AP Human Geography Practice Exam 2025

AP Human Geography is frequently regarded as being moderately to extremely challenging, partly due to its distinctive course material.

Students are introduced to the systematic study of patterns and processes that have influenced human perception, use, and alteration of the Earth’s surface in the Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) course.

Devolution is the process through which authority is transferred from a higher level of government, such as the federal or state governments, to a regional or local level. Decentralizing decision-making and granting more authority to lower levels of government are two common goals of devolution.

The idea is that while the physical environment may constrain human behaviors, people can adapt to their surroundings and pick a course of action from various options.

A socially imposed constraint on conduct.

Two hours and fifteen minutes is allotted for the AP Human Geography exam.

• To create a test-taking strategy, analyze the exam’s structure. The structure of the AP Human Geography exam should be known before you even begin preparing for it so that you may plan your study schedule accordingly. The exam has two sections, each accounting for half of your final grade.
• Include a review book like Barron’s in your study schedule. Taking thorough notes in class and reading the textbook assigned to your class is beneficial. Still, an outside review book like Barron’s can offer you a more comprehensive understanding of the material covered on the AP® Human Geography exam. These books, as opposed to your class, will provide multiple-choice problems, strategic analyses, and FRQ examples that will give you more understanding of the exam.
• Use Quizlet to create flashcards for essential terms. Do not, first and foremost, purchase pre-written flashcards. Writing them out yourself aids in memory retention, which will help you ace the test. Although you can make physical flashcards by writing them out, we suggest using online flashcards from Quizlet. The website offers a variety of interfaces and study techniques, including accurate and false, multiple-choice, and more, in addition to allowing you to create your flashcards.
• Write up a study log that lists several categories of geographic areas. You must be thoroughly aware of the numerous geographic elements and places covered in the course since the AP Human Geography exam evaluates your comprehension of geography. Mark and identify the new types of regions your class studies, such as formal, functional, or perceptual regions, in a separate journal. Use this diary to review and study throughout the year because understanding the fundamental classifications of geographic regions is essential for performing well on the exam, particularly the FRQ portion.
• Join or start a study group for AP Human Geography. It can get boring to study by yourself at times. You could find it challenging to get motivated to start studying at times, lose focus, or become sidetracked. Study groups are helpful for this reason. Find out if some of your AP Human Geography classmates are interested in meeting once or twice weekly to review the course content.
• Follow the social media pages for AP Human Geography. Some teachers and students manage social media profiles for AP Human Geography, whether you use Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, or all four. By following or liking these accounts, you can incorporate APHG facts, study resources, movies, and visuals into your daily life.
• Interact with media on AP Human Geography. When reading a textbook, concentrating or comprehending concepts can be challenging if you are a visual learner. Switching up your study methods and emerging from behind your reference materials can be beneficial.
• Write a review manual for geographic ideas and models. Previous FRQs and multiple-choice tests frequently focused on specific geographic models and theories. You’ll need to understand not just what each of these terms means but also how they relate to one another, how to use them in actual contexts, and how important they are in general. The demographic transition model, the gravity model, Rostow’s Stages of Growth, Concentric Circles, and the Hoyt Sector Model are a few fundamental models you should be familiar with.
• Use meditation applications like Headspace or Calm to reduce your tension. Feeling stressed out while studying for an exam is very simple, so using positive affirmations, being confident in your talents, and trusting them is crucial. The easiest method to maintain a happy outlook while studying for AP® Human Geography is to use a meditation app, such as Headspace or Calm. After your study session, relax and practice meditation for 15 to 30 minutes. It will help you relax and eliminate the stress that prevents you from clearly remembering or understanding information. Overall, it will help you advance academically.

Well-prepared students for AP Human Geography can raise their GPA, skip general education requirements, and receive college credit.

A nation-state is a sovereign state in which the political and cultural boundaries of the state coincide.

AP Because of its distinctive course material, Human Geography is frequently rated moderately to exceptionally difficult. Many students may find the idea of human geography to be alien, but chances are they have previously investigated some of the course’s principles independently.

Balkanization is a phrase that is frequently used to describe the breakdown of larger countries and states due to multiethnicity, which results in ethnic fragmentation and a general sense of political fragmentation.

According to the Gravity Model, the interaction between two locations may be calculated by multiplying their respective populations by a square root of their distance.

You’ll examine how people have viewed, utilized, and altered the Earth’s surface. You’ll explore trends in human population, migration, and land use using geographers’ methods and ways of thinking.

Acculturation is the adoption of cultural characteristics, such as language, by one group as a result of the influence of another.

A politically bound area ruled by an established government with jurisdiction over its domestic and foreign affairs.

A site is a city’s precise location; you can locate it on a map.

A city’s situation is related to its surrounding features, both man-made and natural.

A group of individuals with similar cultural traits is called a nation.

Global cities, or world cities as they are sometimes known, are frequently the most significant cities in the world regarding their economic and cultural effects.

