nea coursework examples

75+ A-Level Geography Investigation NEA Ideas

In A-Level by Think Student Editor January 5, 2021 Leave a Comment

A-Level coursework is one of the most interesting and stressful parts of an A-Level course: you finally get to have control over what you research and write about…but where do you start? An NEA or Independent Investigation is completely your own research report. Besides all the formatting questions, the first challenge you have to overcome is figuring out what question to research. Where do you begin? How do you filter out all your ideas into just one question?

Don’t worry if you don’t have an idea for your NEA straight away – I definitely didn’t! This article is here to give you some inspiration for the subject for your A-Level Geography NEA.

What is an A-Level Geography NEA?

A-Level Geography NEA is the coursework part of Geography A-Level . It’s a compulsory part of the A-Level, meaning that it’s graded against a set of assessment objectives, like your exams. For your NEA coursework, you choose your own question based on either physical or human geography .

Physical geography NEA ideas could relate to the coast, glaciers, or other areas of the environment. Typically, NEA questions will relate to a topic you’ve studied as part of the exam portion of your A-Level, but they don’t have to be.

Human geography NEA ideas could relate to urban areas, migration, or globalisation and other human development areas. Most of the time, they’ll be focused on your local area , but it doesn’t have to be if you feel like you’d be too restricted!

Linked here are the guidelines for A-Level Geography NEA for all four UK exam boards: AQA , OCR , Pearson Edexcel , and WJEC Eduqas .

What does an A-Level Geography NEA look like?

The exam boards, and your school, allow you to compile your research findings however you like . You can include graphs, charts, photos, in any colour or order you want.

However, there will probably be some rough guidelines, as an NEA is expected to be formatted like a typical research paper . Graphs, charts, and photos should be labelled, and you should use a sensible font and letter size.

The Royal Geographical Society has a student guide to completing an NEA, linked here .

How long is an A-Level Geography NEA?

Generally, there is no official cap on the word count for an NEA report, but most exam boards and schools suggest 3000-4000 words. 2000 words is generally thought to be too little, and anything above 6,000 words is considered too much.

The reason for an official cap on an NEA word count is that everyone’s research is unique, and you’ll have different things to say than other people, which may take more or less words.

My A-Level Geography NEA was 5,000 words, so even though it was a little over the recommended word limit, it was still allowed. When writing your NEA, try and keep your sentences clear and concise.

How much of A-Level Geography is an NEA worth?

For the four UK exam boards, an A-Level Geography NEA is worth 20% of your A-Level. This may not seem like a lot relative to the amount of work you’ll put into an NEA, but it’s worth more than you might think. It essentially replaces one exam.

It’s also worth it for the experience, as many of the formatting and writing techniques you pick up during an NEA can be taken into higher education.

This Think Student article has a list of the most respected A-Level subjects, of which A-Level Geography is a part!

What makes a good A-Level Geography NEA idea?

An NEA is a very individual experience, and what makes an idea “good” is also quite personal . It’s a good idea to pick a question based on something you’re actually interested in, because your enthusiasm will show through your work and boost your investigation that much more.

“Good” NEA ideas are usually the ones that allow you to use several different data sets . This means you aren’t just collecting one type of data, and you have to use different data presentations and a wide range of analysis.

Similarly, your NEA idea should be broad enough to explore a few different ideas, but also be focused in one particular area , e.g. coastal management. NEA ideas are usually either a topic from physical geography or human geography, but it can sometimes be a mix of both.

A-Level Geography NEA ideas

Below is a list of ideas for your A-Level Geography NEA, split into physical and human geography. These are just ideas to get you thinking about what you want to write about – your NEA title needs to be formatted as a question.

I hope these ideas have given you inspiration. Good luck writing your NEA!

A Level NEA

Please select the page that you wish to complete. Please note that these are generic pages, there may be some that are not relevant to your project or you may add additional pages of your own!

Please watch the guidance video blow that briefly explains why each step of the NEA is required. This will help you to understand their purpose and how they influence the sequence of your project.

Sections A&B (30 marks): Identify, investigate & outline design possibilities

Please watch the following video that explains how you should approach using the following resources so that you only include relevant work in your project portfolio.

Sections C&D (50 marks): Design & make prototypes that are fit for purpose

Sections E (20 marks): Analysing and evaluating

9705 D&T coursework examples

Topic outline.

A range of coursework submissions (for both components) for this Syllabus have been included here along with a breakdown of the marks awarded, and a moderator commentary explaining how the marks were decided. You should always refer to the syllabus for specific details about the requirements for and assessment of coursework. Additionally, the Cambridge Handbook sets out the process and requirements for submitting coursework for moderation by Cambridge International.

