This module covers what happens after the data is collected: processing it, showing it, judging odd results, writing a conclusion and evaluating the method. Check the current Cambridge IGCSE Geography 0460 syllabus page for how fieldwork or the alternative route is assessed in your exam year.
Our examples use invented data, and the method is what you carry into an unseen question. Safety and planning in the field are for your school to guide, and we keep them general.
What should you already know?
You need basic arithmetic: totals, means, percentages and simple division. It also helps to know the planning ideas from fieldwork design and sampling. The lessons build the rest step by step.
One orienting example
An invented class counts pedestrians at three sites and gets 60, 48 and 36 in ten minutes. The total is 60 + 48 + 36 = 144, and the mean is 144 ÷ 3 = 48. The count falls by 12 from one site to the next, and a scatter graph against distance would show a downward trend.
Notice the habits: sort and calculate, pick a graph that fits the aim, then state what the numbers show. Each lesson trains one of those habits.
In what order should you study the lessons?
- Process a small original dataset: start here, because every later step needs correct figures.
- Select a graph that answers the question: matches the display to the data and the aim.
- Identify anomalous evidence transparently: shows how to treat a result that does not fit.
- Link a conclusion to the investigation aim: turns figures into an answer to the question.
- Propose a specific improvement without inventing field observations: finishes with an honest evaluation of the method.
What are the common traps?
- Taking the middle of an unsorted list as the median.
- Choosing a line graph for sites that are not points in time.
- Deleting an anomaly instead of marking it and reporting its effect.
- Writing that results prove something for every place after measuring a few sites.
- Evaluating with events that were never recorded.
How should you use the practice set?
Do the mixed practice set after the lessons. Cover each answer, write your own working, then compare. Log each miss in the mistake log and retest queue and retest it a few days later.
The fieldwork sample and graph planner and the statistics and distribution explorer give extra repetitions. The next module, case-study reasoning, uses these evidence habits with real places. For someone to watch your reasoning on fresh material, see our online one-to-one Geography tuition.