Social Studies
What the test rewards
Social studies questions span history, geography, civics/government, and economics, with an emphasis on how these connect to students' lives and to inquiry skills.
Concepts to master
- Geography: the five themes (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, region), map skills (scale, legend, cardinal/intermediate directions), and latitude/longitude.
- Civics: the three branches of government and their checks and balances, the Bill of Rights, levels of government (local, state, federal), and the rights and responsibilities of citizens.
- History: chronology, primary vs. secondary sources, cause and effect, and perspective.
- Economics: scarcity, opportunity cost, goods and services, producers and consumers, and supply and demand.
Traps
Test writers blur primary and secondary sources-diaries, letters, and artifacts are primary; textbooks and encyclopedias are secondary. Watch for confusion between latitude (east-west lines measuring north-south position) and longitude, and between the roles of the branches (Congress makes laws; the President executes; courts interpret).
Worked example
A student must decide whether a photograph taken at a 1963 march is a primary or secondary source. Because it was created during the event by a witness, it is primary. Rule of thumb: ask who created it, when, and for what purpose?
Rule of thumb
For civics items, trace which branch has the power and which branch checks it-most distractors swap those roles.