What skills do I need before starting a geography degree?
Before starting a geography degree, it helps to have curiosity about people, places and environments, clear writing and communication, critical-thinking skills, and basic confidence with numbers, graphs and data. Interest in maps, digital tools such as GIS, research, and fieldwork is also useful, but you can develop these skills during the course.
Key points
- You may study both physical geography and human geography, so openness to scientific and social-science approaches can help.
- Basic skills in spreadsheets, statistics, reading maps and evaluating sources are useful foundations.
- Organisation, independent study and willingness to ask questions support progress at degree level.
Things to check
- Specific prerequisites and the balance of scientific, social, technical or fieldwork skills vary by course and university; check the official course and admissions information.