Atlas Skills
Latitude and Longitude
Describing Distribution/Patterns
You need to be able to describe distributions and patterns shown across maps of different scales.
Distribution - the way in which something is spread across an area/location
Top Tips for describing patterns
1) Think TEA
Trend - overall pattern
Evidence - support with data/examples
Anomaly - areas that don't fit pattern?
2) Comparison - Highest /lowest?
3) Compass directions
Example answer
Life expectancy is highest in continents such as North America, Australasia and Europe (all HICs)with a life expectancy of over 80 in Germany and UK. However, it is lowest in the African continent, particularly central Africa. For example Chad has a life expectancy of below 55 years. Despite this, the north of Africa does have higher life expectancies in countries such as Algeria.
Locational Knowledge
As geographers, you will be expected to have basic locational knowledge of where places are - a minimum of continents and oceans. As shown in the example answer, you will need to refer to these so spend some time looking at a map of the world.
