Multiple-Choice Test Taking Tips
1. ANSWER ALL 75 MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
The guessing penalty related to answering MCQs was removed a few years back so there no longer is a ¼ point off for each incorrect answer for MCQs.
2. Narrow your answer choice down to 2 of the 5 options.
3. If you cannot answer in 45 seconds, move on to another. question and come back to the one you are struggling with.
4. Look for key phrases in the “stem” (prompt of the question which can clue you in to the correct response).
5. Be wary of the terms NOT or EXCEPT in the question. So make sure you read the question and understand what the question is asking.
6. Some questions might truly be “that easy.” Do not feel like you are being purposely tricked or fooled.
Free Response Question Writing Tips
1. Black or Dark Blue Ink Pens ONLY
2. Bullet points are NEVER okay
3.Outline responses in answer booklet before you begin writing.
4. Answer what you perceive to be the easiest question first, therefore, leaving more time to answer the questions you might perceive as being more difficult.
5. FRQs do not have to be written in the order they are listed in the question booklet. However, students should make sure that they follow the format of the question when writing their response. For example, noting part A, B or C when beginning their answer. This will make life much easier for the person scoring their exam, whether that happens during the first afternoon of the reading or at 4:00 PM on the last day before the reader is traveling home.
Concepts written in green have never been tested
FRQ Blank Lined Paper- Print and use this paper for your FRQ responses.
Helpful Info for Answering FRQs
List of Released FRQ Topics
2015
1) Redistricting
2) Lingua Franca
o Impact of globalization on English becoming the world's lingua franca
3) Refugees
o Reasons for leaving home country and economic impact on receiving countries
2014
1) Rostow’s Stages of Economic Growth and Wallerstein’s World Systems Theory
o Application of models to Mexico or Brazil
2) Superimposed boundaries in Africa
o Colonialism’s impact on economic development in Africa
3) Global coffee production
2013
1) Location of industrial regions
o Agglomeration
2) Aging populations in developed countries
o Application of DTM to a contemporary population development
3) Changes in transportation technology in the United States (railroads and interstate highways)
2012
1) Walls & Barriers
2) Subsistence agriculture
o Practices of shifting cultivation
3) Muslim immigration to Europe (France, Germany or Netherlands)
2011
1) Urban hierarchy in Mexico
o Rank-size rule and primate city
2) Malthusian theory
o World population growth and food supply
3) Industrial location patterns
o Locational factors pertaining to the expansion of the automobile industry in the US
2010
1) Weber’s Least Cost Theory
o Application to ethanol manufacturing in the US
2) How national identity strengthens/weakens economic development and state building
3) Population Pyramids and the DTM
o How a country’s population structure impacts economic development
2009
1) Religious distribution in the United States
o Thinking critically about map patterns
o Making connections between cultural and population patterns
2) Squatter settlements in periphery countries
o Rural to urban migration
o World Systems Theory
3) Trends in agriculture in the US
o Decline of dairy farms
2008
1) Comparing models of land use (Burgess-Concentric Zone & Von Thünen)
2) Regional migration patterns within the United States
o Identifying spatial patterns and being able to explain the process of those patterns
3) Impact of girls’ education on population structure and economic development
o Gender roles in the developing world
2007
1) Von Thünen’s agricultural land-use model
2) Revival of minority languages
3) Global division of labor
o Impact on socioeconomic status of developed and developing countries
2006
1) International migration patterns in the late 20th century
o Core-periphery
o Distance decay
o Chain migration
2) Location of manufacturing plants
o Shift from secondary sector to tertiary sector
3) Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces in South Asia
o Application of political geography concepts
2005
1) Supranationalism and Devolution
o Application to political and economic geography of Europe
2) Immigration to the United States during the 20th century\
o Push factors
o Changes in economic structure promoting immigration
3) Factors contributing to urban revitalization in the 1990s in the US
2004
1) Spatial distribution of maquiladoras
o Contemporary patterns and processes of industrial production
2) Changes in contemporary agribusiness (poultry production in the US)
o Implications for rural land use
o Distribution of agricultural production
3) Bid-rent theory and population pyramids
o Explain bid-rent concepts and apply to population distribution at the urban scale
2003
1) Core-periphery relations
o Application to the development of urban systems in northern Argentina and Germany
2) Connection between tourism and built environment of landscapes
3) Changes in international migration patterns in Europe
o Explain patterns using the DTM
2002
1) Key terms in political geography (using examples from Europe)
o Nation
o State
o Nation-state
2) How religion shapes the cultural landscape
o Sacred sites, burial practices/sites, architecture, place names
3) Explaining location of female-headed households in a hypothetical North American city
o Socioeconomic factors
o Using Hoyt sector model to explain location of female-headed households
2001
1) Green Revolution
2) Suburbanization in North America
3) Rostow’s model of economic development
Questions to ask yourself........
What are some recurring themes/concepts over the years?
How are concepts from Unit 1 incorporated into the free response questions?
What topics from the course description have never been addressed on an AP exam FRQ?
What types of predictions can you make for future free response questions?