SDME 2015 Geography Revision Booklet Mock Exams 2015 SDME Sustainable Decision Making Exam Wednesday 25th November 2015 – 11:15am Worth 25% of your GCSE 90 minutes  Based on a resource booklet about a controversial geographical issue.  Three sections  Short answer questions (worth between 1 mark and 8 marks)  A decision question (worth 16 marks) Topics assessed in the mock:  Economic Development  Economic Activity Please note that the REAL SDME in June will be on Rivers and Coasts. As we have not finished teaching this topic, we thought it would be unfair to test you on rivers and coasts in the mock, however, the skills your will practise in the SDME mock are very important for the real exam. NAME:
1 SDME 2015 What you need to know for the SDME (Sustainable Decision Making Exam) 
The SDME mock is a decision making exam based on the topics of Economic Activity and Economic Development. 
You will get a resource booklet in the exam. You need to study it for at least 15 minutes, then use the information (along with your own knowledge) to answer the questions. 
You will also have to answer some background questions on the assessed topics, so you will need to revise all the information in the checklist on the next page (you will need to know this for the KGT too). 
The final question (worth 16 marks) will ask you to make a decision and you will be expected to use your background knowledge AND the resource booklet to support your arguments. Active revision is the key to success! 1. Make sure you have bought a revision guide (£3.25) from the finance office or buy one in a shop: CGP revision guide for GCSE Geography OCRB specification ISBN 978 1 84762 373 7 2. Learn all the essential information. 3. Complete the short answer questions at the end of each section of the CGP revision guide. 4. Go through the checklists on the following pages and rate yourself red, amber or green. 2 SDME 2015 Economic Activity & Development
ECONOMIC ACTIVITY QUESTIONS What are the different types of industry? How does employment structure change over time? What primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary factors influence the location of industry? Where does economic activity locate in an LEDC? – Kenya Where does economic activity location in an MEDC? – UK What are the environmental impacts of primary, secondary and tertiary industry? How does economic development damage the environment? How can economic development be made more sustainable? How is economic development damaging the environment? – Pearl River Delta, China. What are the causes of global warming? What are the economic, social and environmental impacts of global warming? What are the global, national and local responses to global warming? RED, AMBER OR GREEN? How do we measure development? What are development indicators? What are the problems with development indicators? How can countries be categorised? What environmental factors affect the level of a country’s development? What social factors affect the level of a country’s development? What political factors affect the level of a country’s development? What economic factors affect the level of a country’s development? What types of aid exist? How can development be affected by aid? Why is some aid more sustainable than others? An aid project in an LEDC – FARM Africa What is globalisation and what causes it? What impact does MNC investment have in an area? – Nike, Vietnam. What are the positive and negative effects of MNCs? 3 RED, AMBER OR GREEN? ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS SDME 2015 Examples of short answer questions In the SDME, you will have to use the resources to answer some short answer questions. Here are some examples from an SDME in 2011 about Tourism. Question: How many more international tourists were there in 2010 than in 1990? (1 mark) Answer: 550 million Note that you must include the units. If you just wrote 550, you would receive no marks. The examiner allowed a range from 540 million – 560 million. 4 SDME 2015 Question: Use resource 3 and 4 and your own knowledge. Explain how one type of tourism may damage the environment, but one other type of tourism may help to protect the environment (7 marks) Answer: Mass tourism damages the environment as habitats are destroyed in order to clear land to build new hotels. This is called deforestation where huge amounts of trees are cut down. This means that the natural balance of the ecosystem is upset and will result in some animals dying. Mass tourism also leads to increased traffic. This means that poisonous and greenhouse gasses build up. If greenhouse gasses continue to build up, this creates global warming which has worldwide effects such as melting ice caps and rising sea levels. On the other hand, responsible tourism promotes the conservation of natural areas and biodiversity. This means that natural areas are set aside for animals to use as their natural habitat and will encourage them to thrive. Responsible tourism also benefits the local people as all the revenue gained stays in the area, rather than going abroad. This is made possible by setting up fair trade. This means that the quality of life for the local people improves. Note how you can use ‘this means that’ to develop your points to gain the full 7 marks. 5 SDME 2015 The 16 mark decision question. At the end of the exam, there will be a question worth 16 marks where you will be required to make a decision It is really important that you do the following things when answering the decision... 1. Leave 30 ‐ 35 minutes to answer this question. 2. Read the question carefully. Make sure you understand the scenario. 3. Plan your answer. You might want to consider the social, economic and environmental impacts of each option given to you. 4. Follow the structure carefully. 5. Link everything back to the three strands of sustainability – social, economic and environmental. 6. Use lots of keywords 7. Develop your points over and over again using ‘this means that’. 8. Refer to the all the resources in the booklet to support your argument. 9. Check your spelling, punctuation and grammar. 10. Use clear paragraphs to signpost which section you are answering. 