Map, Graph and Source Interpretation Skills
This domain tests the practical skills used across the whole paper: reading maps, scales, graphs and written or visual sources, and drawing careful conclusions from them. Marks are lost when candidates guess instead of using the evidence given.
Maps
- Check the title, key, scale and compass points before answering anything.
- Large-scale maps (1:10,000 or 1:50,000) show small areas in detail; small-scale maps (1:1,000,000) show large areas with little detail.
- Contours: lines close together mean steep slopes; wide spacing means gentle slopes. A contour V pointing upstream marks a valley.
- Latitude lines run east–west and measure north–south position; longitude lines run north–south. Bearings are measured clockwise from north.
Graphs and sources
- Bar graphs compare quantities; line graphs show change over time; pie charts show shares of a whole; climate graphs combine rainfall bars with a temperature line.
- A primary source was produced at the time by a witness (diary, photograph, interview); a secondary source interprets later (textbook, documentary).
- Judge a source by author, date, purpose and audience. Bias does not make a source useless, but it must be allowed for. Correlation is not the same as causation.
Worked example
A map has a scale of 1:50,000. Two villages are 6 cm apart on the map. Find the real distance in kilometres. Reasoning: 1:50,000 means 1 cm represents 50,000 cm, which is 0.5 km. Multiply by 6: 6 × 0.5 = 3 km. Say the answer is 3 km, not 300,000 cm, and remember that a winding road would need measurement in sections.
Traps that cost marks
- Forgetting to convert centimetres to kilometres at the end.
- Measuring a curved road as one straight line.
- Treating the tallest bar in a graph as automatically the 'best' result.
- Accepting a source without asking who wrote it and why.