AP Human Geography Fall Semester Exam Review 2025

Unit 1: Geographic Concepts

Know:

• Absolute vs. Relative Location: Coordinates vs. location in relation to other places.

• 4 types of map distortion: Distance, relative size, direction, and shapes of objects.

• Scale of Analysis: Level at which geographical data is examined.

• Human vs. Physical Geography: Human geography studies human activities and their environmental interaction; physical geography studies Earth’s natural environment.

Answer:

1. Globalization characteristics: Increased interconnectedness, interdependence, and rise of global supply chains.

2. McDonald’s as globalization example: Expanded as a multinational corporation in over 100 countries.

3. Map projections:

   • Robinson: Visually appealing, proportionate landmasses; distorted at poles.

   • Mercator: Used for navigation, accurate shapes; inaccurate size and distance.

   • Peters: Equal area map for continent sizes; distorted shapes.

   • Goodes: Accurate population density/country sizes; reduces shape distortion but distorts direction/distance when oceans are interrupted.

4. GPS vs. Remote Sensing vs. GIS: GPS provides precise location data; remote sensing collects geographic data from afar; GIS analyzes both to create maps and answer complex questions.

5. Lowery Freshman Center: Toponym: Lowery Freshman Center; Site: 368 N Greenville Ave, Allen, TX 75002; Situation: In Allen, Texas, providing access to adjacent high school programs.

6. Three types of regions:

   • Formal (uniform): Area sharing a common attribute (e.g., state of Texas).

   • Functional: Area organized around a central point (e.g., Dallas Area Rapid Transit).

   • Perceptual (vernacular): Defined by personal perceptions (e.g., “The South” in the US).

7. Transnational corporation: Company operating in multiple countries (e.g., Apple).

8. Globalization's impact on cultural landscape: Makes cultures more connected and similar, spreads global brands, and can weaken local traditions.

Unit 2: Population & Migration

Know:

• All five stages of the DTM: Stage 1 (high stationary), Stage 2 (early expanding), Stage 3 (late expanding), Stage 4 (low stationary), Stage 5 (declining).

• All Stages of the ETM: Stage 1 (high stationary & pre-industry), Stage 2 (early industry & high growth agricultural), Stage 3 (moderate growth industrialization), Stage 4 (low stationary & post industry), Stage 5 (same as stage 4 & parasitic).

• Population pyramids: Graphical bar charts showing a population’s age and sex distribution.

• Density (Physiological, Arithmetic, Agricultural): Arithmetic (total pop / total land area); Physiological (total pop / arable land); Agricultural (farmers / arable land).

Answer

9. Overpopulation and carrying capacity: Overpopulated when resources can’t support the population. Carrying capacity determined by comparing population size to available resources and technology.

10. Population growth over last 1,000 years: Slow growth initially, then rapid growth from 1700-1800s onward.

11. Demographic equation: $EndingPopulation = StartingPopulation + Births - Deaths + Immigration - Emigration$

12. Migration selectivity candidates: Young adults seeking opportunities, those with higher education, ambitious individuals, or those with existing family/friend networks.

13. Step migration vs. chain migration: Step migration is moving in a series of smaller moves towards a final destination; Chain migration involves migrants following family or friends who have already settled.

14. Most populated region of US: The South.

15. Industrial Revolution impact on population: Triggered a population boom by improving living conditions and reducing death rates (most impact in DTM Stage 2).

16. ETM application to DTM: Shows how societies move from high death rates to low ones as they develop.

17. Thomas Malthus's beliefs: Population grows exponentially while food grows arithmetically, leading to crises unless population checks are made.

18. Neo-Malthusians: Modern thinkers who updated Malthus’s ideas, seeing global warming and pollution as new Malthusian crises, advocating for family planning and birth control.

19. Government population management (natalist policies): Pro-natalist: financial aid, parental leave, childcare support. Anti-natalist: family planning, limits (e.g., China’s former One-Child policy).

Ch 3 - Cultural Landscape: Migration

Answer

20. Immigrant vs. emigrant: An immigrant comes into a new country (focus on destination); an emigrant leaves their original country (focus on departure).

21. Common push/pull factors: Push: economic hardship, war, natural disasters. Pull: better jobs, higher wages, education, healthcare, political freedom, family ties.

22. Alternative names for centrifugal & centripetal forces: Centripetal: radical, center-seeking force. Centrifugal: fictitious force.

23. Historic US immigration patterns: 1820-1860: 95% from northern Europe. Currently: most from Latin America.

24. World regions most immigrants leaving for US: Latin America, South Asia, East Asia.

25. Intervening opportunity example: A migrant heading to a distant city for work stops in a closer town, finds a better job, and settles there.

26. Activity Space: The set of all locations where an individual performs daily activities.

27. Ravenstein's major laws of migration: Most migrants move short distances, long-distance migrants move to big cities, step-by-step movement, and rural-to-urban shifts.

