How to Succeed in AP Human Geography

Welcome back everyone!

Last year during my freshman year of high school, I took my first AP class: AP Human Geography. I was intimidated at first, but I knew it couldn’t be too difficult since it was a class traditionally taken by freshmen. It ended up being one of my favorite classes I took that year, and I succeeded in getting a 5 on the AP test. If you’re a freshman and nervous to be taking this class, or you’re in any other grade and nervous to be taking this class- don’t worry too much! There’s a lot of really interesting course content and I promise you will be fine.

Take detailed notes – Reading your textbook and really marinating in the content is key to understanding; the concepts aren’t too complex, you just need to take in the information. I find that taking good notes is the best way to do this since you can easily refer back to the most important parts of the readings. Whatever note-taking method your teacher advises or you normally use is fine, just make sure you are including specifics in your notes and lots of examples/explanations for things! A lot of human geography is about the “why” and not the “what”.
Practice old FRQs throughout the year – My teacher always put a couple old AP test FRQs on our unit tests so we did this automatically, but if your teacher doesn’t, practice these yourself! It will prepare you for the AP test in May, but it also really improves your writing skills and your general understanding of the course content.
Know your terms/definitions – There are A LOT of terms and definitions in this class, so you’ll want to stay on top of them. Make quizlets for each unit and definitely review them before each unit test so you know all the terminology used in questions/answers; some questions on the AP test genuinely are just definitions/terms, just with slightly trickier wording.
Buy a prep book – You can wait to buy a prep book until the AP test and study crunch time is coming closer, but I would actually recommend buying it towards the beginning of the year. Since prep books are meant to be a review of all the general course content, they often break things down in a summary/simpler way- if you’re ever confused on a concept during the year, you can refer to a prep book and it should make it easier to understand.
Know the models!! – You’ll learn about various types of models (different city models, demographic, etc.) throughout the course, and it is SO important to know the differences and the significance of all of them. There’s usually an FRQ on interpreting one of the models each year on the AP test and there’s quite a few multiple choice based on them. They can also help explain a lot of the other concepts in the course, so definitely study the models a lot.
Examples are key – As I stated before, a lot of human geography is about the “why” and not the “what”, so it’s important to be able to provide explanations and examples of different terms and concepts. When you’re reading the textbook and making notes, definitely write down all examples that are mentioned. These are super helpful for FRQs as well.
Utilize others’ study materials – Since it’s an AP class, there’s tons of online resources (other people’s quizlets, YouTube videos, websites/blogs, etc)- make sure to use these if you need them! They can supplement your own study materials and possibly explain things in new ways.
Study in advance and try your best! – As long as you stay on top of your work and study for every test, it shouldn’t be too different from any other class. I am confident you all will do amazing as long as you’re trying your best.

I hope this little guide put your minds at ease if you are currently an apprehensive AP Human Geography student. I personally found the class super interesting, and I was lucky enough to have a wonderful and funny teacher which made it even better. I think it’s a great first AP class to take since the concepts are a bit more general and usually apply to things you already understand in the real world- it’s a mix of a lot of different subjects in history. I’m always here to answer questions, so let me know if you guys ever need human geo help!

-Brooke