2010 AP Human Geography Review

MojoMolly
Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:30:51 +0000

This year, as a freshman in high school, I took AP Human Geography. This will be more or less a ramble of my thoughts on the course and the exam itself.

First, let me say this. My school only offered it through a ONE-SEMESTER course. For most people, including myself, this is not a terrible idea to get a broad grasp on the subject. After completing the course, however, I feel that a 2-semester course would have better prepared me for the exam in May, especially the multiple choice questions. There is a lot of material to cover, but while some of it is difficult, it ALL relates in some way or another.

I used several study guides (I think people call them Prep on here?) along with my textbook, which was the one by Rubenstein. I used the Barron’s, Princeton Review, Kaplan, along with the Barron’s flash cards. Here are my comments on each:

Princeton Review- By far the best, most informative one of the 4. This covers everything without giving you an information overload, and there’s a section in the beginning that tells you all about the test. It’s very nice. 5 stars.

Barron’s- Definite information overload. I don’t think the information in this book is broken down quite as nicely as it is in the PR. Good information, okay practice questions overall. 3.5 stars.

Kaplan- I really did like the Kaplan book also. It includes very good practice questions and is broken down nicely. 4 stars.

As for the flash cards, I would not recommend getting them unless you have the time and patience to sit down and memorize 450 flash cards. I didn’t, and the information on them didn’t seem to help much anyway.

Exam time! Everyone says APHG has the easiest exam. Since it was my first AP, I can’t really justify that claim, but it was NOT VERY HARD.
The multiple-choice questions were actually not terrible. Most of them were very straightforward and I knew about 55-60 questions out of the total 75.
The essay section…when I opened that booklet and read the questions, I wanted to start jumping up and down. The questions were probably the most simple I’d seen all semester. I tackled them easily and felt very confident about my answers. Be careful, though. Make SURE you time yourself for each essay, because many of my friends did not and were unable to finish their essays.

So, I would recommend taking APHG as your first AP course. While it may seem like a lot of information, you REALLY only need the basics. Of course, going in more depth would definitely improve your score and you should do so and not JUST learn the concepts.

Hope this helps someone.