28. Migrant characteristics via “migration selectivity”: Age, education, health, and family status.

29. MTM application to DTM: Links a country’s development stage to its internal migration patterns, showing how rural-to-urban shifts change with societal development.

Unit 3: Cultural Patterns & Processes

Know:

• Acculturation, Assimilation & Syncretism: Acculturation: adjusting to a dominant culture while maintaining major aspects of one's own. Assimilation: replacing native culture with a dominant one. Syncretism: blending cultures/beliefs to create something new.

• Characteristics of Folk Culture: Clustered, isolated, traditional, local, small homogeneous groups, unclear origin, spreads by relocation diffusion, reflects environment, diverse cultural landscapes.

• Characteristics of Pop Culture: Dispersed, connected, modern, regional/global, constantly changing, large heterogeneous population, clear origin, spreads by expansion diffusion, doesn't reflect environment, promotes uniform culture.

• Types of Diffusion: Stimulus, contagious, relocation, and expansion diffusion.

Answer:

30. Cultural Landscape: Combinations of physical features, agricultural/industrial practices, religious/linguistic characteristics, evidence of sequential occupancy, and other cultural expressions.

31. Sequent Occupance: Successive human societies leave unique cultural imprints on a place, creating layers of history in the cultural landscape.

32. Ethnocentrism vs. cultural relativism: Ethnocentrism: biased view judging other cultures by one's own superior standard; Cultural Relativism: understanding cultures within their own context without judgment.

33. Uniform landscape: Place where physical and cultural features look similar across different locations.

34. Placemaking & "Sense of Place": Placemaking: collaborative process of transforming public spaces into vibrant community assets. "Sense of Place": emotional attachment and unique identity people feel towards a location.

35. Folk culture characteristics: Traditional, localized, slow to change, specific to small homogeneous groups, unclear origin, relocation diffusion, reflects environment, diverse cultural landscapes.

36. Popular culture characteristics: Widespread, fast-changing, commercialized, globalized, driven by mass media and consumerism, dispersed, connected, modern, regional/global, clear origin, expansion diffusion, promotes uniform culture.

Ch 5 - Cultural Landscape: Language

Know:

• Language family, language branch, and language group: Family: related through common ancestor long before recorded history. Branch: large, fundamental division within a religion (this seems to be a mismatch, should be within a family). Group: collection of languages within a branch sharing a common origin in the recent past with few differences.

• Predominantly spoken languages: Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi.

Answer:

37. Dialect vs. accent: Dialect: differences in pronunciation, pace, and vocabulary; Accent: differences in pronunciation and pace of speech.

38. Isogloss: A boundary separating regions where different languages predominate.

39. Lingua franca: A language used for communication between people not sharing the same native language.

40. Major language families: Indo-European (Europe, Americas), Sino-Tibetan (East Asia), Afro-Asiatic (SW Asia, N Africa), Niger-Congo (Sub-Saharan Africa).

41. Language diagram: (Assumed reviewed by user).

42. Pidgin vs. Creole language: Pidgin: simplified language adaptation for communication between different language speakers. Creole: language resulting from mixing a colonizer’s language with indigenous language, often evolving from a pidgin.

Ch 6 - Cultural Landscape: Religions

Know:

• Major branches: Christianity: Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern/Oriental Orthodoxy. Islam: Sunni, Shia, Ibadi, Sufism. Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana.

• Holy days/sites & diffusion for universalizing vs. ethnic religions: Universalizing: widely observed holy days/sites, open to all, spreads via relocation and expansion diffusion. Ethnic: holy days/sites tied to specific culture/place, spreads mainly via relocation diffusion.

Answer:

43. Religion details (Origin, Diffusion, Distribution):

    • Christianity: a) Modern Israel/Palestine, b) expansion and relocation diffusion, c) worldwide.

    • Judaism: a) Modern Israel/Palestine, b) relocation diffusion, c) Israel, US, Europe.

    • Islam: a) Mecca and Medina, Arabian Peninsula, b) expansion and relocation diffusion, c) Middle East, N Africa, S Asia, SE Asia.

    • Hinduism: a) Indus River Valley, b) relocation diffusion, c) India and Nepal.

    • Buddhism: a) South Asia, b) expansion and relocation diffusion, c) East Asia, Southeast Asia, part of South Africa.

    • Sikhism: a) Punjab region, b) relocation diffusion, c) India (Punjab), UK, Canada, US.

44. Significance of Jerusalem: Hearth and sacred place for Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

45. Religious conflicts:

    1. Religion vs. politics/government: Investiture controversy (Catholic Church vs. Holy Roman Empire).

    2. Religion vs. religion - interfaith: Jews and Muslims.

    3. Religion vs. religion - intrafaith: Catholics and Protestants (Northern Ireland).

    4. Religion vs. secularism: Same-sex marriage laws.