AP Human Geo Exam Review
Mr. G. Holbrook (gdholbrook@dadeschools.net)
Structure of the AP Exam:
75 multiple choice questions (60 min.): 50% of score
3 Free Response Essays (75 min.): 50% of score
Test Breakdown:
1. Geography: Its Nature & Perspectives (5-10%) 5. Agricultural & Rural Land Use (13-17%)
2. Population (13-17%)
6. Industrialization & Eco. Development (13-17%)
3. Cultural Patterns and Processes (13-17%)
7. Cities & Urban Land Use (13-17%)
4. Political Organization of Space (13-17%)
Essay Breakdown by topic:
2016: ??? ECONOMIC (outsourcing?); AGRICULUTRAL?; URBAN???
2015: 1. Gerrymandering (map)
2. Lingua francas (language)
3. Migration (refugees)
2014: 1. Compare Rostow to Core-Periphery
2. Superimposed borders (African colonialism)
3. Coffee Production (map)
2013: 1. Agglomeration Economies (Silicon Valley)
2. Aging Population: Europe, Russia, Japan (chart)
3. Railroads (1870-1920) & Highways (1950-today)
2012: 1. Walls & barriers
2. Subsistence agriculture & shifting cultivation (map)
3. Muslim migration into Europe (map)
2011: 1. Primate cites & Rank-size rule (Mexican map)
2. Malthusian theory & criticisms
3. Industrial locational theories (Automobile manufacturing plants map)
2010: 1. Weber’s theory (map: corn & ethanol production)
2. Centripetal & Centrifugal forces (economic development/forward-thrust vs. ethnicity/infra.)
3. Demographic transition model & population pyramids
2009: 1. Religious groups in U.S. (map)
2. Squatter settlements
3. Dairy farms & organic farms (graph showing decline of amount of dairy farms)
2008: 1. von Thünnen’s Model/Burgess Concentric Zone Model
2. Internal migration w/in the U.S. (map of in- and out-migration)
3. Role of females in economic development (chart of female literacy)
2007: 1. von Thünnen’s agricultural model (compare 2 pictures)
2. Minority language revival
3. “New” international division of labor
2006: 1. International migration (map)
2. Call center in Arkansas
3. Centrifugal and Centripetal forces (map of India/Pakistan/Sri Lanka)
2005: 1. Supranationalism and devolution (Europe)
2. U.S. immigration (1900-1998; push-pull factors/economic reasons)
3. CBD/urban revitalization
2004: 1. Maquiladoras (dot map Mexico-U.S. border)
2. Poultry production sites…demand for poultry, geo. distribution, eco. changes)
3. Demographic composition from CBD to suburbs (graph/pop pyramids)
2003: 1. Uurban (compare city structure in Argentina vs. Germany using core-periphery)
2. How has tourism enhanced/diminished regional landscape
3. Europe change from source to destination for immigrants (DTM explanation)
2002: 1. Nations, states, and nation-states (define, examples, conflicts; map)
2. Religion & cultural landscape (sacred sites, burial, architecture, place names)
3. City sectors & female head of household (near CBD vs. near suburb)
HUMAN GEOGRAPHY AP EXAM ESSENTIAL REVIEW TERMS
Nature & Perspective of Geography
1. The Regional Approach
2. Scale (large-scale, small-scale; global, national, local)
3. Ullman’s Model (complementarity, transferability, intervening opportunity)
Population Geography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Migration (step, chain, channel, voluntary, reluctant, forced, internal)
Ravenstein’s Laws of Migrations
Gravity Model
Malthus’s Theory
Demographic Transition Model (DTM=4 stages)
Cultural Geography
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Diffusion (contagious, expansion, hierarchical, relocation)
languages: pidgin, creole, lingua franca, dialect, official language
acculturation, assimilation, syncretism/ animism, shamanism
ethnicity (ghettos, enclaves, exclaves, diaspora)
toponyms
pop culture/folk culture
Political Geography
1. nation, state, nation-state/ supranational organizations (economic, political)
2. Mackinder’s Heartland Theory/ Spyckman’s Rimland Theory
3. boundaries (antecedent, geometric, physical, subsequent, subsequent consequent,
superimposed)
4. Law of the Seas
Agricultural Geography
1. Green Revolution
2. Industrial Revolution
3. von Thünen’s Rings (5 rings)
Economic Geography
1. Core-Periphery Model/ World-Systems Theory
2. Rostow’s Model of development (5 stages: traditional, preconditions, take-off, drive to
maturity, high consumption)
3. Weber’s Least Cost Theory (Weber;s Triangles)
Urban Geography
1. Christaller’s Central Place Theory
2. Classic Urban Models: Concentric Zone Model, Sector Model, Multiple Nuclei Model)
3. Suburbanization/ Gentrification