3.2.1.7 Global systems: quantitative and qualitative skills Quiz: AQA Geography, Unit 2

The 20 questions

1. The spec requires students to engage with quantitative and qualitative approaches across the global systems theme. Which example is a quantitative approach?

   • Interviewing a community about its experience of trade and how it has changed their daily working lives
   • Reading a poem about a local market and considering the mood and atmosphere it conveys to visitors
   • Analysing trade volume data over time using a graph
   • Describing the mood of a town centre through observations of the people, sounds and colours present

2. Which example is a qualitative approach in global systems study?

   • Interviewing workers about their experiences of working in global supply chains
   • Measuring the mean wage of workers in a factory over a single calendar year using payroll data
   • Plotting trade flows on a choropleth map of values to show which countries export the most goods
   • Calculating the total value of exports from a country across each of the last ten years of records

3. Which technique is useful for showing the spatial pattern of trade flows?

   • A flow map with lines whose width reflects trade volume
   • A written report with no diagrams, which describes trade flows in prose across several pages of text
   • A pie chart of a single country's exports, which shows the share of each product within its export total
   • A list of trading partners without any spatial reference, which records names but not locations or distances

4. A table shows a country's exports rising from 20 billion to 30 billion over five years. What is the percentage increase?

   • 30 per cent, which would be the increase if the new value were used as the base for the calculation
   • 50 per cent
   • 10 per cent, which would be the increase if the exports had risen by 10 billion as a percentage of 100 billion
   • 150 per cent, which would be the increase if the exports had grown to three times their original value

5. Which measure best shows the relative importance of a trading partner?

   • The share of total trade with that partner
   • The partner's distance from the equator alone, which determines how quickly goods can be shipped there
   • The number of letters in the partner's name, which is a simple way of comparing countries on a list
   • The partner's flag colour, which is a symbol of its national identity and recognised by all trading nations

6. Which statement about evaluating data sources in global systems is most accurate?

   • Data sources never need to be checked, since they are published by governments and international agencies
   • Data is always biased in the same direction, so all sources can be treated as equally misleading
   • Students should consider the reliability and possible bias of data sources when interpreting them
   • All data sources are equally reliable, since official statistics and informal records are always consistent with one another

7. Which of these is a quantitative indicator of globalisation?

   • The colour of a country's national anthem, which is recorded in the official records of the state
   • The number of poems written about trade in the national literary magazines published in a given year
   • Foreign direct investment as a share of gross domestic product
   • The number of tourists who visited a single museum during the summer months of the tourist season

8. Which combination best represents a mixed-methods approach to studying globalisation?

   • Using only interviews with no data, so that the findings rely entirely on the accounts of those interviewed
   • Using only statistics with no context, so that the numbers are presented without any explanation of their meaning
   • Using only maps with no text, so that the findings are communicated purely through visual symbols
   • Combining trade statistics with interviews of local producers

9. A researcher wants to show how a global commodity affects producers in several countries. Which approach is most suitable?

   • Counting the number of volcanoes near the producers, which affects the fertility of the soils they farm
   • Studying only the architecture of the capital cities, which reflects the wealth and history of each country
   • Combining price and trade data with interviews of producers across the countries
   • Measuring only the weather in each country, which is the main factor determining the output of the crop

10. Which statement best describes the purpose of using quantitative and qualitative approaches together?

    • They give identical results and so one is unnecessary, which is why most studies use only one approach
    • Qualitative approaches are never useful in geography, which relies entirely on measurement and mapping
    • Together they give a fuller understanding of both patterns and the experiences behind them
    • They are used only to confuse the reader, since numbers and words cannot be used to describe the same thing

11. Which measure would be most useful for comparing the economic size of two countries?

    • The number of sports clubs in each country, which reflects the level of leisure participation in the population
    • Gross domestic product per capita or total GDP
    • The average height of the population, which is an indicator of nutrition and health in each country
    • The number of national parks in each country, which reflects the amount of land set aside for conservation

12. A pie chart shows that 60 per cent of a country's exports go to one partner. Which conclusion is most supported?

    • The country has no trade with any other partner, since all of its exports are sent to a single destination
    • The partner is unimportant to the country's trade, since a majority of its exports go elsewhere
    • The country is highly dependent on that partner for export markets
    • The country's exports are evenly distributed among all partners, which is shown by the size of the largest segment

13. Which evaluation of a data set is most appropriate for a study of trade?

    • Ignoring the time period of the data, since trade is always the same from one year to the next
    • Accepting any data set without checking its content, since official trade figures are always accurate
    • Choosing data only because it supports a preferred view, which is the most efficient way to produce a clear conclusion
    • Checking whether the data covers the same time period and uses consistent definitions

14. Which data type would be most appropriate for studying the flows of people across borders?

    • Data on coral bleaching events, which record the temperature stress experienced by reefs
    • Migration statistics recording numbers of migrants by origin and destination
    • Geological maps of the seabed, which show the depth and composition of the ocean floor
    • Soil profiles from a single site, which record the layers of soil in one location

15. Which of these best illustrates a qualitative method of analysing global systems?

    • Calculating the mean of a set of export values across several years of trade records
    • Plotting a scatter diagram of trade and GDP to see whether the two variables are correlated
    • Measuring the length of shipping routes between ports using a map and a ruler
    • Analysing documents such as trade agreements and their wording

16. Which approach best helps evaluate the reliability of a global trade statistic?

    • Relying on a single source that has never been checked, which is the most efficient approach to research
    • Ignoring its methods completely, since the method used to collect the data does not affect the result
    • Comparing it with other independent sources and noting its methods
    • Accepting it without checking its origin, since published statistics are always produced to a high standard

17. A student finds that trade volume rises as tariffs fall. Which statement is the best interpretation?

    • Tariffs definitely caused all the change in trade, since no other factor can affect the volume of trade in a period
    • Trade always rises whenever tariffs fall with no exceptions, so the relationship is a universal law of economics
    • The data suggest a relationship, but other factors may also explain the change
    • The relationship proves that tariffs have no effect on trade, since the two variables are unconnected

18. Which skill is most important when interpreting a flow map of global trade?

    • Ignoring the legend of the map, since the symbols are self-explanatory to any reader
    • Identifying the colour of the sea, which shows the depth of the water along the shipping routes
    • Reading the scale and understanding what the line widths represent
    • Counting the number of ports drawn without reference to the data, which is the main purpose of the map

19. Which statement about the 'quantitative and qualitative skills' theme is most accurate?

    • Students need only qualitative approaches, since numbers cannot describe the complexity of human geography
    • Students need only quantitative approaches, since qualitative evidence is too subjective to be used in geography
    • Students do not need any data skills, since the theme is concerned entirely with the description of places
    • Students must use both approaches across the theme as a whole

20. Which of these is an appropriate use of geospatial data in a global systems study?

    • Measuring the height of local trees in a city park, which is unrelated to any trade or global flow
    • Mapping the location of trade partners and the flows between them
    • Recording the colour of clothing worn by traders at a market in a single morning
    • Recording the number of songs in a playlist, which is a personal preference rather than a spatial pattern

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