The associations and uses that conjure up a feeling of the past for a particular location are embodied in a cultural landscape.

Although environmental determinism need not be, and typically is not, deterministic in the strict meaning of the word, it holds that physical geographic elements such as climate and topography exert a significant and unmediated influence over human affairs.

The globally acknowledged exercise of a nation’s authority over its citizens and territory is known as sovereignty.

The exam was held on May 5, 2025.

Multiplying 70 by the annual growth rate yields the doubling time (in years). Imagine that the population is expanding at a pace of 4% per year; this is a relatively rapid rate of expansion. The doubling time (DT) equals 70 divided by the growth rate, according to the Rule of 70. 

A formal region is a space where everyone has defining qualities in common.

Agglomeration is a localized economy in which numerous businesses and industries group together and reap the benefits of cost savings and increased productivity brought on by this proximity.

A mathematical technique called arithmetic density provides an average of the population in a given area.

The phrase “shatter belt” often refers to a geographic area threatened by local disputes between states or countries in the region and the involvement of the opposing great powers outside the region.

A community of people lacking international recognition is known as a stateless nation. They are located within the boundaries of another state, which they consider necessary because they are significantly distinct from it.

The land’s capacity to support a specific population.

The term “globalization” refers to the growing interconnection of political, cultural, and economic factors on a global scale.

Hierarchical Diffusion occurs when an idea spreads by first circulating among the most connected individuals, then spreading to others.

The number of people per area suitable for agriculture is known as physiological density.

The AP Human Geography test consists of 60 multiple-choice questions.

A history/social science course is regarded to be AP Human Geography.

For many students, taking the AP Human Geography exam is worthwhile. In general, AP courses help assist students in developing college-level skills while still in high school. The importance of AP Human Geography is highlighted by the fact that it introduces many students to AP classes.

Cultural features are the particular practices that make up a given culture’s way of life daily, including its language, religion, ethnicity, social institutions, and elements of popular culture.

An edge city is a city that is surrounded by a sizable suburban commercial and residential region. The beltway connects these locations. At first, the peripheral cities served as suburbs for people who lived in the center of cities and worked there.

Folk culture is the adoption of specific customs by a small group of people that add to their distinctiveness.

The term “multiplier effect” refers to how the presence of primary and non-basic businesses in a region causes its economic base to grow.

The creator of the gravitational model is Isaac Newton.

Half the possible points are allocated to each AP Human Geography exam section.

Students can get 3 credits for AP Human Geography.

There are 3 FRQs and 60 MCQs total.

• Start by defining the scope of the question. Ensure you include all topics necessary to answer and avoid any extraneous information. For example, if you are asking about factors influencing population growth and decline in an area, then make sure to provide definitions for population growth and decline as well as for things like natural increase rates, fertility rates, immigration/emigration/net migration patterns, etc. This will give students a clear idea of what is being asked and how to approach it.
• Next, craft your prompt carefully with enough detail so that students understand precisely what they need to do but not too much that they feel overwhelmed or confused by irrelevant information. Ensure there is some guidance in structure or ideas so that students can build something tangible when constructing their answer without having it appear spoonfed or too restrictive in their ideas.
• Finally, provide multiple examples throughout the prompt about topics such as population change theory or geographic concepts so that students can recognize patterns among different questions on different tests year after year, which will make answering each new one more efficient for them over time due to repetition with similar contexts throughout the testing experience in this subject area followed up with proper practice/revision during preparation periods prior taking tests pertaining AP Human Geography along other related subjects depending on educational board policy requirements respectively.

The physical characteristics of a location are related to production expenses for businesses, such as land, labor, and capital.

An area within a city in a less developed nation where individuals create homemade structures and unlawfully build homes on land they do not own or rent.

A border is formed by employing latitude and longitude lines and their related arcs.

The term “growth pole” refers to the concentration of technologically sophisticated and highly inventive industries that foster economic growth in related businesses and industries.

Centripetal force is an attitude that brings people together and strengthens support for a government. In other words, a state’s internal centripetal forces keep it together and maintain its unity. They bolster the nation’s stability, foster solidarity, and make it stronger.

Cultural relativism is defined as understanding a culture on its own terms rather than evaluating it by one’s own norms or customs.

Ethnic religions have a direct connection to a region’s physical environment, culture, and ethnic background. Ethnic religions focus on one group, sometimes in one location or within one ethnicity, rather than trying to appeal to everyone. The two most prominent instances of ethnic religions are Judaism and Hinduism.

The belief that one’s own ethnic group is superior is known as ethnocentrism.

A political movement known as irredentism has a close relationship with nationalism. It is a political movement that seeks to bring a country back together or retake a lost region.

Outsourcing is a corporate decision to delegate substantially of the responsibility for manufacturing to independent suppliers.

A culture that is based on wide distribution rather than being bound to a particular region is known as popular culture.

Shifting cultivation is a type of farming in which farmers cultivate the ground for two or three seasons at a time. After that, they leave the field to grow vegetables naturally. Farmers then relocate to a new location.

