AP Human Geography Course and Exam Description Notes

College Board & AP Program Overview

  • College Board: A non-profit organization founded in 1900, aiming to connect students to college success and opportunity.
  • Mission: Promote excellence and equity in education.
  • Programs: Includes SAT and Advanced Placement (AP) Program.
  • Equity and Access: Encourages educators to provide equitable access to AP for all willing and prepared students.

AP Program

  • Enables students to pursue college-level studies in high school.
  • Offers opportunity to earn college credit or advanced placement.
  • AP courses develop critical thinking and argumentation skills.
  • Research indicates AP students have greater academic success in college.
  • AP courses emphasizes challenging, research-based curricula aligned with higher education expectations.

AP Course Audit

  • Ensures courses meet college-level expectations.
  • Schools must participate to label a course "Advanced Placement" or "AP."
  • AP teachers' materials are reviewed by college faculty.

AP Exam Development

  • Content derived from college syllabi and course offerings.
  • Committees of college faculty and AP teachers create the course framework.
  • AP Test Development Committees develop exams, ensuring alignment with the course framework.

AP Exam Scoring

  • Relies on expertise of AP teachers and college faculty.
  • Free-response questions scored by trained AP Readers.
  • Exams are criterion-referenced, not graded on a curve.

AP Score Usage

  • Colleges set their own credit and placement policies.
  • AP scores of 3 or higher often receive credit or advanced placement.
  • AP score Credit Recommendation College Grade Equivalent:
    • 5 Extremely well qualified A
    • 4 Well qualified A−, B+, B
    • 3 Qualified B−, C+, C
    • 2 Possibly qualified n/a
    • 1 No recommendation n/a

Becoming an AP Reader

  • Opportunities to improve teaching, gain exam insights and recieving compensation.

AP Resources and Supports: AP Classroom

  • Online platform supporting teachers and students.
  • Includes unit guides, personal progress checks, and progress dashboard.

Digital Activation

  • Teachers must complete for course access and student registration for AP Exams.

Instructional Model

  • Plan: Review unit guides to identify essential questions, understandings, and skills.
  • Teach: Use topic pages and integrate content with skills.
  • Assess: Use Personal Progress Checks and AP Question Bank for feedback and practice.

AP Human Geography Course Overview

  • Systematic study of patterns and processes shaping human understanding and alteration of Earth’s surface.
  • Employs spatial concepts and landscape analysis.
  • Focuses on socioeconomic organization and environmental consequences.
  • Equivalent to an introductory college-level course.
  • No prerequisites beyond college-level reading and writing skills.

Course Framework

  • Outlines course requirements for student success.
  • Includes essential components: course skills and course content.

Course Skills

  • Central to the study and practice of human geography.
  • Categories: Concepts and Processes, Spatial Relationships, Data Analysis, Source Analysis, Scale Analysis.

Course Content

  • Organized into commonly taught units of study.
  • Units follow suggested sequence.
  • Grounded in big ideas: Patterns and Spatial Organization, Impacts and Interactions, Spatial Processes and Societal Change.

Units & Exam Weighting

  • Unit 1: Thinking Geographically (8-10%)
  • Unit 2: Population and Migration Patterns and Processes (12-17%)
  • Unit 3: Cultural Patterns and Processes (12-17%)
  • Unit 4: Political Patterns and Processes (12-17%)
  • Unit 5: Agriculture and Rural Land-Use Patterns and Processes (12-17%)
  • Unit 6: Cities and Urban Land-Use Patterns and Processes (12-17%)
  • Unit 7: Industrial and Economic Development Patterns and Processes (12-17%)