Review PowerPoint 1: Strategies for Multiple Choice Questions

Review PowerPoint 1:

Strategies for Multiple Choice Questions

General Strategies:Identify the key terms/phrases/clues (explained how to do this on last slide). This not only let’s you identify important information, but allows you to identify extra/unnecessary information that you

can disregard (in technical terms these are actually called ‘distractors’)

Reword the question (on paper, or just in your head) to make it easier to understand, based on the

key words.

Eliminate as many incorrect answers as you can, based on the previous two steps

1. The scale of the question (global, regional, national, local). For example, if a question has a phrase like “worldwide” “in the world” or “globally”, you’re using the global scale. If it mentions a region of the world, like Latin America, it’s on the regional scale (this tends to be the case with large topics like religion, languages, even disease distribution). If it mentions a specific county, it’s the national scale (e.g., “In the United States…”). You answer must be correct to the scale of the question – so if the question asks for a global scale and they answer you pick is only true at the national scale, you’ll get it wrong.

2. The periodization of the question (historical time, including the terms ‘prior to’, ‘mid’, or ‘late’, or an actual year)

3. Actual vocabulary used in the question (e.g., ‘pastoral nomadism’)4. Any model/Theory that is referenced (demographic transition,

Von Thunnen, Wallerstein, Malthus.)

Tips for identifying the key terms/words in a question:

Look for 1 OR MORE of the following things in a question..

Example Using a Real Question (next slide)

Compared to North American ranchers, commercial ranchers in the Pampas of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil are more likely to:A.) raise mostly sheepB.) lease their grazing landC.) rely on feedlotsD.) raise livestock primarily for exportE.) use practices developed by indigenous people

Since we know the key terms, we can

then eliminate some of the unnecessary

information. Basically the entire

question is one large distraction.

This is the most important word in the question, which gives you the answer. Recall that commercial farming means that farmers

are selling products, or otherwise making money from them.

This is openly meant to confuse you – you don’t need to know

what this is at all!

Similarly, these particular countries happen to be irrelevant (in this case,

anyhow) to getting the answer, and are meant to distract you (“I don’t

remember anything about Uruguay!”)

Now that we’ve analyzed the question, let’s examine the

answers within that context…

Compared to North American ranchers, commercial ranchers in the Pampas of Argentina, Uruguay, and southern Brazil are more likely to:A.) raise mostly sheepB.) lease their grazing landC.) rely on feedlotsD.) raise livestock primarily for exportE.) use practices developed by indigenous people

These seem like they might be right,

particularly if you fell for the distractors in the

question. If you do that, you’ve convinced yourself that the answer has to be really specific to countries you know little about, so

you miss the simple, obvious, general answer (which happens to be the

correct one)

This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and is also

strangely specific.

The correct answer is choice “D”, and the explanation (if you haven't figured it out yet) is quite simple, based on our

identification of the key terms (in this case, “commercial”). If ‘commercial’ means that you make a profit (money) from your farming, choice “D” (especially the expression “…primarily for

export”) is the only match. Both terms (‘commercial’ in the question and ‘export’ in the answers) naturally go together – they

both involve sales for profit.

*2.) According to the theory of environmental determinism, which of the following areas would have the most productive settlements?A.) Tropical regionsB.) Temperate regionsC.) Mountainous regionsD.) Arctic regionsE.) Arid regions

Remember the first thing to do is to decode the question. Do this by looking for any clues/mental references in the question:

Next, reword what these things mean in simple language, either by recalling what you memorized, or figuring it out

(usually this can be done by analyzing the term itself.)

Let’s pretend you DON’T remember this term (this will happen on the A.P. and it’s ok) – break it down into parts. We know that to determine something is to directly cause its outcome (e.g. The dropping of the atomic

bomb determined the end of World War II). So, then, ‘environmental determinism’ must mean that the physical environment (remember the term ‘environment’ in a

geographical context refers to the physical environment) determines (or, causes)

something. In this case, the ‘something’ refers to the type of society and culture…

Now…settlements are places people inhabit (live). ‘Productive’

could refer to agricultural

production (a lot of crops), or something

else, but because we’re discussing the

physical environment, it’s most likely crops.

In what type of area could people grow the most food and most easily live?*This is my own wording, you could use something different


Now that we understand the question, let’s reword it entirely…

Now something complex seems much more simple (because it is simple, the wording is to

throw you off!).


