Edexcel IGCSE Geography Tutors Online

Edexcel IGCSE Geography is code 4GE1, written for first teaching from September 2017 with the first examination in June 2019. This page works from Issue 4, dated February 2026, and first certification was in 2019. The qualification is linear, and all examinations must be taken in the terminal series at the end of the course of study.

The qualification has two externally assessed papers and they are not equally weighted. Paper 1 is worth 40% of the total International GCSE and Paper 2 is worth 60%. Paper 2 is the larger paper by half again, so it deserves the larger share of the teaching time, and that is easy to get wrong when both papers are simply called Geography.

Paper 1 is Physical geography, code 4GE1/01. It is externally assessed, worth 40%, and it is a written examination of 1 hour 10 minutes carrying 70 marks. It is available in June and November, and it can be sat paper-based or onscreen. It consists of two sections, and both sections offer a choice.

Section A of Paper 1 is worth 50 marks, and candidates choose two out of three questions on river environments, coastal environments and hazardous environments. Section B is worth 20 marks, and candidates choose one out of three fieldwork-related questions on the same three topics. Question types across the paper are a mixture of multiple-choice, short-answer, data-response and open-ended questions.

Paper 2 is Human geography, code 4GE1/02. It is externally assessed, worth 60%, and it is a written examination of 1 hour 45 minutes carrying 105 marks. It is also available in June and November and also available paper-based or onscreen. It consists of three sections, and all three offer a choice.

Section A of Paper 2 is worth 50 marks, and candidates choose two out of three questions on economic activity and energy, rural environments and urban environments. Section B is worth 20 marks, and candidates choose one out of three fieldwork-related questions on the same three topics. Section C is worth 35 marks, and candidates choose one out of three questions on fragile environments and climate change, globalisation and migration, and development and human welfare.

The pattern of choice is the most practical thing to understand about this qualification. A candidate never answers every question offered. In Section A of either paper two topics out of three are answered, which means one topic can be left out entirely. In Section B one fieldwork question out of three is answered, and in Paper 2 Section C one global issue out of three is answered. Students who prepare all the topics but never practise choosing under time will waste that freedom.

The fieldwork is examined rather than written up. There is no coursework or non-examined assessment in this qualification. Instead, students are required to undertake a geographical investigation involving fieldwork and research in one natural environment, and Section B of Paper 1 asks them to answer a fieldwork-related question on one of the three physical topics. Paper 2 does the same for the human topics. So the fieldwork experience feeds directly into an examined question rather than a project folder.

The specification goes further and quantifies how much of the assessment touches fieldwork. The third assessment objective carries a note that approximately 13% is applied to fieldwork contexts, and the fourth carries a note that approximately 10% is used to respond to fieldwork data and contexts. That is a real, printed weight attached to work that happens outside the classroom.

There is also a case study requirement, and it is specific. All students must study four in-depth case studies. In Paper 1 Section A there is a case study of a developed country and a case study of a developing or an emerging country. In Paper 2 Section A the same applies. Alongside those four, students must draw on located examples from developing, emerging and developed countries throughout the course, and any located example must be set within the broader contextual knowledge of the country.

Geographical skills run across the whole qualification rather than sitting in a separate paper. Students are required to develop a range of geographical skills including quantitative skills, and the specification states that these skills may be assessed across any of the examined papers. Some skills may only be assessed in specific topics, and those are signposted in the detailed content and listed in the integrated skills sections after each topic.

The assessment objectives are four with a clear internal order. AO1, demonstrate knowledge of locations, places, processes, environments and different scale, is 15 to 16 per cent. AO2, demonstrate geographical understanding of concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes and the interrelationships between them, is 25 to 26 per cent. AO3, apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues and to make judgements, is 34 to 35 per cent. AO4, select, adapt and use a variety of skills and techniques to investigate questions and issues and communicate findings, is 24 to 25 per cent.

So knowledge alone is the smallest objective at 15 to 16 per cent, and applying, interpreting, analysing and evaluating is the largest at 34 to 35 per cent. A student who has learned the content but cannot use it to make judgements is competing for well under half the marks.

The qualification is graded and certificated on a nine-grade scale from 9 to 1 using the total subject mark, where 9 is the highest grade. Individual components are not graded. Students whose level of achievement is below the minimum judged by Pearson to be of sufficient standard to receive a certificate get an unclassified U result.