How to do the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical yourself
The IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical asks you to calculate, draw and interpret 26 cartography exercises by your own hand, enter them in a practical record, and hand that record to your academic counsellor before a three-hour term-end practical examination. Below: a working order, two solved methods, a slope checker and a self-check.
In short
For the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical, read the unit first, calculate before you draw, construct with a sharp pencil, add title, scale, legend and units, then write a short interpretation. Work by hand for Units 8, 9, 10 and 13, and submit the finished record to your academic counsellor.
MGGL-001 Cartography is the 4-credit laboratory course of the first semester of MSCGG, the M.Sc. Geography of IGNOU, as listed on the MSCGG programme page.
In the practical files learners show us, lost marks gather in the written record, and the record is also the easiest part to put right before it is handed over. For MGGL-001, every lab unit names the academic counsellor or lab instructor as the person who evaluates your finished record.
Before the first lab day: four things to settle
Settle these four points before your IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical sessions begin.
- Which version you will draw. The blocks solve many tasks both by hand and in QGIS. The manual method is compulsory in the practical record for Units 9 and 10 (Exercises 20 to 25) and for Unit 13 (Exercise 26). Unit 8 (Exercises 17 to 19) is solved by hand and done by hand on the term-end day. For Unit 7 the computer work is meant for learners with advanced skills, and manual work is what the final exam expects unless your counsellor directs otherwise. Exercise 7 Geo-Visualization is a software task.
- Your drawing kit. Scale, pencils (an HB pencil is listed for Blocks 3 and 4), sharpener, eraser, compass, divider, protractor, set-squares, a calculator, drawing sheets, graph and tracing paper, black ink and a paper board.
- Your study centre’s material. Several tasks use the toposheet, weather map, imagery or dataset your laboratory gives you; for Exercise 11 you may also download a toposheet from the Survey of India online maps portal. Ask at the first session which sheet number your batch will use, and note it in each entry.
- Your batch dates. The course introduction plans 14 days with two exercises a day for 13 days and Day 14 for evaluation and viva-voce. Your study centre fixes the actual dates, so keep watching its notices.
Step-by-step method for each IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical exercise
The blocks set no page format for the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical record, so the order below is a working method, not an IGNOU rule. If your counsellor uses another order, follow the counsellor. Within one entry, work in this sequence:
- Heading: exercise number and title, the unit it belongs to, and the date of the session.
- Aim: one line, taken from the exercise’s expected learning outcomes, in your own words.
- Data given: RF, interval, latitudinal and longitudinal extent, toposheet number, or the source of the dataset.
- Calculation: every formula, every substituted value and the unit of each result, shown in full before any line is drawn.
- Construction: drawn in light pencil first, then inked; values written above a scale and units at its ends.
- Map elements: title, RF or scale, graticule interval, legend, north arrow and source, wherever the exercise uses them.
- Interpretation: three to five sentences on what the result shows and which idea from the unit explains it.
- Precautions: the care you took, such as round figures on scales and equal divisions.
A pattern we keep meeting in practical files is entry after entry that only retells what was done, with no link to the theory behind it. MGGL-001 tasks often call for that link in writing: Exercise 22.1, for example, asks you to find the high and low pressure areas on the weather map and say which areas will receive rainfall.
When a whole file is written up in one sitting at the end, it tends to show: the same sentences repeat and the later entries are no better than the first. The MGGL-001 plan puts two exercises into each lab day, so enter each one in the record at the session where you did it.
Worked example: diagonal scale construction for 8.74 km at RF 1:100,000
Block 1 prints this task for the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical record: construct a diagonal scale for RF 1:100,000 to show 8 kilometres, 7 hectometres and 4 decametres. The method follows the block’s own solved example for 3.56 km at RF 1:50,000.
Worked example, step by step
- Convert the RF. 1:100,000 means 1 cm on the map stands for 100,000 cm, which is 1 km on the ground.
- Choose a round length. You need more than 9 km, because the leftmost kilometre is kept for subdivisions. Take 10 cm for 10 km, inside the 10 to 15 cm range Unit 1 suggests for a notebook.
- Primary divisions. Divide the line into 10 equal parts of 1 cm. Write 0 at the end of the first part; the parts to its right read 1 to 9 km.
- Build the rectangle. Raise a convenient height, say 5 cm, on the line and close the rectangle. Divide the height into 10 equal parts of 5 mm and draw ten horizontal lines across the whole length.
- Secondary divisions. Divide the leftmost kilometre into 10 parts of 1 mm along the bottom and the top; each part is one hectometre (100 m).
