Course performance descriptors for Geography

Areas for assessment

• Geographical knowledge
• Geographical concepts, tools and skills
• Communication

Grade A

A student at this grade typically:

• demonstrates an extensive knowledge and understanding of places and environments, and the geographical processes that form and transform them
• demonstrates extensive knowledge and understanding of the interactions and connections between people, places and environments
• explains and analyses different perspectives of geographical issues across a range of scales
• displays extensive knowledge and understanding of human wellbeing and the management of places and environments for their sustainability in relation to geographical issues across a range of scales
• exhibits extensive skills to select and proficiently apply geographical concepts and tools appropriate and relevant to the investigation
• displays sophisticated skills to select, acquire and process complex geographical information and uses an extensive range of strategies to communicate effectively.

Grade B

A student at this grade typically:

• demonstrates a thorough knowledge and understanding of places and environments, and the geographical processes that form and transform them
• demonstrates thorough knowledge and understanding of the interactions and connections between people, places and environments
• explains different perspectives of geographical issues across a range of scales
• displays thorough knowledge and understanding of human wellbeing and the management of places and environments for their sustainability in relation to geographical issues
• exhibits high level skills to select and apply geographical concepts and tools appropriate and relevant to the investigation
• displays high level skills to select, acquire, process and communicate complex geographical information using a broad range of strategies.

Grade C

A student at this grade typically:

• demonstrates a sound knowledge and understanding of places and environments, and the geographical processes that form and transform them
• demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding of the interactions and connections between people, places and environments
• describes different perspectives of geographical issues
• displays broad knowledge and understanding of human wellbeing and the management of places and environments for their sustainability
• exhibits sound skills to select and apply geographical concepts and tools appropriate to the investigation
• displays sound skills to select, acquire, process and communicate geographical information using a range of strategies.

Grade D

A student at this grade typically:

• demonstrates a basic knowledge of places and environments and some understanding of the geographical processes that form and transform them
• demonstrates basic knowledge and understanding of the interactions and connections between people, places and environments
• outlines different perspectives of geographical issues
• displays some knowledge of human wellbeing and the management of places and environments for their sustainability
• exhibits some skills to select and apply geographical concepts and tools appropriate to the investigation
• displays basic skills to select, acquire, process and communicate geographical information using a range of strategies.

Grade E

A student at this grade typically:

• demonstrates some knowledge of places and environments and identifies some geographical processes that form and transform them
• demonstrates elementary knowledge and understanding of some interactions and connections between people, places and environments
• recognises some different perspectives of geographical issues
• identifies some aspects of human wellbeing and the management of places and environments
• exhibits elementary skills to select and apply geographical concepts and tools to the investigation
• displays elementary skills to select, acquire, process and communicate geographical information using a limited range of strategies.

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