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• Select activity Component 4 Component 4

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AQA - GCSE PE NEA Coursework - Netball Exemplar

Subject: Physical education

Age range: 14-16

Resource type: Assessment and revision

Last updated

26 May 2023

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A complete, top scoring, exemplar for the AQA GCSE PE coursework task. This exemplar uses the sport of Netball and is written by a teacher to showcase a top grade and meet all of the assessment objectives given in the specification marking grid.

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GCSE Physical Education

• Specification
• Planning resources
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• Assessment resources
• Introduction
• Specification at a glance
• 3.1 The human body and movement in physical activity and sport
• 3.2 Socio-cultural influences and wellbeing in physical activity and sport
• Scheme of assessment

Non-exam assessment administration

• General administration

The non-exam assessment (NEA) for this specification is split into two strands: a practical performance, and an analysis and evaluation of a performance. .

Visit aqa.org.uk/8582 for detailed information about all aspects of NEA administration.

The head of the school or college is responsible for making sure that NEA is conducted in line with our instructions and Joint Council for Qualifications (JCQ) instructions.

Supervising and authenticating

To meet Ofqual’s qualification level conditions and requirements:

• students must sign the Candidate record form (CRF) to confirm that the work submitted is their own
• all teachers who have marked a student’s work must sign the declaration of authentication on the CRF. This is to confirm that the work is solely that of the student concerned and was conducted under the conditions laid down by this specification
• teachers must ensure that a CRF is provided with each student ’s work.

Teachers must ensure there is sufficient direct supervision so the work submitted can be confidently authenticated as belonging to the student concerned. Further guidance on supervising and authenticating student work for the performance assessment (practical performance) and the performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation) aspects of NEA is provided below.

If a student receives additional assistance which is acceptable within the guidelines for this specification, you should award a mark that represents the student’s unaided achievement. You must record the support the student received on the CRF and sign the authentication statement. If the statement is not signed, there is no evidence that the work has been properly authenticated and AQA will set the associated marks to zero.

Performance assessment (practical performance)

Where practical performances have been carried out within the school/college, students must be under direct supervision and the work must be marked by the teacher. The teacher can then be confident the performances are authentic.

Work may be completed outside of school/college without direct supervision for offsite activities and/or activities that cannot be replicated live at moderation. Where an assessed activity has been performed outside of school/college (see Moderation for more detail) an audiovisual recording of that performance must be made. To identify the performance, the student must provide the following information at the start of the recording:

• five digit centre number
• candidate number
• candidate name
• component code

To ensure the authenticity of the performance, the student’s face must be clearly visible at the start of the recording. If the activity involves multiple competitors, eg team games, the student must stipulate how they can be identified on the recording, eg by a coloured bib or a shirt number. This ensures that the teacher can be confident the performance on the recording is authentic and is by the student. The teacher must use this evidence to mark the student in that activity.

Performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation)

Students don’t need to be supervised at all times when completing this work. Work may be completed outside of school/college without direct supervision, provided the teacher is confident the work produced is the student’s own and marks the student’s work. Teachers must be sufficiently familiar with the student’s general standard to judge whether the piece of work submitted is within his/her capabilities. Familiarity with the student’s general standard will be obtained over the duration of the course of study.

Where this work has been carried out in written format, students must insert the following details on each page of work as a header or footer:

• component code.

Where this work has been carried out in verbal format, and been evidenced via an audiovisual recording (see Moderation for more detail), the student must provide the following information at the start of the recording:

To ensure authenticity of the work, the student’s face must be clearly visible throughout the recording. This ensures the teacher can be confident the performance on the recording is authentic and that of the student.

Avoiding malpractice

Please inform your students of the AQA regulations concerning malpractice. They must not:

• submit work that is not their own
• lend work to other students
• allow other students access to, or use of, their own independently-sourced source material
• include work copied directly from books, the internet or other sources without acknowledgement
• submit work that is word-processed by a third person without acknowledgement
• include inappropriate, offensive or obscene material.

These actions constitute malpractice and a penalty will be given (for example, disqualification).

If you identify malpractice before the student signs the declaration of authentication, you don’t need to report it to us. Please deal with it in accordance with your school or college’s internal procedures. We expect schools and colleges to treat such cases very seriously.

If you identify malpractice after the student has signed the declaration of authentication, the head of your school or college must submit full details of the case to us at the earliest opportunity. Please complete the form JCQ/M1 , available from the JCQ website at jcq.org.uk

You must record details of any work which is not the student’s own on the front of the (CRF).