So now that we understand the question, let’s examine which answers make sense to answer it…take them in turn, and look at

ALL of them, even if you think you see the correct one.

Too hot! Of course agricultural products grow in the tropics (most export-based, cash crops as we’ve discussed), but this would not be ideal, or the “most productive”Yes, you could have production

here as well (remember terraced farming of Asia) but, again, not the

best place if you had a choice!

The artic is too cold for both production and large scale human

settlements.

Too dry! Recall that in arid regions things do grow, but not many, which is why you have

systems like pastoral nomadism!

This leaves only the

correct answer (B – Temperate

Climates)

Everything on the last slide was using the process of elimination

technique. While this is more than valid to use, let’s examine the

logic you could utilize at a higher level.


There are logical reasons why human societies began where they did – many of which you know from Global (e.g., fertile

soil), but a large part of that was also the climate. For the same reason there aren’t huge population clusters in the artic circle,

or in very arid regions, is the same rationale as to why you wouldn’t have very productive agricultural settlements

Remember that, on an A.P. exam, you’re not looking for ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers, per say. In other words, the 4 ‘wrong’ answers are wrong only in the context of answering the

question, they can still be factually true, or somewhat correct. You’re looking for the best answer to address the question

you’re given. Key words to do this are things like “MOST” in this question. This seems minor, but it is crucially important.

Remember that crops grow in all these regions, so which would be the MOST productive settlement?

Another Example

As an academic discipline, geography is principally concerned with the:A.) nature and meanings of place namesB.) impact of the environment on human understandings and activitiesC.) evolving character and spatial organization of Earth’s surfaceD.) absolute location of places, peoples, and processes on Earth’s surfaceE.) construction of maps that depict places, peoples, and processes as accurately as possible

So the entire field of geography (this is

important)

‘principally’ can be exchanged with the

easier ‘mostly’

The clues in the language here tell you something very important about the type of answer you’re looking for. Since the question is asking about the entire field of

geography (and not just 1 small aspect of it), they’re telling you to look for a general, large-scale answer, NOT

something really limited or specific.

“What does Geography mostly study?” (my own rewording)


Remember as we go through the wrong answers what we already discovered in the wording of the question – we’re looking for a

large scale, general answer….

There are 2 primary reasons why choice ‘A’ should seem incorrect to you:

1.) As we already established, we’re looking for a general answer, and ‘A’ is way too specific. It should seem obvious that the entire field of geography does not JUST study the names of place (this would be like ALL of Biology just studying birds,

or ALL of music theory just studying whole notes!).

2.) From a content standpoint, it should also be understood that ‘A’ is really the definition of “TOPONYMS”




B is wrong for the same general reason that A is wrong (too specific), AND it is the definition of Environmental

Determinism (which, coincidentally, was the subject of the previous question we just analyzed).

Same thing with choice D, AND it is the definition of absolute (or ‘mathematical’) location – they even use the term ‘absolute’

in the choice!

E is incorrect for the same reason, AND it is the definition of cartography, or the science of making (constructing) maps.




Now let’s analyze the correct answer (choice C). Notice that it is general in nature – meaning that it isn’t just a part of what a geographer might study, but is more like the type of definition you’d see if

you looked up the term ‘geography’ in a dictionary. Notice the phrase ‘…spatial organization…’,

which generically refers to where and why ANYTHING on earth is where it is (religions,

languages, state capitals, pig farms, hospitals, anything!).

Examples of a question with periodization

These types of questions give you a specific historical context, and often begin with

phrases like:

---In the first half of the twentieth century---Prior to 1750

---In the mid eighteenth century

These questions have built in clues that should help you, at the very least, eliminate answers

that make no historical sense given the timeframe offered in the question.

1. “Prior” – this simply means ‘before’, so if a question begins with this (as in “prior to 1950…”) then you have to ask yourself the following question about EACH answer choice: is this answer true at ANY point before the timeframe they give you? If the answer to this question you ask yourself is NO, then you can eliminate that answer. Let’s use a fictitious sample question:

Some notes on the phrases: prior, mid, early, and late

QUESTION: Prior to 2014, the most common form of communication used by high school students in class was:

A.) The IPhone 6B.) SnapchatC.) Facebook

D.) TwitterE.) Whispering to each other

Now, some of these are true for certain years prior to (before) 2014, but in reality for an answer (let’s say choice D, Twitter) to be true, it has to be true at any point in history before the year

2014! Using that definition, only choice E works (No FB in 1500).

