If you are taking Cambridge A Level Geography (syllabus 9696) at a school in Ghana, your own country gives you better case studies than most textbooks do. The Volta, the Accra plains and the eastern coastline sit right on top of the syllabus content for rivers, water management, coasts and urban change. This guide covers the syllabus you will sit from 2027, what the command words ask for, how to write the 20-mark essays, and four Ghanaian case studies with sourced facts you can build on.

Which 9696 syllabus you are sitting

Cambridge publishes two versions of the syllabus on its 9696 syllabus page: 2025–2026 and 2027–2029. The syllabus year is the year you take the exam, so anyone sitting AS or A Level in 2027 uses the 2027–2029 syllabus.

Paper	Content	Time and marks	Weighting
Paper 1 Physical Geography	Hydrology and river hazards; atmosphere and climate change; earth processes and mass movements	1 h 30 min, 60 marks	50% of AS, 25% of A Level
Paper 2 Human Geography	Population and migration; water resources and management; urban areas and management	1 h 30 min, 60 marks	50% of AS, 25% of A Level
Paper 3 Global Environments	Choose two: Tropical, Coastal, Hazardous, Arid	1 h 30 min, 60 marks	25% of A Level
Paper 4 Global Themes	Choose two: Climate change impacts and governance, Environmental issues and management, Trade, aid and tourism, Disease and geography	1 h 30 min, 60 marks	25% of A Level

On Papers 1 and 2, Section A (45 marks) has one structured question on each of the three topics, and Section B (15 marks) is one essay from a choice of three. On Papers 3 and 4, each chosen topic has a compulsory 10-mark structured question based on resources in an insert, plus one 20-mark essay from a choice of two. All four papers are written exams; there is no coursework.

What changed for 2027

Cambridge lists these changes on the syllabus page:

• There is one new compulsory topic at AS Level in Paper 2 (Human Geography), and both AS papers now split 45 marks (Section A) and 15 marks (Section B).
• Paper 4 gains two new options, Climate change impacts and governance and Disease and geography, replacing Production, location and change and Economic transition.
• Climate change is more explicit in topic titles, with more content on its impacts.
• The marking grids for all essay questions have been revised.

If your school taught you from older resources, check every case study against the new topic list. Past papers from 2026 and earlier are still useful practice for most physical topics, but the Paper 4 options and essay weightings have moved.

Command words and exam technique for 9696

The 2027–2029 syllabus defines the command words examiners use. The ones that decide your grade:

Command word	What it means (Cambridge definition)	What to do
Describe	State the points of a topic, give characteristics and main features	Use figures from the resource; no explanation needed
Explain	Set out purposes or reasons, make relationships clear, say why and/or how, with evidence	Each point needs a “because” and a link
Suggest	Apply knowledge to situations where there is a range of valid responses	Give plausible reasons for an unfamiliar place
Compare	Identify or comment on similarities and/or differences	Write comparative sentences (“whereas”, “both”)
Assess	Make an informed judgement	Weigh factors, then decide
Evaluate	Judge the quality, importance, amount or value of something	Weigh success and failure, then conclude

You will also see “How far do you agree?” and “To what extent…?”. These are judgement questions in the same family as Assess.

The weightings explain why technique matters so much at A Level. According to the syllabus, evaluation (AO3) is 12% of each AS paper but about 40% of Papers 3 and 4. A Paper 3 or 4 essay that describes a case study well but never reaches a supported judgement is capped well below the top band, however much you know.

Three habits that earn evaluation marks:

1. Answer the question in your first two sentences. State your judgement, then spend the essay proving it.
2. Use “it depends on…” with a reason. Success often depends on scale, time period or who you ask (residents, government, fishing communities, investors). The syllabus asks you to evaluate “the impact of different values and attitudes of different groups of people”.
3. Finish with a conclusion that is more than a summary. Say which factor matters most and why, and what would change your view.

Ghana case studies for A Level Geography

The syllabus asks for “detailed specific examples” in several places. Cambridge says they should be real, recent (it recommends 2000 to the present day) and detailed enough to support an extended argument, and that teachers “could choose an example from their home country or region”. The four Ghanaian examples below each match a named requirement in the 2027–2029 syllabus. Your teacher has the final say on which examples you study, and you should add your own detail from class notes and further reading.

1. Lower Volta floods, 2023 (Topic 1.3: a recent river flood)

The syllabus asks for “one recent river flood: prediction and forecasting, causes, impacts on people and the environment and an evaluation of the success of strategies used to manage floods”. The 2023 Akosombo and Kpong spillage covers every part of that.

