ap-human-geography-course-and-exam-description

The Principles of Advanced Placement (AP)

  • Clarity and Transparency: AP provides public course frameworks and assessment details. Teachers and students deserve clear expectations to navigate demanding work without confusion.
  • Unflinching Encounter with Evidence: AP courses focus on evidence and the scientific method. They enable students to develop as independent thinkers and draw their own conclusions.
  • Opposition to Censorship: AP respects the intellectual freedom of teachers and students. If a school bans required topics (e.g., evolution in Biology), the AP designation is removed from that course.
  • Opposition to Indoctrination: Students are expected to analyze perspectives different from their own. No points are awarded for agreeing with specific viewpoints. Courses develop the ability to assess source credibility.
  • Open-Minded Approach to History and Culture: AP grounds the study of nationalities, cultures, religions, and ethnicities in primary sources so students can evaluate evidence themselves.
  • Respect for Every Student: AP classrooms respect diversity in backgrounds and viewpoints. Students evaluate arguments, not one another. Personal attacks are prohibited.
  • AP as a Choice: Parents and students freely choose to enroll. Committees of professors and educators craft course materials, which are validated by the American Council on Education.

Overview of the AP Program and Benefits

  • College-Level Study: The AP Program enables high school students to pursue college-level studies with the opportunity to earn college credit or advanced placement.
  • Course Subjects: AP offers courses in 3838 subjects, each ending in a challenging exam.
  • College Success: Research indicates students scoring a 33 or higher on an AP Exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a degree.
  • Institutional Recognition: Over 3,3003,300 institutions worldwide receive AP scores for credit and placement purposes.
  • Faculty Evaluation: AP syllabi are approved by college faculty, and exams are developed and scored by college faculty and experienced AP teachers.

The AP Course Audit and Development Process

  • AP Course Audit: Schools must fulfill specific curricular and resource requirements to label a course "AP." Teachers submit a syllabus or course outline for review by college faculty to ensure the course meets college-level expectations.
  • Scope of Content: The scope is derived from an analysis of hundreds of college syllabi. A committee of college faculty and AP teachers defines what students should know and be able to do.
  • Multiyear Development: Exams undergo extensive review, revision, piloting, and analysis over multiple years to ensure they are accurate, fair, and valid.
  • Diverse Representation: Committee members represent public and private institutions of various sizes, as well as a range of gender, racial/ethnic, and regional groups.

AP Exam Scoring and Score Interpretation

  • Scoring Process: Multiple-choice questions are machine-scored. Free-response questions (FRQs) are scored by thousands of college faculty and AP Readers at the annual AP Reading or online.
  • Composite Score: Raw scores from multiple-choice and FRQs are combined and converted to a composite score on a 1−51-5 scale.
  • Criterion-Referencing: AP Exams are not graded on a curve. Every student who meets the criteria for a score receives that score.
  • Score Categories and Credit Recommendations:     * 55: Extremely well qualified (College Grade Equivalent: AA).     * 44: Well qualified (College Grade Equivalent: A−,B+,BA-, B+, B).     * 33: Qualified (College Grade Equivalent: B−,C+,CB-, C+, C).     * 22: Possibly qualified (No recommendation).     * 11: No recommendation.
  • Statewide Policies: Most U.S. states have adopted policies ensuring college credit for scores of 33 or higher at public universities.

AP Resources and Instructional Supports

  • AP Classroom: A dedicated online platform providing yearlong support and feedback.
  • Unit Guides: Planning guides that outline required content and skills organized into commonly taught units. They suggest sequence, pacing, and provide tips for the exam.
  • Personal Progress Checks: Formative assessments for every unit. Results provide feedback through rationales for multiple-choice questions and scoring info for FRQs. They cannot be used to assign letter grades or evaluate teacher effectiveness.
  • Progress Dashboard: Allows teachers to view class trends and individual student struggles. Students can track their own performance over time.
  • AP Question Bank: A library of real AP Exam questions indexed by topic and skill for creating customized tests.
  • Digital Activation: A start-of-year process where teachers and students sign in to My AP to access resources and register for exams. Individualized AP ID registration labels replace student packs.

