Which topic carries the most marks in the QCE Geography external exam?

Global population change carries 100.0% of the marks across the 6 QCAA papers from 2020 to 2025, because it is the only topic these papers assess. The separation is at dot-point level, where 4.2.6 carries 35.6% of paper marks.

How are marks split between question types in the QCE Geography exam?

Short answer carries 65.1% of the marks and extended response carries 34.9% of the marks, measured across 6 papers and 284 marks from 2020 to 2025.

Has the topic balance changed in recent QCE Geography papers?

No. Comparing the 2020 to 2022 papers with the 2023 to 2025 papers, the largest movement in any topic's share was 0.0 percentage points, which is too small to plan revision around.

How many past papers is this QCE Geography analysis based on?

6 QCAA external papers from 2020 to 2025, covering 37 questions and 284 marks. 7.7% of those marks carry no dot-point mapping and sit outside the percentages.

QCE Geography most tested topics

Across the six QCAA Geography external papers from 2020 to 2025, Global population change carries 100.0% of the marks. At dot-point level 4.2.6 carries 35.6% of paper marks, and zero of the 10 dot points that the board assesses externally have not appeared in one of these papers. Every percentage below covers the 92.3% of marks that map to a syllabus dot point.

Computed from 6 QCAA Geography external papers, 2020 to 2025: 37 questions, 45 question parts and 284 marks.

Unit, topic and dot-point shares below are of the 262 marks that map to a dot point, so each of those tables adds to 100%. 36 of the 45 parts are assessed against more than one dot point, and their 241 marks are divided evenly between the dot points they cover.

What these papers are

Year	Exam	Questions	Marks
2025	Exam	6	42
2024	Exam	6	41
2023	Exam	6	47
2022	Exam	6	51
2021	Exam	7	55
2020	Exam	6	48

Marks by unit

Unit	Share of marks
Unit 4: Managing population change	100.0%

Marks by topic

Topic	Share of marks	Papers it appears in	Years
Global population change	100.0%	6 of 6	6 of 6

Marks by dot point

Dot-point numbers and wording are QCAA's own. Where a dot point is written as a list, its items run together here separated by semicolons.

Dot point	Content	Topic	Share of marks	Papers
4.2.6	Analyse geographic data represented in maps and graphs to infer how the patterns and trends represent specific challenges at global, regional and local scales	Global population change	35.6%	6 of 6
4.2.9	Conduct a case study to identify the impacts on places of origin (e.g. declining populations, gender imbalance, employment opportunities, decline in agricultural production) and places of destination (e.g. urbanisation, ghettoisation, resource availability) as a result of internal or international migrations. As part of this case study, students should - explain the geographical processes that have resulted in migration (internal and/or international) to the place under investigation - manipulate, adapt and transform data, using spatial and information and communication technologies to represent and describe the geographic patterns and trends in population flows for the place under investigation - analyse data and information to explain the changing characteristics of populations for the place under investigation as a result of migration (internal and/or international), e.g. population growth rates and population density, and the changing characteristics of the place/places of origin, e.g. declining populations, change age/sex structure - apply geographical understanding from their analysis to identify the impacts on places of origin (e.g. workforce structure, population momentum) and the impacts on the place of destination (e.g. ghettoisation, urbanisation, cultural and ethnic diversity) being investigated - identify and describe current or future responses to population change (e.g. national or regional strategies and initiatives, non-government responses, international or governmental agreements)	Global population change	20.0%	6 of 6
4.2.1	Explain global population characteristics, focusing on demographic concepts of the rate of natural change, including birth rate, death rate, infant mortality rate, fertility rate, life expectancy and age/sex structure	Global population change	8.8%	5 of 6
4.2.5	Recognise current population growth, distribution and density and represent global population patterns in maps and graphs, using spatial and information and communication technologies and identify relationships and implications for people	Global population change	7.1%	5 of 6
4.2.10	Communicate understanding using appropriate forms of geographical communication	Global population change	6.1%	4 of 6
4.2.4	Explain how population trends and characteristics have been described over time using models (e.g. Demographic Transition Model; Rostow’s Stages of Growth Model; Wallerstein’s World-Systems theory) and decide whether these are still applicable to describe contemporary and projected population changes	Global population change	6.1%	3 of 6
4.2.8	Explain the causes of international migrations, both forced and voluntary, as a result of human factors (including social, cultural, political and economic factors such as conflict, labour supply and demand, family reunion, religious or cultural persecution, poverty, food security, governance, educational opportunities), and/or geographic and environmental processes (e.g. large-scale flooding, drought or ecological breakdown), and climate change	Global population change	6.1%	5 of 6
4.2.2	Explain the demographic processes that cause variations in the spatial distributions of global population characteristics, including population momentum	Global population change	4.4%	5 of 6
4.2.7	Explain the causes of internal migrations, both forced and voluntary, as a result of human factors (including social, cultural, political and economic factors such as conflict, labour supply and demand, family reunion, religious or cultural persecution, poverty, food security, governance) and/or geographical and environmental processes (e.g. large-scale flooding or drought, ecological breakdown)	Global population change	3.0%	1 of 6
4.2.3	Explain changes in world population distribution, including internal and international migration since the 1700s, and the projected changes in the 21st century	Global population change	2.9%	3 of 6

These ten dot points are every dot point these 6 papers have assessed and carry 100.1% of the paper marks, and 0 of the 10 externally assessable dot points have not been assessed in any of them. Content that has not appeared is still examinable.

What has moved between papers

No topic's share moved by more than 3.0 percentage points between the 2020 to 2022 papers and the 2023 to 2025 papers. The largest movement was 0.0 points, which is inside the range two papers a year produce by chance, so nothing here is a trend to revise around.

How the papers are built

Short answer carries 65.1% of the marks across these 6 papers.

Question type	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
Short answer	65.1%	185	37
Extended response	34.9%	99	8

Verb	Share of marks	Marks	Parts
make	57.7%	164	14
analyse	53.2%	151	18
explain	41.2%	117	22
identify	12.7%	36	7
describe	10.9%	31	6
construct	5.3%	15	3
provide	3.2%	9	2
create	2.1%	6	1

What these percentages do not tell you

Where to practise

Every topic above links to its own page of real QCAA questions with marking criteria and average scores attached: Global population change. For the full question bank start at QCE Geography.

Syllabus and assessment material referenced in this guide is © State of Queensland (Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority), licensed under CC BY 4.0. See our QCAA licensing notice. AusGrader is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the QCAA.