GEO 101 World Human Geography Exam 1 Review Spring 2011

When is the Exam? Monday February 7
Where is the Exam? In our regular classroom
What do I need to Bring? A pencil, a pen for essays if you wish, and your brain (appendix optional).
What the Exam will be like? The midterm will have 40 multiple choice and true false questions. 30 will cover concepts, terms, positions, etc. discussed in lecture, discussion, and in your text. 10 will be map identification questions. The first 30 will be divided into 3 sections: Definitions; Applications and Importance of Material; and Thinking and Logic Questions. Sample questions may be found on the web site. There are also sample questions at the end of each chapter in your textbook. Finally, there will be 5 short answer questions very similar to those you have answered for discussion (though not necessarily on our discussion topics). You will have 50 minutes to take the exam, so budget your time accordingly. Places for which you will need to know the location are listed below as well as a link to a practice map.

How and what to study: Your first line of attack should be to carefully review your notes from lecture. The best way to do this is to read through your notes and the outlines provided on the web site for each day to remind yourself of the topics covered. Then put your notes aside and attempt to reconstruct the main points covered-and what they mean on paper.  Write them down. You may even want to do some free writing recounting the significant points and reflecting upon the significance of what you have learned.  Then compare what you have written with the online lecture outlines and the section headings in your textbook. Next, you should carefully review the appropriate terms in the glossary (of both your textbook and the online glossary). Write down definitions in your own words. The summaries, key terms, and review questions at the end of each chapter in your textbook should also be useful. The discussion manual glossary provides not only definitions, but also context for the terms developed in class. It is a good resource. Finally make sure you have carefully read each of the assigned discussion readings and can adequately answer the questions for each discussion. As I write the exam, I will be reviewing those questions myself. I will also look at the various section headings in each article (and in your textbook) as they often point to main ideas. For some of the discussions (but not all) I have also provided a list of concepts, ideas, and places that you might want to review. We have covered quite a bit of material. The key to effectively studying is to be able to grasp the main ideas and connect them with ideas and concepts that fall under them.

On the class home page there are links to several web sites (see WWW Study Skills Resources) that have useful information about preparing for multiple choice exams. As always come see me with any questions you might have. If you know that you have difficulty taking exams I encourage you to come see me before the exam so that we can work out some strategies for you to explore.

The following is a list of most of the topics we have covered. It is by no means all inclusive so be sure that you look at your lecture notes, outlines, the lists of concepts in the introduction to some of the discussions and the list of Key Terms at the end of each chapter in your textbook.

Geographical Concepts and the Global Context: definitions of Geography (including the literal definition), how places are both unique and interdependent, the geography of breakfast, types of location (nominal, absolute, relative, site and situation, etc.), place, location, site, situation, regions (3 types), geographic scale (map scale and observational geographic scale), space (absolute and relative), spatiality, spatial variation, spatial association, distribution, spatial diffusion, contagious diffusion, hierarchical diffusion, barriers to diffusion, spatial interaction, globalization, complementarity, transferability, intervening opportunity, distance, distance decay, Oil Spill discussion. GIS, GPS, Remote Sensing,

Geographies of Environment and Population
Population:, measures of population (Crude Birth Rate, Crude Death Rate, Total Fertility Rate), What TFR leads to replacement population?, Rate of Natural Increase, doubling time, etc.), types of population density (arithmetic, physiological, agricultural), overpopulation, population pyramids, population control policies, theories of population growth (including Malthus, Marx, Cornucopian, demographic transition model, and feminist ideas), can you draw a diagram of the demographic transition?, migration, push and pull factors, voluntary and involuntary/forced migration, immigration, emigration;

Nature and the Environment theories or ways of looking at nature and their implications, Glacken's 3 conceptions, environmental determinism, possibilism, actor-network theory, humans as modifiers of the earth, What is Nature?, race to the pole (unless we don’t finish because of snow day) the production of nature, environment, biodiversity, First Law of Ecology, natural capital, renewable resources, non-renewable resources, common property resources, open-access resources, fossil fuels, renewable energy resources, greenhouse effect, global warming/climate change, carbon footprints, land use and land-cover change,  Climate change discussion, concepts from Wednesday Feb 2 lecture (unless we have a snow day)

In general the test will cover:

• Lecture material up to and including the lecture on environmental problems.
• Discussions up to and including The Geography of Environmental Justice
• Greiner Chapters 1, 3, and 12.

Places for which you need to know the locations
Northern Africa and Southwest Asia have been especially prominent with the news lately (the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and events in Tunisia and Egypt etc.) so we are going to focus on these regions for this exam. We'll do other regions on other tests. You'll find a practice map on the web site that you can print out. (Note that for the map section you only need to know locations, you do not need to know anything about the places):

Egypt, Nile River, Tunisia, Sudan, Somalia, Niger, Ethiopia, Libya, Chad, Afghanistan, Kabul, Iraq, Baghdad, Iran, Israel, West Bank, Gaza, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Qatar, Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Kuwait, Pakistan, India, Mumbai, Caspian Sea, Aral Sea (or what's left of it), Black Sea, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka. Myanmar, Indonesia, China.

Suggestion for learning locations: Make several copies of the practice map (which is available online). Without the aid of a map, try to locate and label each of the places you need to know for the test on a blank map. Check your answers against a map. Make note of those that you couldn't locate and note their locations. Repeat until you get every location correct. Do this once a day until the day of the test and you'll pass the map section with flying colors!

Honor Code Issues During the exam please put all class materials out of sight, do not use music players, and do not talk.

Final Comments
Above all, take some time to study for the test. But also make sure that you use your studying time wisely. Don't just stare at your notes for hours on end, come up with a studying strategy. If you have no idea where to start, come visit me! (Or call or e-mail and make an appointment.) I will do all I can to help you prepare for the test but I can not help you if you do not approach me for help.  

Map of Northern Africa

Map of Southwest Asia