About the AP Human Geography Course

  • Systematic Study: The course introduces patterns and processes shaping human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth's surface.
  • Methods and Tools: Students learn spatial concepts, landscape analysis, and tools used by geographers in research.
  • National Standards: The curriculum reflects the goals of the 20122012 National Geography Standards.
  • College Equivalent: Equivalent to an introductory college-level course in human geography.
  • Prerequisites: None. Students should be able to read college-level texts and write correct, complete sentences.
  • Thematic Approach: Content is organized thematically around subfields: economic geography, cultural geography, political geography, and urban geography.

The Course Framework and Big Ideas

  • Structure: The framework specifies what students must know, do, and understand, focusing on Big Ideas that spiral throughout the course.
  • Big Idea 1: Patterns and Spatial Organization (PSO): Spatial patterns and organization of human society are arranged according to political, historical, cultural, and economic factors.
  • Big Idea 2: Impacts and Interactions (IMP): Complex cause-and-effect relationships exist among people, their environments, and historical/contemporary actions.
  • Big Idea 3: Spatial Processes and Societal Change (SPS): A spatial perspective focuses on how phenomena relate to one another in particular places and the resulting environmental consequences.

AP Human Geography Course Skills

  • Skill Category 1: Concepts and Processes: Analyze geographic theories, approaches, and models in theoretical and applied contexts (e.g., describe, explain, compare).
  • Skill Category 2: Spatial Relationships: Analyze geographic patterns and outcomes in applied contexts (e.g., explain spatial relationships in a specific region).
  • Skill Category 3: Data Analysis: Analyze and interpret quantitative data in maps, tables, and graphs (e.g., identify data types, explain trends).
  • Skill Category 4: Source Analysis: Analyze and interpret qualitative information in images and landscapes (e.g., describe spatial patterns in visual sources).
  • Skill Category 5: Scale Analysis: Analyze theories and models across geographic scales (global, regional, national, local) to explain spatial relationships.

Unit 1: Thinking Geographically

  • Exam Weighting: 8−10%8-10\%.
  • Pacing: Approximately 9−109-10 class periods (4545 minutes each).
  • Topic 1.1: Introduction to Maps: Includes reference and thematic maps. Spatial patterns include absolute/relative distance, direction, clustering, dispersal, and elevation. All maps are selective; projections distort shape, area, distance, and direction.
  • Topic 1.2: Geographic Data: Gathered by individuals or organizations. Geospatial technologies include GIS, satellite navigation (GPS), remote sensing, and online mapping. Qualitative data comes from field observations, media reports, and personal interviews.
  • Topic 1.3: The Power of Geographic Data: Census data and satellite imagery are used at all scales for personal, business, and governmental decision-making.
  • Topic 1.4: Spatial Concepts: Includes absolute/relative location, space, place, flows, distance decay, time-space compression, and pattern.
  • Topic 1.5: Human-Environmental Interaction: Concepts of nature/society include sustainability, natural resources, and land use. Theories evolved from environmental determinism to possibilism.
  • Topic 1.6: Scales of Analysis: Global, regional, national, and local. Patterns at different scales reveal different interpretations of data.
  • Topic 1.7: Regional Analysis: Regions are defined by unifying characteristics or activity patterns. Types: formal, functional, and perceptual/vernacular. Boundaries are transitional, contested, and overlapping.

Unit 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes

  • Exam Weighting: 12−17%12-17\%.
  • Topic 2.1: Population Distribution: Influenced by physical (climate, landforms) and human (culture, economics) factors. Calculating density: arithmetic, physiological, and agricultural.
  • Topic 2.2: Consequences of Population Distribution: Affects political/economic processes and environmental carrying capacity.
  • Topic 2.3: Population Composition: Patterns of age structure and