P3 General Studies: Map Reading And Land Use In Hong Kong (Paper 3 (challenge))

P3 General Studies: Map Reading and Land Use in Hong Kong (Paper 3 (challenge))

2026-11-13

Tutor Prep Guide · bearings and scale conversion, legends and contour reading, and the land uses and reclamation of Hong Kong

P3 General Studies: Map Reading and Land Use in Hong Kong (Paper 3 (challenge))

Paper three tackles three hard kinds: comparing two scales, area conversion, and the trade-offs behind land use planning.

Direct answers　For two maps, convert the same real distance into centimetres on each; the comparison then speaks for itself.

01　Paper details (check answers afterwards)

Item	Detail
Questions	10
Suggested time	20
Difficulty mix	Foundation 3 · Intermediate 3 · Challenge 3 · Error redo 1
Chapter	Chapter: P3 General Studies: Map Reading and Land Use in Hong Kong
Level	parts of a closed circuit, conductors against insulators, series against parallel, adding up battery voltage, and electrical safety

02　Questions (10 items)

FoundationA 2 km road appears as how many centimetres on 1:20,000 and on 1:50,000 maps?
FoundationOn a 1:25,000 map, 1 cm² stands for how many square kilometres?
FoundationHome is 1.2 km from school; walking at 4 km per hour, how long does it take?
IntermediateReclamation yields 20 hectares; with 1 hectare equal to 10,000 square metres, how many square metres is that?
IntermediateA hill runs from 20 m up to 180 m with a 20 m interval; how many contours are crossed?
IntermediateA slope rises 1 unit for every 5 units of horizontal distance; what is its gradient in per cent?
ChallengeA new town covers 480 hectares and 15 per cent is open space; how many hectares is that?
ChallengeA 12 cm line on a 1:30,000 map is how far, and how long by car at 6 km per hour?
ChallengeWhy are Hong Kong uplands such as Tai Mo Shan kept as country park rather than housing?
Error redoError clinic: contour lines may cross, and crossing means a cliff. What is wrong here?

03　Answers and one-line notes

#	Answer	One-line note
1	10 cm and 4 cm.	2 km is 200,000 cm; dividing by 20,000 gives 10 and by 50,000 gives 4.
2	0.0625 square kilometres.	One centimetre is 250 m or 0.25 km, and 0.25 × 0.25 = 0.0625 square kilometres.
3	18 minutes.	1.2 ÷ 4 = 0.3 hour, and 0.3 × 60 = 18 minutes.
4	200,000 square metres.	20 × 10,000 = 200,000; hectares become square metres by multiplying by ten thousand.
5	8 contours.	(180 − 20) ÷ 20 = 8, not counting the contour you start on.
6	20 per cent.	1 ÷ 5 = 0.2, so 20 per cent, gentler than the 25 per cent of a 1 in 4 slope.
7	72 hectares.	480 × 0.15 = 72; the other 408 hectares carry housing, shops and roads.
8	3.6 km and 36 minutes.	12 × 30,000 = 360,000 cm or 3.6 km; 3.6 ÷ 6 = 0.6 hour, that is 36 minutes.
9	Steep slopes, poor access, and high ecological and water catchment value.	Building there needs costly slope works; keeping the land green also protects the reservoirs.
10	Contours join points of equal height, so they do not cross.	At a cliff the lines crowd together or seem to overlap; a real crossing means the map is wrong.

04　What to do after marking

After marking, redo only the wrong items and write down which step went wrong (formula, unit, or misread number).
Repeat the same item two days later; move to the next paper only when both attempts are correct.
Parents only need the answer and note columns; there is no need to explain every item.

Paper four clears the conductor, insulator and battery direction misconceptions.Tutor Registration →

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