West African Examinations Council

WASSCE Geography · Paper 3 — Practical and Physical Geography

Sat separately from the written papers.

8 exam-style questions, written to the West African Examinations Council format and free to read. The answers are here too — what they do not tell you is how many you would get right with a clock running.

Sit this paper timed All WASSCE Geography papers

1. (a) State four types of information about settlement that a topographical map provides. [8 marks] (b) Explain how relief, drainage and communications together influence settlement siting. [9 marks] (c) State one limitation of using a map alone to study settlement. [3 marks]
2. A rectangular farm on a 1:50,000 map measures 4 cm by 3 cm. (a) Calculate its true area in square kilometres. [8 marks] (b) Describe how you would estimate the area of an irregular feature on the same map. [8 marks] (c) State one source of error in that estimate. [4 marks]
3. (a) Define contour interval and state what closely spaced contours indicate. [6 marks] (b) Describe how a valley and a spur are each distinguished on a contour map. [10 marks] (c) State one method of representing relief other than contours. [4 marks]
4. The rainfall of a station for six months is 20, 45, 90, 150, 210 and 180 mm. (a) Calculate the mean monthly rainfall. [5 marks] (b) Describe the graph best suited to presenting this data and explain why. [8 marks] (c) State two conclusions you could draw about the station's climate. [7 marks]
5. A map is drawn to a scale of 1:50,000. (a) Express this scale as a statement scale in kilometres. [6 marks] (b) A road measures 8.4 cm on the map. Calculate its true length in kilometres. [8 marks] (c) State one advantage of a linear scale over a representative fraction. [6 marks]
(a) Explain the difference between a bearing and a direction. [5 marks] (b) Describe the procedure for measuring the bearing of one point from another on a map. [10 marks] (c) State why bearings are always written with three figures. [5 marks]

Reading these is not the same as sitting them.

Every question above is answerable given time. The exam does not give you time. Sit the whole paper on the real clock and the number you get back is the one that means something.

Sit it against the clock — free

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1. (a) State four types of information about settlement that a topographical map provides. [8 marks] (b) Explain how relief, drainage and communications together influence settlement siting. [9 marks] (c) State one limitation of using a map alone to study settlement. [3 marks]

2. A rectangular farm on a 1:50,000 map measures 4 cm by 3 cm. (a) Calculate its true area in square kilometres. [8 marks] (b) Describe how you would estimate the area of an irregular feature on the same map. [8 marks] (c) State one source of error in that estimate. [4 marks]

3. (a) Define contour interval and state what closely spaced contours indicate. [6 marks] (b) Describe how a valley and a spur are each distinguished on a contour map. [10 marks] (c) State one method of representing relief other than contours. [4 marks]

4. The rainfall of a station for six months is 20, 45, 90, 150, 210 and 180 mm. (a) Calculate the mean monthly rainfall. [5 marks] (b) Describe the graph best suited to presenting this data and explain why. [8 marks] (c) State two conclusions you could draw about the station's climate. [7 marks]

5. A map is drawn to a scale of 1:50,000. (a) Express this scale as a statement scale in kilometres. [6 marks] (b) A road measures 8.4 cm on the map. Calculate its true length in kilometres. [8 marks] (c) State one advantage of a linear scale over a representative fraction. [6 marks]

(a) Explain the difference between a bearing and a direction. [5 marks] (b) Describe the procedure for measuring the bearing of one point from another on a map. [10 marks] (c) State why bearings are always written with three figures. [5 marks]

Reading these is not the same as sitting them.

8. (a) Define a drainage pattern. [3 marks] (b) Describe three drainage patterns and state the relief each suggests. [12 marks] (c) State how you would identify the direction of river flow from a contour map. [5 marks]