6 SDME 2015 Examples of 16 mark decision questions. Every year, the SDME topic changes. Your SDME will be on the topic of economic activity and economic development. You can see that all these 16 mark questions have a different structure so you must follow what is given to you. June 2014 (atmospheric hazards) You need to compare with the other options saying why your option is better and why the other options are worse. June 2013 (tectonic hazards) This is similar to the question above (using a combination of options). You will need to explain this in lots of detail. January 2013 (settlement) You may be asked to give the views of different stakeholders. June 2012 (population) 7 This asks you to link back to the main topic of the SDME paper ‐ an ageing population. SDME 2015 January 2012 (flooding) Make sure you compare with ALL the other options, one at a time. June 2011 (coasts) Remember to check whose point of view you are writing from. It is normally the government or council, but this could change. January 2011 (economic activity) Once you have given the positive and negatives of your option, you then need to compare with the other options June 2010 (economic activity) 8 There is a lot to do here – you might want to draw smiley faces to remind yourself whether you should be giving positives or negatives of your option. SDME 2015 Model answer: The Decision. Here is a model answer to the economic activity paper from June 2010 – ‘Logo no go’. In this model answer, you could highlight the following: Social, economic and environmental sustainability Keywords Connectives (‘this means that’) Reference to resources The Fiat car factory in Betim in South‐East Brazil is in danger of closing down due to world economic problems. This would be a big blow to the Brazilian economy and the Brazilian government has suggested four possible options for the future of the site. The government needs to make an economically sustainable decision. Option 1: Continue to support Fiat financially with the taxpayers’ money until the present crisis is over. Option 2: Offer to buy the site and machinery, and run the car plant purely as a Brazilian business. Option 3: Attempt to attract other MNCs to take Fiat’s place using financial incentives such as ‘tax holidays’. Option 4: Sell of the site in sections for use by smaller Brazilian businesses. 9 SDME 2015 Choose one of the options, which you think is most economically sustainable and give two reasons to explain your choice. Option 2, buy the site and run the car plant as a Brazilian business, is the most economically sustainable. Firstly, this is because it keeps all the company’s profits and assets in Brazil. This is important because it means Brazil is getting all the benefits which will boost their economy and all the taxes paid will be given to the Brazilian government. Secondly, option 2 is also the most economically sustainable because Brazil is well equipped and experienced in manufacturing cars. “The country ranks 10th among the world’s motor vehicle producers and has the natural resources (e.g. ethanol, for fuel) to be almost self‐sufficient (resource 7). This makes it a sustainable option because they are likely to be able to thrive alone, this is good because it means that they will not need to borrow money, leaving an unsustainable economy and using their own resources will generate more profit and is likely to remain that way. Finally option 2 will also provide lots of employment to Brazilians. This is sustainable because more employment contributes to a better economy. Give a reason for rejecting each of the other three options: I rejected option 1 because using the tax payer’s money for an unpredictable amount of time is not sustainable. This is because you may be pumping large amounts into something for years. It would also mean tax money couldn’t go into education or health care. I rejected option 3 because having an MNC running the plant, for example Audi, would mean that most of the profit would be sent to an MEDC elsewhere. It may also 10 SDME 2015 mean that Brazil will be exploited as in order to attract MNC’s, NICs often have to offer ‘tax holidays’ and ‘cheap labour’ (resource 2). Furthermore, some MNCs can cause huge environmental problems (such as Coca‐Cola, as show in resource 6). I also rejected option 4 because they may not be able to see off the whole site, due to there being an economic recession. This means that fewer jobs will be created than lost and the government will lose income. As a result, this could have a negative multiplier effect Suggest a disadvantage of your chosen option: Option 2 however does have a disadvantage, being that Brazil will not be able to offer the same incentives as large MNCs. For example, they may not be able to afford the higher wages to pay the staff and they may not be able to invest in new machinery and infrastructure in the future. Select one of your rejected options and give a possible advantage of this option: Although I did not choose option 3, it does have some advantages. MNC’s often educate and provide healthcare for employees and their families. This means that if the workforce is more educated, they are likely to get better paid jobs. In addition, if the employees are given healthcare by the MNC, Brazil will not have to pay for healthcare for these employees, which would cost them more money. 11 SDME 2015 Think sustainability! There are a huge number of options the examiner might give you and it is important that you assess the sustainability of each option. Here are some questions to get you thinking about how sustainable an option might be…. 1. How long will it last? 2. What is its environmental impact, eg burning fossil fuels or renewable energies? 3. What is the cost? 4. Is it an eyesore (visual pollution)? 5. What is its impact on wildlife? 6. Does it benefit local people, eg employment opportunities? 7. What is its impact on economic activities, eg tourism? 8. Is the technology appropriate for the level of development, LEDC or MEDCS? 9. Does it involve education, eg teaching people skills to be able to improve their own life, eg contraception, unsafe water treatment, fuel efficiency? 10. What is the impact on future generations? 11. Does it have an immediate impact or will it take years to see the benefits? 12. Does it encourage healthy lifestyles, eg cycle lanes? 13. Does it need a lot of maintenance? 14. Will it improve the health of people, eg a health centre opening? 15. Are resources sourced locally to benefit local people and air pollution caused by transport? 16. Does it benefit the people in most need, eg aid in a disaster zone? 17. Does it use resources faster than they can be replaced, eg no trees for future generations? 18. Does it promote a "safe" environment for people, eg toilet facilities for women in LEDCs or CCTV in communal social areas in MEDCs? 12