You must memorise a clear, precise definition of this word. If you didn't write something very like the definition given below, then you must do some more learning! Try saying the definition out loud to yourself to help you remember it.

Urbanisation is an increase in the proportion of the country's population living in cities.

Here is another example where precise learning is needed. If you don't give the name of a settlement that you have studied, you will not gain the mark available in part (i). If in part (ii) you then write a general description of Any Old Place you will not gain a high level mark. Here is an example of a good answer:

La Esperanza in Colombia is a squatter settlement that was very carefully planned. Each family which took part in the invasion of the land got its own plot to build a house on. The buildings were made of wood and corrugated iron at first, but then people bought bricks and made blocks to improve their houses. At first there was no electricity, but residents made illegal connections to the mains. Many families built cesspits for their toilets, and the council agreed to have them emptied every few months, to stop disease spreading.

You should try to break down your answer to give it a clear structure. Here is a good way you could begin:

Housing conditions can be improved either by the people themselves, or by the city authorities .

If you structure your answer like this, you can write about two separate types of scheme and gain good marks for both parts. If your answer does not have a structure, with just a string of points, you will probably not get such a high mark.
Your answer could continue like this:

People can gradually make their house stronger as they save money to buy better materials. Many make illegal connections to the electricity system as a first stage, and then try to get this legalised later. City authorities are often too poor to build many new houses, but they do set up 'site and service' schemes where they provide land and connections to services like water and sewers, and then let people build their own houses to a simple design.

Read the newspaper article first, to get a general idea of what it is about.Then read the question.
Then go back and search through the extract for two relevant pieces of information. You would get probably marks for:
• green fields
• clean air
• lower crime rates

You may want to develop each answer a little more, especially if you are entered for the Higher Tier. Then you might write:
• green fields provide space to play
• clean air, free from traffic pollution
• lower crime rates because the crowded inner city produces a lot of petty vandalism and burglary

Suggested problems could be:
• loss of farmland
• loss of wild life habitat
• more traffic using the roads back into the city at rush hours
• villages are overwhelmed by newcomers
• more people need more shops, more roads, more jobs, so the rural-urban fringe gets crowded

Remember that you must write about an example in your answer. Name the city you are writing about, then name the particular area where development is taking place. If you write about congestion on the roads, name actual roads. If you write about out-of-town shopping developments, name a real shopping centre, and so on.