What is the Nature of the Human Geography Class and Exam?
AP® Human Geography is an elective Social Studies course offered at most high schools. It is the equivalent of a college sophomore level class and every May students take a comprehensive exam that gives them the opportunity to earn college credits. The exam is a two part exam with 75 multiple choice questions and 3 free response essays, with both portions of the exam carrying equal weight. The test is scored on a five point scale with scores of 3 or higher considered to be passing. Nationally only about half of all students manage to score at least a 3 with pass rates fluctuating between 47% and 54% in the last 10 years.
What will I learn in Human Geography?
The easiest way to answer this question is by starting with what you will not be doing in this class: memorizing long lists of country names and their capital cities, coloring maps and flags, or learning about the human anatomy. While these may sound silly I have been asked on numerous occasions how much of each of these activities we engage in, when I answer little to none I’m usually met with confusion. The reality is that Human Geography is a class about what is going on in the world right now and the factors that have caused these things to occur. I’ve even heard some teachers reference the class as AP® Current Events. While that is not an all-encompassing description, it covers a significant amount of what we will be learning. I often pull stories from the news and connect it to themes we have already covered or that will be learned down the road. I believe that using examples from the world around us makes for a much greater understanding of material than reading a chapter out of a book.
Why does Human Geography Matter?
Wars, revolutions, elections, economic growth and collapses, and events too numerous to mention put the world in a constant state of flux. Human Geography makes sense of all of these seemingly chaotic and random events and brings them together into an organized structure that tells us where things are happening and why they are happening there. When McDonald’s is deciding where to place a new restaurant they don’t throw a dart at a map and build wherever it hits, they commit time and money and make an educated decision about where to place it. When there is religious conflict in the Middle East it doesn’t just happen, it is the result of thousands of years of land disputes and differing religious views. If understanding global trends, making sense of the world around you, or figuring out where you fit in this big crazy world seems like something you would be interested in, Human Geography is for you.