According to Halford Mackinder’s heartland theory, whoever controls Eastern Europe’s heartland would rule the globe.

German economist and farmer Johann Heinrich von Thünen was interested in the agrarian upheaval that followed the industrial revolution. He kept meticulous records of his estate’s transactions for more than 40 years while owning a sizable farming estate close to the German city of Rostock.

AP Human geography is categorized as a social science and history course. Be warned that a lot of prestigious colleges don’t give credit for this.

The seven widely taught units of study that make up the AP Human Geography framework present one possible order for the course.

• Learn the Models & the Inventors.
• Know the Vocabulary Inside & Out.
• Learn Where Each Country Is Located on a Map.
• Make a Current Events Journal.

AP Human Geography is classified as a history/social science course.

Language Family is a group of languages connected to one another by a common ancestor who lived long before recorded history.

The AP Human Geography course is similar to a sophomore-level college course and is an excellent approach to preparing high school students for college-level study.

A commodity chain is a method that businesses use to obtain resources, change them into products or commodities, and then distribute those products to customers. It is a network of connections that join the many production and distribution hubs to create a good subsequently traded on the global market.

A frontier is an area of land under no state’s jurisdiction.

In contrast to centripetal forces, centrifugal forces are ideas or actions that have a tendency to split a state in two. Although centrifugal forces start in the same dimensions as centripetal forces, the population is pulled away rather than brought together by the forces.

The ability of a nation, business, or individual to create a good or service at a lower opportunity cost than other producers is known as comparative advantage.

According to the principle known as “distance decay,” interaction between two locations reduces as distance between them rises.

Extensive farming is a style of agricultural production in which crops or livestock are produced using only modest amounts of labor, money, and chemicals.

Data about locations on Earth’s surface can be captured, stored, checked, and displayed using a computer system known as a geographic information system (GIS). Streets, buildings, and plants can all be displayed on a single map using GIS.

Remote sensing refers to photographing the Earth’s surface from satellites (or, previously, airplanes) to gain a clearer understanding of the planet’s geography from great distances.

Sustainability is the practice of using Earth’s resources in a way that guarantees their continued availability.

The idea of sustainable development refers to using natural resources in a way that satisfies present requirements without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to satiate their own needs.

Territoriality is the idea of a specified area of land or water that is claimed by a group or individual as their own and is shielded from outside intervention.

In 1884, the Berlin Conference was held with the goal of allocating the African continent among the major European imperial powers (Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and Italy). It is among the most important occasions that occurred throughout the imperial era (circa 1870-1914).

Demographers use the demographic transition model to classify various nations’ economic and population growth rates. The model examines trends in a society’s overall population as well as birth and death rates at a specific time.

The College Board exam season timeline’s most recent version indicates that students will receive their AP scores in July 2025. The College Board traditionally announces AP results at the start of July.

Islam was mainly spread through contagious diffusion through military conquest into North Africa and Western Europe and through Arab traders going to Indonesia.

• Analyze the exam’s layout to develop a test-taking strategy.
• Include an additional review book like Barron’s in your study schedule.
• Use Quizlet to create flashcards for essential terms.
• Describe many types of geographical regions in a study journal.
• Join or create a study group for AP Human Geography.
• Subscribe to AP Human Geography’s social media pages
• Interact with media connected to AP Human Geography.
• Construct a review manual for geographic ideas and models.
• Reduce tension by utilizing Headspace or Calm meditation applications.

• Buy a study book.
• Take a practice test a week or two before the exam.
• Make flashcards for each chapter throughout the year.
• Read your textbook consistently.

• Read the opening paragraph. Be careful to read the brief introduction before diving into the first portion of the question.
• Select the proper task verb (and Understand What It Means)
• Read your response again and check it twice.
• Take It Slowly.

AP Human Geography is a one-year elective. The goal of AP Human Geography is to have students think regionally by having them consider the “where” and “why” of patterns we can see on the surface of the Earth.

What is there? Where is it? Why is it there? What are the affects of it being there?

Political boundary: An arbitrary line defining the bounds of the territory of a state. Frontier: An area of land over which no state has jurisdiction. Geometric boundary: A border made using latitude and longitude lines and the arcs that connect them.

A census is a periodic, official count of a nation’s population.

The network of political and economic ties that organizes the production of food for market purposes is known as agribusiness. It entails operations, including seed production, retail sales, and agricultural product consumption.

The network of political and economic ties that organizes the production of food for market purposes is known as agribusiness. It entails operations, including seed production, retail sales, and agricultural product consumption.

A lingua franca is a language that incorporates basic terms from several different languages to enable communication between individuals who must understand one another to conduct trade and facilitate business.

A microstate (ministate) is a small country both in terms of people and land size.

When two or more languages coexist in a small geographic area, a “pidgin” language frequently develops. It entails the organic blending of two or more languages into a single flexible dialect.

A network of people and activities known as supply chains is used to transfer a product from its production point to the final customer.