- Draw the diagonals. Join the bottom of 0 to the top of the first hectometre mark, the bottom of that mark to the top of the second, and so on across the first division. Each horizontal line now adds one decametre (10 m) along a diagonal.
- Read 8.74 km. Start on the 8 km vertical line, rise to the fourth horizontal line, and move left along it to the diagonal that leaves the 7 hectometre mark at the bottom. The distance between the two points is 8 km + 700 m + 40 m, that is 8.74 km, and it measures 8.74 cm on paper.
- Finish. Shade alternate divisions, write the values above the scale and the units at its ends, and title it “A Diagonal Scale (R.F. = 1:100,000)”.
Check with a ruler: the marked length must be 8.74 cm. If it is not, recount the horizontal lines from the base, not from the first line.
Map projection construction: the order of working
Exercises 3 to 5 start from the same calculation, which the block keeps apart from the drawing. Do the same: calculations first, construction on the drawing sheet.
Projection working order
- Radius of the generating globe. R is the Earth radius the block uses, 640,000,000 cm, divided by the scale denominator. At 1:250,000,000, R = 2.56 cm.
- List the graticule. Write out every parallel and meridian at the given interval, for example 90N to 90S and 180W to 180E at 10 degrees.
- Spacing. For the simple cylindrical projection the equator is 2 x 3.14 x 2.56 = 16.07 cm long and each 10 degree division is about 0.44 cm, on the equator and on the central meridian. For Mercator, make a table of R x 2.3026 x log tan(45 + latitude/2) for each parallel. For the polar zenithal equidistant projection, parallels are concentric circles spaced at the same division along a meridian. For the conical projection with one standard parallel, the radius of that parallel is R x cot of its latitude.
- Construct. Draw the central meridian or the pole first, then parallels, then meridians.
- Label. Write latitude and longitude values, the projection’s name, RF and interval.
Wentworth method of slope, with a free checker
In the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical this is Exercise 20 of Unit 9, and its manual version is compulsory in the record and on the term-end day. Both the December 2024 and June 2025 papers asked for slope by Wentworth’s method from a toposheet. The block’s steps are:
- Trace the contours of one block of the toposheet.
- Draw a grid: 2 cm squares at 1:50,000, 1 cm at 1:100,000, 4 cm at 1:25,000.
- Count the contour crossings on the horizontal lines and on the vertical lines separately.
- Convert the total length of lines in each direction to kilometres and divide each crossing count by it.
- Average the two values to get the average number of crossings per km.
- Tangent of the slope = average crossings per km x contour interval / 636.6, then read the angle from the natural tangent table.
Free Wentworth slope checker
Use it to check your own sum after you have worked it by hand. The block’s Exercise 20.2 figures are filled in.
With the block’s figures it returns a tangent of about 0.513 and roughly 27 degrees 9 minutes; the block, rounding the average to 1.63, reads 27 degrees 11 minutes from its table. Such rounding gaps are normal, so keep the table step in your record.
Mistakes that cost marks in an MGGL 001 practical file, with fixes
Each of these can be fixed before your IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical record leaves your hands.
- Odd values on a scale. A scale marked 7.3 km or with uneven divisions breaks the Unit 1 precautions. Fix: choose round totals such as 10 or 100 and divide with a divider, not by eye.
- Reading the diagonal example literally. The block’s Example 2.1 writes 3.56 km as “3 kilometer 50 hectometer and 6 decameter”. Fix: read it as 3 km, 5 hectometres and 6 decametres, which is what the figure shows.
- Software output where the hand method is required. A QGIS map for Exercises 20 to 26 does not replace the manual entry. Fix: keep the printout as an extra if your counsellor wants it, and draw the manual version as well.
- Projection without its table. Fix: show R, the division length and, for Mercator, the log tan table for every parallel.
- Wrong grid for the toposheet scale. Fix: match 2 cm, 1 cm or 4 cm squares to 1:50,000, 1:100,000 or 1:25,000.
Lab records that fall short usually share the same gaps: half-filled tables, sums stopped midway, graphs with no axis labels, and nothing on precautions or possible errors. In MGGL-001, Exercise 14.1 asks for descriptive statistics on the data provided in your laboratory, and Exercise 15 for vertical, pie and line diagrams, so each table and diagram needs its labels and units.
Title pages we check often carry a mistyped enrolment number or the wrong programme or study centre code. The MGGL-001 blocks print no cover format, so copy the programme code MSCGG, the course code and your study centre code from your identity card and admission record.
Twelve-point self-check before you hand over the file
Run this list on your own IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical record one evening before it goes to your counsellor. Tick each point only when it is true for every entry.
