Geography
Concepts the test expects
Geography items combine physical and human geography. Know map fundamentals: latitude and longitude, scale, and projection distortion, including Mercator (shape preserved, area distorted at high latitudes) and equal-area projections such as Peters. Understand climate controls: latitude, altitude, proximity to water, ocean currents, and prevailing winds. Review biomes, plate tectonics, weathering and erosion, and the water cycle. Human geography covers population pyramids, the demographic transition model, push-pull migration, urbanization, site versus situation, and land-use models such as von Thunen's rings and Weber's least-cost theory. Also expect cultural geography: cultural hearths, diffusion types (relocation, contagious, hierarchical, stimulus), language and religion patterns, and political geography including boundaries, gerrymandering of space, and core-periphery relationships.
Traps
Do not confuse weather with climate, or a political map with a physical one. Students overgeneralize the demographic transition, assuming all developing countries are in stage two. Correlation traps are common: a map showing two patterns does not establish causation. Scale errors also appear, such as assuming a large-scale map covers a large area; it covers a small area in greater detail.
Rule of thumb
Read every map by first identifying its projection, its scale, and its legend, then describe the pattern before explaining it.
Worked example
"A population pyramid with a broad base and narrow top indicates what?" Answer: high birth rates with high death rates and short life expectancy, typical of stage two of the demographic transition; rapid growth is implied, not stagnation.