How to study for Geography?

Now that I have my Geography textbook in front of me, how should I approach it? Read it like a novel from page to page? Grab a highlighter and highlight 'important points' as I read through the text? Well, truth be told, I've tried this method numerous times when I was a student and realised that I almost always end up highlighting 80% of the page. What can I say? Everything in the textbook seems important...

So what now? How then should I be studying?

After years of experimenting different study methods and observing how students study for their tests and examinations, here are my two cents.

Step One:

Break down the key themes and objectives for each topic before you begin reading the content.

Interestingly, students often skip this important step and dive straight into the sea of content. More often than not, they will end up feeling puzzled about why the information is arranged in a particular sequence in the textbook, and struggle to link what they have studied previously with what they are reading now. If you are guilty of this, (un)fortunately you are not the only one.

So why are these key themes and objectives important?

Under the new syllabus, the geographical content are grouped into clusters, with three topics per cluster. Each topic is organized around  specific learning objectives. These outline the big ideas you need to grasp, the processes you should understand, and the skills you will be tested on. So, before diving in, skim through the syllabus guide and your textbook to pinpoint the core focus areas of each topic. This approach helps you figure out exactly where to direct your attention when studying, giving you a clearer sense of the Geographical concepts and case studies that matter most.

Step Two:

Now let's work backwards to understand why the content in the textbook is crafted in this sequence, and make sense of the different components within the chapter.

With the key themes and objectives for each topic, picture your end goal: being able to explain or apply these ideas in assessments. Ask yourself, “What do I need to understand so I can confidently tackle exam questions or assignments?” This backward approach helps you see how each piece of content connects to those objectives, making your study sessions more focused and meaningful.

Step Three:

Recognise that not every word in the textbook is important!

Let's face it. If you are one of those who spends time highlighting practically everything in your textbook, yes I am referring to you...the one who just bought an entire set of highlighters of different colours in order to easily differentiate the paragraphs of information that you are going to highlight, it's time to review your studying method. You may think that it's a good idea to highlight full sentences and explanations that may be useful in helping you understand or explain your answer in written assessments. But what you've just done is to send a message to your brain that everything is important and you're better off memorising everything you have highlighted. Not only is this highlighting frenzy inefficient (and costly), doesn't it feel intimidating you when you flip through your textbook during revision? In fact, by highlighting information in this manner, you are doing yourself a disservice by masking the key geographical terminologies and ideas in the sea of highlighted text.

So instead of highlighting full sentences, choose instead to only highlight or underline keywords in the textbook that are geographical and essential in helping you develop your answer. This will allow you to focus your attention on keywords that deepens your geographical understanding and adds clarity in your answer for your written assessments.

Here is a sample paragraph of the explanation from the textbook about the formation of Southwest monsoon. Pay close attention to the key words that are bold and underlined.

The southwest monsoon takes place between June and September, when it is summer in the northern hemisphere. The air over Central Asia heats up, expands and rises, forming a region of low pressure over the area. During the same period, the southern hemisphere is experiencing winter. The low temperature causes the air to be cold and dense, exerting a greater force on the earth's surface. This results in an area of high pressure over Australia. Due to the difference in pressure between Central Asia and Australia, air from Australia moves to the Indian sub-continent and Central Asia (moves northwards) as the southeast monsoon winds. As the winds cross the Equator, the Coriolis effect deflects the winds to the right. These winds become the southwest monsoon winds and warm up as they head for Central Asia. The warm air picks up moisture as it travels over the Indian Ocean and brings heavy rain to the Indian sub-continent.

* It's the southwest monsoon in the middle of the year as this textbook that I am making reference to is published in Singapore, which is located within the northern hemisphere.

Step Four:

Learn by linking key ideas instead of memorising definitions and paragraphs of explanation.

"Studying for Geography exams isn't that tough! It's about memorising facts isn't it?" This is the same comment made by many parents whom I've met over the years. Well, I wouldn't disagree with them since most Geography exams in the past are heavily dependent on the students' ability to memorise definitions and explanations. However, students today are expected to develop higher-order thinking and apply their understanding of the geographical knowledge and concepts to address the various question demands. Memorising paragraphs of information is no longer useful as it will only limit the students' ability to tweak and adjust their explanation to accurately address the question demand.

As such, I sincerely implore you to stop mindlessly memorising chunks of textbook information in hopes of regurgitating them to address the questions in the examinations. Instead, try studying by identifying key geographical terminologies (Step Three) and linking the key ideas together to craft your answer.

For example in the context of explaining the formation of the southwest monsoon winds and rain, apply your understanding of how winds are generated in the first place (temperature difference that results in air pressure difference) and link the key ideas together in the following manner:

Note: The arrows (>) refers to 'leads to' or 'influence'.

Formation of the southwest monsoon winds and rain

Time of the year > difference in seasons in both hemispheres > temperature difference > air pressure difference > direction of winds > deflection of winds due to Coriolis effect > warming of air within the tropics > picks up moisture > deposit as monsoon rain

Coupled with the key geographical terminologies that you have highlighted from the textbook, you can now easily craft your explanation without having to mindlessly memorise the entire paragraph of textbook information. Not only is this a more efficient and effective way to study, you now have the ability to be more flexible in adjusting your answer to address the question demand.

I hope this post will be beneficial to you as you study or do your revision. For a more in-depth explanation on how to learn Geography effectively, do consider getting yourself a copy of my guidebook!

That Geography Teacher's Game Plan (Physical Copy)

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That Geography Teacher's Game Plan (e-book)

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If you want to master essential skills, learn clear strategies, and gain confidence for your exams, consider this guidebook. I have distilled over a decade of teaching experience into practical advice tailored just for you.

You may also click on https://www.thatgeographyteacher.com/category/all-products to read about how you can use this guidebook effectively to enhance your learning of Geography.

For additional support to enhance your learning, head to

🔗 https://www.thatgeographyteacher.com/newsyllabus 

You’ll find sample answers to both the 2024 O and N-Level national exams. These are ideal for applying the techniques taught in Chapter 2, especially for understanding what a top-band LDQ or well-scaffolded structured answer looks like in reality. You can attempt the questions using the frameworks in the guidebook, then compare against the samples to learn from real answers.