Hand-over self-check, twelve points
One gap we find again and again is a counsellor’s certificate with no signature on it. Since the MGGL-001 blocks print no certificate format, ask your counsellor during the sessions what your centre wants signed, and get it signed before the last day.
Getting ready for the term-end practical and the Day 14 viva
The IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical ends in a term-end practical examination of three hours and 50 marks. The December 2024 and June 2025 papers asked you to attempt any five questions of 10 marks each, which leaves about 36 minutes a question. Practise against the clock:
- One scale (plain or diagonal) and one projection in 70 minutes, calculation included.
- One toposheet task: relief features, a cross-section, a transect or Wentworth’s slope.
- One isopleth map from pressure data and one weather map interpretation.
Those were the task types on the two papers, not a forecast of the next one. Carry your IGNOU identity card, which the prospectus requires at the examination centre, and your full drawing kit. The Practical Examination Fee for a course of up to 4 credits is Rs 300, paid with the Term-End Examination form, as printed in the Common Prospectus July 2026.
Learners often walk into a viva expecting a formality, and a tidy file then earns little when its owner cannot say what the exercise aimed at, how it was done or what the result means. The MGGL-001 plan keeps Day 14 for evaluation and viva-voce.
Copied practical files circulate, sometimes handed in with only the name and enrolment number changed, and identical maps from one centre are easy to spot. In MGGL-001 the term-end papers ask you to construct scales and projections by hand in the hall, so a borrowed file leaves you unpractised where it counts.
Send your own draft for a check
If you would like a second look at your IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical record before hand-over, send clear photos or a scan of your own pages on WhatsApp through our correction service. We point out missing calculations, unlabelled maps, scale and projection slips and front-page errors, and you redraw and correct the pages yourself. For a lab record the charge is quoted on WhatsApp; we do not draw or complete your exercises, and your counsellor’s evaluation decides the result.
IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical FAQ on drawing and record work
Can I hand in QGIS maps instead of hand drawings?
Not for Units 9, 10 and 13: the blocks make the manual method compulsory in the record there, and software is optional. For the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical computer tasks in Unit 7, your counsellor decides according to your study centre’s facilities.
How long should a scale be in my record?
Unit 1 suggests 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) in an ordinary notebook, and longer on an A3 sheet, always to a round ground distance.
Which value of R do I use for projections?
The block divides an Earth radius of 640,000,000 cm by the scale denominator, so R is 2.56 cm at 1:250,000,000. Use the same value throughout so your divisions match the solved examples.
Finishing the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical on time
Begin the IGNOU MGGL 001 Practical as soon as your batch opens, write up each exercise on the day you draw it, and run the self-check before the last session rather than after it. Study guides for the MSCGG theory papers sit with the reference material for this course on our publication site; the record itself stays your own work.
The learners who do well with practicals start early, confirm the rules at their own centre, date every entry, collect signatures along the way and can explain each page in their own words. For MGGL-001, the course introduction expects all 26 exercises to be finished and handed to the Academic Counsellor at your study centre.
Official documents behind this guide
- MGGL-001 Cartography, Blocks 1 to 4 (School of Sciences, IGNOU), course introduction, laboratory instructions and exercises: eGyanKosh link printed in the blocks
- IGNOU Common Prospectus July 2026, MSCGG programme section and examination fee rules: Common Prospectus July 2026 (PDF)
- MSCGG course structure and credits: official MSCGG programme page
- December 2024 paper, MGGL-001 Set-I: term-end practical PDF, December 2024
- June 2025 paper, MGGL-001 Set-I: term-end practical PDF, June 2025
Method: built from the four MGGL-001 Cartography blocks, the IGNOU Common Prospectus of July 2026, the official MSCGG programme page and two MGGL-001 term-end practical papers (December 2024 and June 2025), all read in November 2026. Drafting was AI-assisted; every rule was checked against the documents listed here, and the page is published under BK Sahni’s editorial responsibility.
ignouproject.com is not affiliated with, authorised by or endorsed by IGNOU. We check and correct the learner’s own work; the learner remains the author of the MGGL-001 record and every drawing in it.
BK Sahni iD 0009-0005-8092-459X
Founder, Shri Chakradhar Publication Pvt. Ltd. & ignouproject.com — helping IGNOU distance-learning students since 2010 (5,00,000+ students supported across MBA, MCom, MA & more). Author of IGNOU exam guides, solved assignments & project reference books.
Disclosure: Shri Chakradhar Publication Pvt. Ltd. and ignouproject.com are independent third-party study-help services — not the official IGNOU website. Always verify final dates and rules on ignou.ac.in.
