Student instructions. This mid-course diagnostic covers only Units 1–4 (Thinking Geographically; Population & Migration; Cultural Patterns; Political Patterns). It does not include agriculture, urban, or industrial/development content.
- Section I — Multiple Choice: 30 questions, 30 minutes. Each question has exactly four choices (A–D); choose the single best answer. Some questions refer to a stimulus (a described map, graph, table, or image) and some come in sets of 2–3 questions on one stimulus.
- Section II — Free Response: 2 questions, 38 minutes (aim for ~19 minutes each). Write in complete sentences. Match the action verb exactly — if a part says describe, describing earns the point and explaining does not; if it says explain, you must give a reason or mechanism ("…because…").
- Scoring: Section I and Section II are weighted 50% / 50% (approximate; see the score-band note at the end).
AP is a trademark of the College Board, which does not endorse this product. All places labeled "Country X/Y/Z," all pyramids, tables, and referendum/vote figures are hypothetical teaching constructs; any numbers are illustrative, not real-world data.
30 questions · 30 minutes · choose the single best answer (A–D).
Mercator is conformal (true shape/direction) but grossly inflates high-latitude areas (Greenland looks huge).
Symbols sized proportional to a value = proportional/graduated symbol map; choropleth shades areas, a dot map uses uniform dots.
Situation = a place's relationship/connectivity to other places (the river link); site = its own physical features (the harbor).
A region defined by perception/identity with fuzzy, contested borders = vernacular (perceptual).
Interaction falling sharply as distance grows = distance decay / friction of distance.
The same event reads as a different problem at household, county, and global scales — scale of analysis shapes the observed pattern.
Questions 7–9 refer to the following stimulus.
STIMULUS (quantitative — population pyramid, "Country X"). A population pyramid for Country X is a broad triangle: a very wide base of children ages 0–14, sides that taper steeply upward, and an extremely narrow tip above age 65. Males (left) and females (right) are roughly symmetrical at every age.
Wide base + high births + falling deaths (steep taper) = Stage 2 (early expanding); no country sits in Stage 1 today.
A wide base means many children per woman → high TFR and rapid growth.
A working-age male bulge in a city pyramid signals labor in-migration, not a change in births/deaths.
Stage 3's tell is the base pulling inward as birth rates fall; Stage 2's base is still widening.
Short moves, step-wise long moves to big cities, and matched counterflows are core Ravenstein regularities.
Zelinsky ties migration type to DTM stage (Stage 2 → heavy emigration/rural-to-urban; Stage 4 → destination).
| Country | Arithmetic density | Physiological density |
|---|---|---|
| Country M | Low (illustrative) | Very high (illustrative) |
| Country N | Moderate | Moderate |
The large gap between arithmetic and physiological density in Country M most strongly indicates that Country M:
Physiological density (people ÷ arable land) far above arithmetic density means little farmland relative to total land (e.g., Egypt/Nile pattern).
Displaced but still inside their own country's borders = internally displaced persons.
Megacities → large cities → small towns is diffusion down an urban hierarchy = hierarchical.
The concept spreads while the specific product is adapted to a local rule = stimulus diffusion.
Universalizing religions seek converts and cross cultures; ethnic religions are tied to one people/place.
A pidgin that gains native (first-language) speakers and full grammar becomes a creole.
Questions 19–20 refer to the following stimulus.
STIMULUS (qualitative — religion distribution map). A map of a world region shades areas by predominant religion. Religion P forms a solid, contiguous block centered on a single hearth and radiating outward into adjacent lands; the legend notes it "actively seeks converts." Religion Q appears as small, scattered patches concentrated among one ethnic group and its migrant communities in distant cities, with no expansion into surrounding populations.
Contiguous block radiating from a hearth + convert-seeking = universalizing religion via expansion diffusion.
Scattered patches tied to one ethnic group's migrant communities = ethnic religion via relocation diffusion.
Popular culture diffuses widely/rapidly and homogenizes landscapes; folk culture is localized and change-resistant.
