Social Science
What to know
Social Science questions sample geography, civics, economics, and U.S. and world history. For geography, know the five themes (location, place, human-environment interaction, movement, regions), map essentials (title, legend, scale, compass rose), and latitude/longitude. Latitude lines run east-west and measure north-south; longitude lines run north-south and measure east-west. In civics, understand the three branches and checks and balances, federalism, and the Bill of Rights. Economics concepts include scarcity, opportunity cost, supply and demand, and producers and consumers. History items emphasize cause and effect, chronology, and perspective-European exploration, colonial settlement, the American Revolution, the Constitution, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the civil rights movement.
Traps
Watch for primary versus secondary sources: a diary, letter, or speech is primary; a textbook or encyclopedia is secondary. Questions may ask which event came first-build a timeline rather than memorizing isolated dates. Avoid presentism: judge historical choices in their context. In economics, opportunity cost is the next-best alternative given up, not every alternative.
Rule of thumb
To read coordinates, remember “latitude is flat” (like a ladder rung) and “longitude is long” (vertical). A location at 30°N, 90°W is in the northern and western hemispheres-useful for eliminating answer choices.