintain lesson differentiation with our adaptable, SEND-friendly resources that support varied learning needs.
• Encourage peer-to-peer revision to build confidence, deepen understanding, and make learning more interactive.
• Help students study at home with personalised assignments and access to our flexible online resources.
• Sign up now to access our free Geography revision resources.

Identify the Units to Focus On

Geography revision for GCSE exams isn’t going to cover everything you’ve taught - there simply isn’t time. Instead, you’ll need to choose which units are a priority based on gaps in pupils’ knowledge, ensuring your revision time is spent wisely.

There are a few different methods for evaluating student knowledge, including:

• Tracking individual progress: If you’ve been using Propello to assign Geography tasks and quizzes, you’ll be able to view the results of individual students. Use these insights to highlight where pupils are scoring lower, for instance, or where assignments are incomplete, and start planning your GCSE Geography revision sessions.
• Sitting a mock paper: Have your students sit a mock paper or two, and use their answers to determine strengths and weaknesses. This form of evaluation is limited to the areas covered in the papers, so we recommend using it alongside individual progress tracking for a well-rounded picture of your students’ knowledge.
• Asking your students: Another simple approach to choosing units for revision sessions is to ask your students. Write up a list of topics and quick summaries as a refresher, and ask for feedback on what the class wants to cover. 

Once you’ve made a list of key areas that need the most attention, you can start prepping your revision resources for efficient study sessions.

Use Revision Jams

When it comes to ways to revise for GCSE, you can’t beat our short and engaging Revision Jam. In your Propello resources, you’ll find these for each Geography unit, giving you a full set of resources for your study sessions. Our Revision Jams include:

• Key concepts
• Useful summaries
• Essential terminology definitions
• Revision tips
• Practice exam questions
• Pre-revision meditation audios (to get your class in the zone!)

Revision Jams are shorter than our standard units, but maintain the same quality, ensuring each revision session is varied, engaging, and useful. Our Revision Jams are AQA aligned, so they can be used alongside the AQA GCSE Geography course.

Embrace Visual Revision Aids

Long gone are the days when revision was constrained to black-and-white textbooks. Now, you can make use of a wide range of multimedia revision tools, bringing plenty of visual aids to your sessions.

Research shows that this improves learning and makes it easier to comprehend tricky concepts, leading to more widespread understanding in your classroom. It also ensures you’re appealing to different learning styles, including visual and auditory learners, which is key if you want everyone to benefit from your revision sessions.

From posters to online games, there are tons of visual Geography resources out there. We’ve also made sure that our Revision Jams are packed full of videos, maps, graphs, and real-world images, all of which help pupils to visualise what they’re learning for better recall. When exam season arrives, this simple switch-up from textbook learning could be the difference needed to boost your students’ grades.

Focus on Exam Techniques

Geography revision for GCSE isn’t just about going over units and refreshing key learning. Your pupils need to be able to apply their knowledge to real exam questions. They must:

• Understand what each question is asking
• Know how to get the maximum amount of marks per question
• Confidently turn facts and knowledge into coherent answers

It’s vital that you regularly go over exam questions as part of your revision. Cover different question styles as a group, giving students tips on how to answer and the points they need to include to get high marks. Assign them our practice exam questions (you’ll find them alongside each Geography unit lesson) and work through mock papers, getting your class ready to sit real exams.

The more practice questions you do, the more students will begin to recognise patterns in wording, structure, and mark allocation, ensuring they know what they’re doing when exam season rolls around.

Maintain Lesson Differentiation

Every student learns differently, and effective Geography revision should reflect that. Just as with your regular lessons, it’s important that your GCSE Geography revision is inclusive for students with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and English as an Additional Language (EAL).

Some great tips for improving lesson differentiation include:

• Dual coding
• Scaffolding your lesson structure
• Encouraging peer work

To help with inclusivity, try our SEND-friendly curriculum resources, they are easy to use, and students love them. This is why we’ve made sure all of our Geography units, quizzes, and Revision Jams are easily adaptable to suit different needs. Each resource can be used with screen readers and text translators, for instance, or adjusted for different levels of reading comprehension. This flexibility supports EAL and SEND students and promotes inclusion, helping all pupils get the most out of revision sessions.

Encourage Peer-to-Peer Revision

Collaboration can be one of the most effective ways to revise for GCSE. As a teacher, encourage peer-to-peer revision by allowing students to work through units in pairs or small groups. They might split up according to the topics they want to cover, for instance, or work with friends to test key knowledge and discuss case studies.

Research shows that peer-to-peer learning generates new knowledge among students. It also improves metacognition, which is the ability to understand your own thought process (sometimes described as ‘thinking about thinking’), and encourages students to delve deeper into units while developing better analytic skills. For more complex topics in the GCSE AQA Geography Revision Guide, working through them together also builds confidence, showing pupils the extent of their own skills and understanding. 

The bonus? Collaboration makes revision sessions more fun! Students get the chance to discuss and debate, taking learning out of the textbooks for a more hands-on approach to studying.

Help Students Study at Home

Geography revision shouldn’t stop when lessons end. Support your students as they revise outside school hours by giving them access to Propello. They’ll be able to go over Revision Jams and recap unit material from the comfort of their home, using the wide variety of resources to bolster their GCSE Geography revision. You can also send students individual assignments based on their existing knowledge, ensuring that revision sessions are tailored to your pupils. 

Free Ways to Revise for GCSE

Many of the resources and features we’ve discussed here are completely free. We want teachers and students across the UK to benefit from our SEND-friendly curriculum resources, making it simpler to level up your GCSE Geography revision.

Access our Revision Jams for free by signing up to Propello.