• Causes: the Volta River Authority (VRA) carried out controlled spillage from the Akosombo and Kpong dams between 15 September and 30 October 2023 because rising water levels threatened the dams’ structural integrity (MyJoyOnline, May 2025).
• Impacts: the UN in Ghana estimated 35,857 people displaced, with North and Central Tongu hardest hit and communities such as Mepe, Battor, Sogakope, Mafi, Adidome and Ada flooded. UNICEF reported destroyed schools and classes held under trees in Mepe (UNICEF Ghana, November 2023). A government-appointed committee’s report counted 1,247 homes, 94 schools and 17 health facilities destroyed (MyJoyOnline, May 2025).
• Evaluation: the committee found the release “technically justified” but faulted “lapses in the procedure and management” of the spillage. It recommended strict flood-zone regulation, defining the flood zone by a 1-in-50-year return period, and better flood forecasting technology (same source).

This links directly to the syllabus content on recurrence intervals, hazard mapping and warnings. A strong essay argues that the dam managed the flood risk to the dam itself while the downstream warning and land-use controls failed.

2. Akosombo and the Volta River Project (Topic 5.3: dams and multipurpose schemes)

Paper 2 asks you to judge the “relative success” of dams, reservoirs and multipurpose river schemes. The Volta River Project is an older example, so use it for context and evaluation rather than as your only recent detail.

• About 80,000 people were moved as Lake Volta filled, and 739 villages were consolidated into 52 resettlement townships. The power was intended to smelt bauxite into aluminium for export through Tema (The Conversation, September 2019).
• The dam’s effects reach the coast. The World Bank’s West Africa Coastal Areas programme records that sediment starvation from the Volta after the dam was built is a major cause of increased erosion at Keta (World Bank WACA case study).

That second point is valuable. Examiners reward essays that show how one intervention creates costs elsewhere in the system.

3. Keta coastline (Topic 8.4: a stretch of coastline and its management)

Coastal environments (Paper 3) require a “detailed specific example of a stretch or stretches of coastline”, covering the issues, hard and soft engineering, and an evaluation. Keta, on Ghana’s eastern coast, is a textbook fit. All facts below come from the World Bank WACA case study.

• Issues: low-lying land, soft sediments and sediment starvation have caused severe erosion and flooding from the sea and from the Keta Lagoon. Sand deficit is estimated at between 2 and 7 million cubic metres a year. Part of the Dutch-built Fort Prinzenstein (1784) is now submerged.
• Strategy: the US$85 million Keta Sea Defence Project ran from 1999 to 2004. It built six groynes averaging 180 m, a revetment, beach fill and a flood-protection berm between Keta and Kedzi, plus lagoon flood-control gates, land reclamation and an 8.3 km link road.
• Evaluation: erosion has greatly reduced and the shoreline between Keta and Kedzi has been stabilised. Down-drift, though, erosion between Kedzi and Hlorve rose from about 3.2 m a year before construction to about 17 m a year afterwards, because the groynes trap the sediment that used to feed those beaches.

That down-drift effect is exactly the kind of evidence that lets you reach a nuanced judgement on hard engineering.

4. Accra and the Odaw basin (Topics 1.3, 6.3 and 12.3)

Accra gives you urban flood risk, solid waste and urban management in one place.

• The 3 June 2015 flood affected about 53,000 people, with damage and losses estimated at US$55 million (MyJoyOnline, May 2023).
• The World Bank-funded Greater Accra Resilient and Integrated Development (GARID) project, worth US$350 million, combines drainage works with solid waste management and community upgrading across the Odaw basin. By June 2026 only 36.3% had been disbursed, dredging of the Odaw channel was about 40% complete, and the project had been extended to 31 December 2027. Its coordinator said flood mitigation targets had not yet been fully achieved (MyJoyOnline, June 2026).
• At Agbogbloshie, the scrap and e-waste site beside the Korle Lagoon, structures were demolished on 1 July 2021 under the “Let’s Make Accra Work” decongestion exercise. Three years later the roughly 80-acre site was reported to be deteriorating, with unauthorised dumping and a planned health facility only just started (Citi Newsroom, June 2024).

Use the Odaw basin for “evaluation of the success of strategies” and Agbogbloshie for Paper 4’s urban environmental degradation example (Topic 12.3.4), where the syllabus asks for causes, attempts at management and an evaluation of restoration.

A worked essay plan

Here is an original Paper 3 style question with a plan built on Keta. It is a Tutopiya illustration of how to structure an answer, not an official question or mark scheme.

