About the AP Human Geography Test
Click here for AP Human Geography test information
Exam Date: May 4, 2023; 8:00am
Exam Overview: The AP Human Geography Exam will test your understanding of the geographic concepts covered in the course units, as well as your ability to analyze maps, geospatial data, infographics, and more.
Exam Duration: 2hrs 15mins
Exam Components:
Section I: Multiple Choice | 60 Questions | 1 Hour | 50% of Exam Score
The multiple-choice section includes individual questions as well as sets of questions. You’ll be asked to:
Analyze geographic concepts, processes, patterns, and relationships
Analyze geographic data from maps, tables, charts, graphs, satellite images, and infographics.
Interpret geographic information represented visually in maps, satellite images, photographs, cartoons, and landscapes.
Analyze spatial relationships using geographic scales
Section II: Free-Response | 3 Questions | 1 Hour and 15 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score
In the free-response section, you’ll respond to three questions with written answers. All three will present an authentic geographic situation or scenario, and at least two will ask you to explain and analyze spatial relationships across geographic scales.
The first question will have text only.
The second question will ask you to analyze and/or interpret data, an image, or a map.
The third question will feature two stimuli, which will include data, images, and/or maps.
At least one of the free-response questions assesses your ability to analyze across geographic scales to explain spatial relationships.
Course Content:
You’ll learn about the tools and methods geographers use in their study of places.
Topics may include:
Different types of maps and what they tell you
How geographers collect and use data
Spatial relationships and patterns
Data analysis at different scales (for example, global, national, local)
How geographers define regions
On The Exam
8%–10% of multiple-choice score
You’ll explore the patterns associated with human populations.
Topics may include:
Population density and how it affects society and the environment
Theories of population growth and decline
Population and immigration policies and their effects
The causes and effects of migration
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score
You’ll focus on how and why language, religion, and other cultural practices spread over space and time.
Topics may include:
The different ways that cultural practices spread
Historical forces, such as colonialism and trade, that affect cultural patterns
Modern forces, such as globalization, that affect cultural patterns
Why different religions spread in different ways
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score
You’ll build on your knowledge of populations and cultural patterns as you learn about the political organization of the world.
Topics may include:
Types of political entities such as nations and nation-states
The ideas and forces that shaped the political boundaries of the modern world
Forms of government such as unitary states and federal states
The factors that lead to states breaking apart
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score
You’ll learn where humans first developed agriculture and how farming practices spread throughout the world.
Topics may include:
How physical geography influences farming practices
The origins and spread of agriculture
The Green Revolution
How farming practices affect the environment and society
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score
You’ll explore the origins and influences of urbanization, examining cities across the world and the role of those cities in globalization.
Topics may include:
The factors that drive the growth of cities and suburbs
Globalization and cities
City infrastructure
Urban design initiatives and practices
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score
You’ll study the origins and influences of industrialization, along with the role industrialization plays in economic development.
Topics may include:
The Industrial Revolution
Economic sectors and patterns
How economic development affects the roles of women
Trade and the world economy
On The Exam
12%–17% of multiple-choice score