GTLE Social Studies cheat sheet
GTLE Social Studies · Keep the key ideas within reach.
Environmental systems, resource use and evidence-based evaluation
Frame answers as process chains with controlling variables, not lists of landforms.
North German Plain: young glacial relief; moraine, Sander, Urstromtal, Geschiebemergel; determines both drainage and soil type.
Use P = ET + R + ΔS; distinguish potential from actual evapotranspiration.
Soil patterns reflect climate, organisms, relief, parent material, time and human influence; substrate alone does not uniquely determine a soil class.
Know Brundtland, the three-pillar model, and the strong-versus-weak sustainability distinction; reference SDGs.
Renewable harvest needs regeneration and ecosystem conditions; nonrenewable substitution strategies require explicit model assumptions.
IPAT structures impact drivers: population, affluence, technology.
German energy transition hinges on grid expansion, storage, sector coupling and north–south transmission.
Ghana: constitutional government, accountability and civic participation
Use Ghana 1992 constitutional framework for national institutional questions.
Parliament, executive authorities and the Judiciary have distinct constitutional roles.
Judicial independence and accountability are part of the rule of law.
Allegations and official reports require source criticism and fair attribution.
Do not infer current Ghanaian powers or officeholders from foreign civics examples.
Common economics: scarcity, markets, indicators, policy and trade
Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative given up when a choice is made.
A price change moves quantity demanded or supplied along a curve; determinants such as income or input costs shift the curve.
GDP counts final goods and services produced within a country in a given period.
Fiscal policy uses government spending and taxation; monetary policy uses money supply and interest rates.
Comparative advantage explains why specialization and trade can increase total output.
Maps, spatial data and fieldwork
Scale arithmetic: 1:25,000 → 1 cm = 250 m; slope % = vertical/horizontal difference × 100.
Closer contours generally indicate steeper slopes at a common interval; a cross-section follows its specified transect.
Choropleth maps are unit-dependent and invite the ecological fallacy; class breaks alter patterns.
Use relative rates and standardisation when units differ in size.
Remote sensing: state band combination, spatial/temporal resolution and date; use image differencing for change.
Fieldwork requires sampling strategy, controls, error analysis and reproducible documentation.
Historical evidence, chronology and justified interpretation
Identify provenance, audience, genre and transmission before judging evidentiary value.
A normative text does not by itself establish actual compliance.
Chronological sequence alone does not prove a causal mechanism.
Periodization is an interpretation with explicit criteria.
Different perspectives remain subject to evidence and contextual evaluation.