You should consult your exams officer about these procedures.

Teacher standardisation

We will provide support for using the marking criteria and developing appropriate tasks through teacher standardisation.

For further information about teacher standardisation visit our website at aqa.org.uk/8582

In the following situations teacher standardisation is essential. We will send you an invitation to complete teacher standardisation if:

• moderation from the previous year indicates a serious misinterpretation of the requirements
• a significant adjustment was made to the marks in the previous year
• your school or college is new to this specification.

For further support and advice please speak to your adviser. Email your subject team at [email protected] for details of your adviser.

Internal standardisation

You must ensure that you have consistent marking standards for all students. One person must manage this process and they must sign the Centre declaration sheet to confirm that internal standardisation has taken place.

Internal standardisation may involve:

• all teachers marking some sample pieces of work to identify differences in marking standards
• discussing any differences in marking at a training meeting for all teachers involved
• referring to reference and archive material, such as previous work or examples from our teacher standardisation.

To meet Ofqual’s qualification and subject criteria, you must show clearly how marks have been awarded against the assessment criteria in this specification.

Your comments will help the moderator see, as precisely as possible, where you think the students have met the assessment criteria.

You must record your comments on the Candidate record form .

Submitting marks

You must check that the correct marks are written on the Candidate record form and that the total is correct.

The deadline for submitting the total mark for each student is given at aqa.org.uk/keydates

Factors affecting individual students

Occasional absence: you should be able to accept the occasional absence of students by making sure that they have the chance to make up what they have missed. You may organise an alternative supervised session for students who were absent at the time you originally arranged.

Students not available for moderation: where a student that has been requested to form part of the moderation sample is unavailable for the moderation visit, then the moderator will select an alternative student to make up the sample. The school/college must ensure that the replacement student is available for moderation. This will be in the form of a live performance as part of the visit or through audiovisual evidence. If it is via audiovisual evidence, the school/college must ensure that this evidence is available on the moderation day. The replacement student must have the same mark (or a mark as close as possible to the same mark), as the student originally selected in the sample.

Short term and long term injury: where students are injured for a short period of time, then after they have recovered they should make up what they have missed. If the student is suffering a long term injury, then audiovisual evidence for the performance can be provided, if available and if it meets the authenticity requirements. If there is no audiovisual evidence available, the school can apply for special consideration through AQA. In these circumstances students must complete a minimum of 50% of the overall assessment for the qualification and all of the assessment objectives in the NEA must be covered.

Lost work: if work is lost you must tell us how and when it was lost and who was responsible, using our special consideration online service at aqa.org.uk/eaqa

Special help: where students need special help which goes beyond normal learning support, please use the CRF to tell us so that this help can be taken into account during moderation.

Students who move schools: students who move from one school or college to another during the course sometimes need additional help to meet the requirements. How you deal with this depends on when the move takes place. If it happens early in the course, the new school or college should be responsible for the work. If it happens late in the course, it may be possible to arrange for the moderator to assess the work as a student who was ‘Educated Elsewhere’.

For advice and guidance about arrangements for any of your students, please email us as early as possible at [email protected]

Keeping students' work

Students’ work must be kept under secure conditions from the time that it is marked, with completed CRF. After the moderation period and the deadline for Enquiries about Results (or once any enquiry is resolved) you may return the work to students.

Performance assessment (practical performance) will be moderated by visiting moderation. The performance analysis assessment will be moderated by post. This will be after the deadline date for submission of marks for all assessments. An indication of the timeline for moderation can be found at aqa.org.uk in 'Teaching guide: NEA'.

At the moderation visit, the moderator will see a sample of student performances. The sample will be made up of students across a range of marks and across a range of activities offered within a school/college and will be selected by the moderator. Schools will send the marks for all of their students, in all three of their activities, to the moderator no later than two weeks prior to the arranged visit. This can be done electronically via email or in hard copy through the post. The moderator will use these marks to select a representative sample. The criteria that the moderator will apply when selecting the sample are:

• the top scoring student overall
• the lowest (non-zero) scoring student overall, in their best activity
• a number of students across a range of marks in between
• and across a range of activities.

Moderators will only see students that form part of the sample in one of their three activities for the purposes of moderation. Ensuring this spread of marks within the sample, across a range of activities, will be the driver behind sampling decisions.

It is the responsibility of the school/college to ensure that the visit is appropriately organised in such a way that students have every opportunity to replicate the level of performance at the time when the mark was awarded by the teacher (students’ performances should be marked at a level at which they can perform consistently, so that replication of that level of performance at moderation is realistic). Performances at moderation must clearly show how the student gained the marks awarded by the teacher.