• Mid: means middle of, and is typically used in the context of centuries (100 years). So a phrase like ‘mid eighteenth century’ is common. This simply means about the year 50 of that century (1850, 1950, whatever).

• Early: means before the year 50 (before the midpoint of a given century). So early twentieth century means anytime (approximately)from 1900-1949.

• Late: is anytime from year 50 forward, so the late twentieth century means anytime (approximately) from 1951-1999.

Some notes on the phrases: prior, mid, early, and late

So now let’s analyze a real A.P. question (2006), using the

principles we just went through…

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, which of the following types of intraregional migration was the most prominent worldwide?A.) Rural to urbanB.) Urban to SuburbanC.) Inland to coastalD.) Highland to lowlandE.) Urban to rural

First, let’s again identify the key phrases/terms

In this case the time period is 2 full centuries (200 years of time, the 1800’s and the 1900’s) Notice that there is no

“prior to”, “mid”, or “late” used here, so the question is much more general, and the

answer must be generally true over the 200 years in the question.

The next key term (a vocabulary term) is “Intraregional

migration” – The first thing you should do here is differentiate INTRA (movement within 1 region, like the East Coast)

from INTER (movement between 2 or more regions, like from the East Coast to the

West Coast)

Lastly (but as importantly), the scale is

critically important. In this case, the correct

answer must be correct worldwide (global scale)


Keeping the previous definition in mind, the reword of the question could be something like:

In the 1800’s and 1900’s, how were MOST people migrating (moving their residences)

within a given region, worldwide?


There are 3 problems with this, based on our key terms from the previous slide: the periodization AND the scale. First, there were no suburbs ANYWHERE in the

1800’s. Second, the rise in suburbs was largely an American phenomena, after 1950, so this

can’t be correct. The last problem is that people aren't’ moving OUT

of cities worldwide, they’re moving into them!The problem here isn’t scale or

period, the problem is that it doesn’t make sense! For this to be true, it would mean that the

majority of people IN THE WORLD have been moving

towards the coasts of countries for 200 years!

What? First, the majority of people don’t living highlands

to begin with – this is the stupid answer!

Again, the trend in the world is not people

moving OUT OF CITIES, but INTO

THEM! For this to be true, it means that the

majority of people worldwide have been

moving to the country-side for the past 200 years! This obviously

isn’t true.


The correct answer, choice ‘A’, fits ALL of the criteria that we need it to, outlined below:

A.) Periodization: it’s true that more people have been moving to cities from rural areas since the 1800’s

B.) Scale: this is also true worldwide (the largest scale they ask for), as opposed to only being true at a national (just in France, or the U.S.) or

local scale (just true on Long Island).

C.) If we ask ourselves, “What has to be true in order for this to be the correct answer”, the answer works perfectly. For choice ‘A’ to be true, then the most common form of people moving their residences from the 1800’sthrough the 1900’s has to have been(generally) from

rural, agriculturally based areas into major world cities. We know this to be true.


The Content Explanation:

There are 3 types of intraregional migration (when you see that phrase, you should think of the types):

1. Rural to urban (most common worldwide)2. Urban to suburban (common in U.S. post World War II)

3. Urban to rural (‘counter urbanization)

Negatively Worded Questions

Negatively Worded Questions:• These types of questions are tricky because they’re

negatively worded, and usually include phrases like “except”, ‘not’, ‘all but’, etc.

• The strategy here is to realize that if the question is phrased negatively, then 4 of the 5 choices are true statements, and they are asking your for the false one. So, from a test-taking standpoint, the false answer is the correct one! For example:

Question: All of the following are reasons A.P. Human Geo students are likely to pass their A.P. exam except:

a.) Studying a lotb.) reading multiple sources for information, like text and review books

c.) Getting a good night’s sleep the evening before the testd.) paying close attention to what their teacher tells them in class

e.) not caring at all about their exam

*In this instance, choices a-d are reasons WHY student would pass – but because the question is negatively worded, they’re asking for reasons

students WOULDN’T pass, so ‘E’ is the answer.

Documents

Review PowerPoint 1: Strategies for Multiple Choice Questions