Selective, partial adoption of the host culture while keeping heritage traits = acculturation (full absorption = assimilation).
A nation with no state of its own, split across several states = stateless nation (Kurds).
A line forced onto an existing cultural landscape, ignoring it = superimposed boundary.
A shared external threat unifies a state = centripetal; the other three options mislabel dividing/uniting forces.
Supranationalism = states ceding some sovereignty upward to a larger body (EU/NATO/ASEAN); devolution sends power down.
Questions 27–28 refer to the following stimulus.
STIMULUS (qualitative — electoral district map). A map of a state's legislative districts shows several districts with bizarre, contorted shapes — long thin arms and irregular fingers that reach across the map to gather specific neighborhoods. One district snakes narrowly along a highway to connect two distant clusters of the same voter group; another packs nearly all of one group's voters into a single oddly shaped district.
Contorted districts drawn to capture specific voters = gerrymandering.
Concentrating a group into one district = packing; spreading it thin across many = cracking.
Continued economic control after formal independence = neocolonialism.
Spykman's Rimland = the maritime coastal fringe of Eurasia (vs. Mackinder's interior Heartland).
2 questions · 38 minutes (~19 minutes each) · write in complete sentences · match every action verb.
No stimulus. Apply Units 1–4 concepts to the scenario in your own words. Watch the verbs: describe = observable statement, no cause needed; explain = statement plus a reason/mechanism; compare = both a similarity and a difference, stated explicitly.
People are leaving a lower-income country, Country Y, in large numbers. Many are young adults migrating to a wealthier neighboring country in search of work; a smaller group is fleeing violence in a border province.
ONE stimulus, described below. Analyze and apply. Read the whole stimulus before writing. Every part refers to it. Again: describe vs. explain vs. identify — match the verb.
STIMULUS (population pyramid — "Country Z"). The population pyramid for Country Z is top-heavy: the base (ages 0–14) is narrow, the middle and upper-middle cohorts (roughly ages 40–70) are the widest bars, and there are noticeably more women than men in the oldest cohorts. The overall silhouette is closer to an inverted pyramid than a triangle. Country Z is a wealthy, highly industrialized nation.
| # | Ans | One-line rationale |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | Mercator is conformal (true shape/direction) but grossly inflates high-latitude areas (Greenland looks huge). |
| 2 | C | Symbols sized proportional to a value = proportional/graduated symbol map; choropleth shades areas, a dot map uses uniform dots. |
| 3 | A | Situation = a place's relationship/connectivity to other places (the river link); site = its own physical features (the harbor). |
| 4 | C | A region defined by perception/identity with fuzzy, contested borders = vernacular (perceptual). |
| 5 | D | Interaction falling sharply as distance grows = distance decay / friction of distance. |
| 6 | D | The same event reads as a different problem at household, county, and global scales — scale of analysis shapes the observed pattern. |
| 7 | A | Wide base + high births + falling deaths (steep taper) = Stage 2 (early expanding); no country sits in Stage 1 today. |
| 8 | B | A wide base means many children per woman → high TFR and rapid growth. |
| 9 | D | A working-age male bulge in a city pyramid signals labor in-migration, not a change in births/deaths. |
| 10 | D | Stage 3's tell is the base pulling inward as birth rates fall; Stage 2's base is still widening. |
| 11 | D | Short moves, step-wise long moves to big cities, and matched counterflows are core Ravenstein regularities. |
| 12 | B | Zelinsky ties migration type to DTM stage (Stage 2 → heavy emigration/rural-to-urban; Stage 4 → destination). |
| 13 | A | Physiological density (people ÷ arable land) far above arithmetic density means little farmland relative to total land (e.g., Egypt/Nile pattern). |
| 14 | D | Displaced but still inside their own country's borders = internally displaced persons. |
| 15 | A | Megacities → large cities → small towns is diffusion down an urban hierarchy = hierarchical. |