It is the responsibility of the school/college to ensure that an audiovisual recording is made of the performances evidenced at the moderation visit. They must ensure that the footage is clear and of sufficient quality to be adequately reviewed.

For any activities that cannot be replicated live at moderation, schools/colleges must ensure that audiovisual evidence is available. This is to ensure that this work can be moderated if chosen as part of the sample and as a way of authenticating the evidence generated by the student. It is the responsibility of the school/college to ensure that the footage is clear and of sufficient quality to be moderated. It needs to be of sufficient length to show how the student has gained the marks awarded by the teacher. It is the responsibility of the school to ensure that facilities are available at the visit to view any activities that have been evidenced by audiovisual footage and form part of the moderation sample. Where audiovisual evidence is not available for a student assessment in an activity that has been included in the moderation sample, and the activity cannot be replicated live at moderation, the student will receive a mark of zero for their assessment in that activity. Further instructions about filming moderation and activities that cannot be replicated at moderation can be found at aqa.org.uk in 'Teaching guide: NEA'.

At no time during the visit will the moderator discuss marks with teachers/students or give feedback on the accuracy of marking within a school/college. Schools/colleges will only find out the outcome of moderation on results day.

At the end of the visit, the school will provide the moderator with a copy of the audiovisual evidence from the moderation visit and any other audiovisual evidence of activities that formed part of the sample. This is to allow for the completion of all relevant enquiries about results and appeals. If the footage is not clear and of sufficient quality to be adequately reviewed, then a re-moderation will not be possible and the outcome of the original moderation will be upheld.

Before students embark on an activity, which will in due course be assessed, schools/colleges must ensure that there will be no obstacles to the filming of that activity, for example if a swimming pool prohibits filming for child protection reasons or if it is impossible to obtain footage of sufficient quality when filming a student climbing a rock face. If it is not possible to appropriately film an activity for any reason, then students cannot use it as part of their assessment. Students must select a different activity to use as part of their assessment.

The moderator sees a sample of student work. The sample will be made up of work from the same sample of students seen for the performance assessment (practical performance).

The performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation) can be completed in either written or verbal format. This work must be evidenced, regardless of the format chosen. If it has been carried out in written format, then written evidence of the work must be available. If it has been carried out in verbal format, then an audiovisual recording of the student completing the task must be made. It is the responsibility of the school/college to ensure that the footage is clear and audible. If it is not, you may jeopardise the moderation process and are liable to have an adverse effect on the marks of some or all students. It is also the responsibility of the school to ensure that all student work is evidenced. If a student’s work is not evidenced and available for moderation, the student will receive a mark of zero for this aspect of the NEA. Further instructions about filming the performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation) can be found at aqa.org.uk in 'Teaching guide: NEA'. If the work is not available for a student that has formed part of the sample, either in written format or in audiovisual format where the work has been undertaken verbally, the student will receive a mark of zero for this aspect of NEA.

School and college consortia

If you are in a consortium of schools or colleges with joint teaching arrangements (where students from different schools and colleges have been taught together but entered through the school or college at which they are on roll), you must let us know by:

• filling in the Application for Centre Consortium Arrangements for centre-assessed work , which is available from the JCQ website jcq.org.uk
• appointing a consortium co-ordinator who can speak to us on behalf of all schools and colleges in the consortium. If there are different co-ordinators for different specifications, a copy of the form must be sent in for each specification.

We will allocate the same moderator to all schools and colleges in the consortium and treat the students as a single group for moderation.

All the work must be available at the lead school or college.

After moderation

We will return your students’ performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation) work to you after the exams. You will also receive a report when the results are issued, which will give feedback on the appropriateness of the tasks set, interpretation of the marking criteria and how students performed in general. Schools/colleges will need to make written performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation) work available to AQA in the event of requesting a re-moderation.

We will retain the audio visual recording of the performances seen at moderation, along with any audiovisual evidence for activities that could not be replicated live at moderation but formed part of the sample. This will be for a sufficient period of time to allow for the completion of all relevant enquiries about results and appeals.

To meet Ofqual requirements, as well as for awarding, archiving or standardisation purposes, we may need to keep some of your students’ work. We will let you know if we need to do this.

Schools/colleges will only find out the outcome of moderation on results day. Where marking is deemed to be too lenient/severe at moderation, an adjustment to all student marks will be made by AQA. This will be across the performance assessment (practical performance) and the performance analysis assessment (analysis and evaluation).