Question: “Hard engineering is the most effective way to manage coastal erosion.” With reference to one or more stretches of coastline, how far do you agree? [20]

Part	What to write
Introduction	Define hard and soft engineering. State a judgement: hard engineering is effective locally and in the short term, but its effectiveness depends on how sediment moves along the whole coast.
Paragraph 1	Keta Sea Defence Project: groynes, revetment and beach fill stabilised the Keta–Kedzi shoreline. Quote the US$85 million cost and 1999–2004 dates.
Paragraph 2	Down-drift erosion rising from about 3.2 m to 17 m a year between Kedzi and Hlorve. Explain longshore drift and sediment trapping.
Paragraph 3	Root cause sits inland: sediment starvation linked to the Akosombo Dam. Hard engineering at the coast treats the symptom.
Paragraph 4	Alternatives and who decides: soft engineering such as beach nourishment or managed retreat, and the different views of residents, fishing communities and government.
Conclusion	Agree only partly. Hard engineering protected Keta town, but it is not “most effective” for the coast as a whole unless sediment is managed at the scale of the sediment cell.

Notice that every paragraph ends by linking back to “most effective”. That is where the evaluation marks sit.

Revision plan for the year before your exam

• November to February: finish your case-study sheets. One page each, with dates, figures, stakeholders and a two-line judgement.
• March to April: do timed 10-mark resource questions. Quote data from the insert in every answer.
• April to May: write at least two timed 20-mark essays per optional topic. Mark them against the published levels-based grids your teacher gives you.

The topic notes on the Tutopiya blog cover the syllabus content behind each case study, for example river flood hazards, challenges on the coast and urban pollution and degradation. For a paper-by-paper look at what came up most recently, see the 9696 May/June 2026 past papers breakdown. If you are still choosing between the Cambridge and national routes, our guide to IGCSE vs WASSCE in Ghana compares university entry for both.

What practice costs

Cambridge exams in Ghana are not cheap, and the extra costs add up quickly. For private candidates, the British Council in Ghana publishes per-subject entry fees in its price list for each series. Registering late for the October/November 2026 series added a late fee of GHS 1,324, and very late entry amendments cost GHS 3,247 (British Council Ghana, private candidates). Your school or the British Council has the final word on fees and deadlines for your entry.

Set against that, a year of Tutopiya Premium costs S$50, about GH¢450, roughly a third of that single late fee. It covers every subject on the Learning Portal, so the same subscription works for Geography alongside your other A Levels. (Conversions use the Bank of Ghana rate of GH¢11.64 to the US dollar on 9 November 2026, reported by GNA, and S$1 ≈ US$0.78.)

Start free

• Create a free account on the Tutopiya Learning Portal and open Cambridge A Level Geography 9696 for notes, practice questions by difficulty, quizzes, flashcards and past papers. A large section is free.
• Premium unlocks every subject and curriculum for one price, from S$10 a month (about GH¢90) or S$50 a year (about GH¢450).
• If you want one-to-one help with essay writing, Tutopiya’s online A Level tutors offer a free trial lesson.

Frequently asked questions

Which Cambridge A Level Geography syllabus applies to exams in 2027? +

Exams taken in 2027, 2028 and 2029 use the 9696 syllabus for 2027–2029. Cambridge says the syllabus year is the year in which the exam is taken, so 2026 exams used the 2025–2026 syllabus. If you sat AS Level in 2026 and plan to carry marks forward, check the carry-forward rules with your exams officer.

Can I use Ghanaian case studies in Cambridge A Level Geography? +

Yes. The 9696 syllabus says teachers could choose examples from their home country or region, and that detailed specific examples should be real and preferably from 2000 to the present day. The 2023 Akosombo and Kpong spillage, the Keta Sea Defence Project and the Odaw basin in Accra all fit specific syllabus requirements.

Is the Akosombo Dam too old to use as a case study? +

The dam dates from the 1960s, and the syllabus recommends detailed specific examples from 2000 onwards. Use the dam as background, then build the detail on recent events it shaped, such as the 2023 spillage on the Lower Volta or erosion at Keta, which the World Bank links to sediment starvation after the dam was built.

What are the Paper 3 and Paper 4 options in 9696 from 2027? +

Paper 3 (Global Environments) offers Tropical, Coastal, Hazardous and Arid environments. Paper 4 (Global Themes) offers Climate change impacts and governance, Environmental issues and management, Trade, aid and tourism, and Disease and geography. You answer on two topics in each paper.

How long is each Cambridge A Level Geography paper? +

All four 9696 papers are written exams of 1 hour 30 minutes, each worth 60 marks. Papers 1 and 2 make up the AS Level; Papers 3 and 4 complete the full A Level, each worth 25% of it.

How much of the A Level Geography mark is for evaluation? +

In the 2027–2029 syllabus, evaluation (AO3) carries about 40% of the marks on Papers 3 and 4, compared with 12% on the AS papers. That is why the 20-mark essays need a clear judgement backed by examples, not just description.

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