| 16 | C | The concept spreads while the specific product is adapted to a local rule = stimulus diffusion. |
| 17 | B | Universalizing religions seek converts and cross cultures; ethnic religions are tied to one people/place. |
| 18 | C | A pidgin that gains native (first-language) speakers and full grammar becomes a creole. |
| 19 | A | Contiguous block radiating from a hearth + convert-seeking = universalizing religion via expansion diffusion. |
| 20 | A | Scattered patches tied to one ethnic group's migrant communities = ethnic religion via relocation diffusion. |
| 21 | D | Popular culture diffuses widely/rapidly and homogenizes landscapes; folk culture is localized and change-resistant. |
| 22 | B | Selective, partial adoption of the host culture while keeping heritage traits = acculturation (full absorption = assimilation). |
| 23 | C | A nation with no state of its own, split across several states = stateless nation (Kurds). |
| 24 | D | A line forced onto an existing cultural landscape, ignoring it = superimposed boundary. |
| 25 | C | A shared external threat unifies a state = centripetal; the other three options mislabel dividing/uniting forces. |
| 26 | A | Supranationalism = states ceding some sovereignty upward to a larger body (EU/NATO/ASEAN); devolution sends power down. |
| 27 | B | Contorted districts drawn to capture specific voters = gerrymandering. |
| 28 | A | Concentrating a group into one district = packing; spreading it thin across many = cracking. |
| 29 | B | Continued economic control after formal independence = neocolonialism. |
| 30 | C | Spykman's Rimland = the maritime coastal fringe of Eurasia (vs. Mackinder's interior Heartland). |
Stimulus-based items (11 of 30): Q2, Q5, Q7, Q8, Q9, Q11, Q13, Q19, Q20, Q27, Q28 — roughly balanced quantitative (Q5 graph, Q7–9 pyramid, Q13 table) and qualitative (Q2 map type, Q11 flow map, Q19–20 religion map, Q27–28 electoral map), with three sets (Q7–9, Q19–20, Q27–28).
(A) Compare — refugee vs. IDP. Similarity: Both are forced migrants — people compelled to flee their homes by violence, persecution, or disaster rather than moving voluntarily. Difference: A refugee crosses an international border to seek safety, whereas an internally displaced person remains inside their own country's borders. (A stated similarity AND a stated difference = "compare.")
(B) Explain — a push factor. A push factor is a negative condition driving people to leave. For example, a lack of jobs and low wages in Country Y pushes young adults out because they cannot earn a living or support families at home, so the prospect of no economic future makes staying untenable. (Force named + "because" mechanism = "explain." Other acceptable pushes: political persecution, violence/war, environmental disaster, food insecurity.)
(C) Explain — effect on the source pyramid. Migrants are disproportionately young adults, so their departure removes people from the working-age (roughly 15–40) cohorts of Country Y's pyramid. This creates a dent or narrowing in the middle of the source-country pyramid and leaves behind a relatively larger share of children and elderly, because the group most likely to migrate is exactly the group that would otherwise fill those bars — raising the dependency ratio on those who remain.
(D) Explain — a cultural effect on the destination (with a diffusion type). Through relocation diffusion, migrants carry their language, religion, and cuisine with them into the destination country. For example, they may establish places of worship, restaurants, and community institutions, because people physically moving transplant their cultural traits to the new place, adding to the destination's cultural landscape (and potentially producing acculturation or syncretism over time). (Must name a specific diffusion type — relocation — and tie it to a concrete cultural outcome.)
(E) Explain — a political challenge at the destination. Large-scale immigration can create political tension over integration and national identity, because rapid arrival of a culturally distinct group can be perceived as a centrifugal force by some residents, fueling debates over citizenship, public services, and immigration policy, and pressuring the government to respond. (Other acceptable: strain on public services/infrastructure, rise of anti-immigrant politics, questions of assimilation vs. multiculturalism.)
Rubric (7 points):
| Part | Point(s) | Earned for | Common point-loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 2 | (1) a valid similarity (both forced migrants) + (1) a valid difference (crosses border vs. stays inside) | Giving only a definition of one term; stating a difference but no similarity (or vice versa) |
| B | 1 | A push factor plus a mechanism ("because…") | Just naming "no jobs" with no reason; giving a pull factor instead |
| C | 1 | Loss of young adults → dent/narrowing in working-age cohorts of the source pyramid | Saying only "population goes down"; ignoring which cohorts are affected |
| D | 2 | (1) naming relocation diffusion + (1) a concrete cultural outcome at the destination | Naming a wrong diffusion type; describing culture with no diffusion link |
| E | 1 | A political challenge with a reason | Restating a cultural or economic effect with no political dimension |
Verb callout: Part A is the trap — compare requires both a similarity and a difference; students who only contrast lose a point. Parts B–E all say explain, so every one needs a "because/mechanism"; a bare description earns nothing.
(A) Describe — the pyramid's shape. Country Z's pyramid is top-heavy / inverted: the base (ages 0–14) is narrow, the widest bars are in the middle and upper-middle cohorts (roughly 40–70), and the oldest cohorts have more women than men. (Observable features only — no causes. Correct for "describe.")
(B) Identify — DTM stage. Stage 4 (low stationary), tipping toward the debated Stage 5 (declining/natural decrease). (One answer; either Stage 4 or Stage 5 with the aging/low-birth justification is acceptable.)
(C) Explain — what the narrow base indicates about TFR. The narrow base means few children are being born relative to the size of older cohorts, which indicates a low total fertility rate — at or below replacement level (~2.1) — because the base of a pyramid reflects recent births, and a pinched base can only occur when women are having few children.
(D) Explain — a consequence for dependency ratio / labor force. As the large middle cohorts age into retirement and the small base cannot replace them, Country Z faces a rising old-age dependency ratio: a shrinking working-age population must support a growing elderly population, because there are too few young workers entering the labor force to offset the many people leaving it — straining pensions, healthcare, and tax revenue.
(E) Explain — how immigration policy could address this. Country Z could adopt more open immigration policies to attract working-age migrants, because immigrants are disproportionately young adults who fill labor shortages, pay taxes, and can raise the birth rate, directly countering the shrinking working-age base shown in the pyramid. (Acceptable alternative: pro-natalist policies — but the part asks specifically about immigration.)
(F) Explain — an effect at a different scale. At the global scale, Country Z's need for workers makes it a migration destination that pulls young adults from Stage 2 countries, because the demographic imbalance in one wealthy nation drives an international migration stream — linking Country Z's aging to another country's emigration and even to global remittance flows back to source countries. (Acceptable regional-scale alternative: labor shortages concentrate in particular provinces/cities, reshaping internal migration.)
(G) Explain — a limitation of the DTM. The DTM was built on the historical experience of Western European industrialization and assumes a single path, so it does not perfectly predict every country's trajectory — because it treats fertility decline as automatic and largely ignores the role of immigration, government policy, culture, and sudden shocks (war, epidemic) in shaping a country's actual age structure. (Model = lens, not law: naming the limit is the AP skill.)
Rubric (7 points):
| Part | Point | Earned for | Common point-loss |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1 | Describing the top-heavy shape (narrow base, wide middle/top) — observable only | Explaining causes here (wastes time, earns nothing on a describe) |
| B | 1 | Identifying Stage 4 (or Stage 5 with justification) | Saying Stage 2 or 3; over-writing a one-word "identify" |
| C | 1 | Narrow base → low TFR (≤ replacement) with a reason | Just repeating "narrow base" with no fertility inference |
| D | 1 | Aging structure → rising dependency ratio / shrinking labor force, with mechanism | Naming "aging" but not linking it to dependency/workers |
| E | 1 | Immigration of working-age migrants explained as a fix | Suggesting a policy with no demographic reasoning; ignoring the immigration prompt |
| F | 1 | A genuine different-scale effect (global migration stream / remittances / regional labor) | Restating the national-scale effect; naming a scale with no effect attached |
| G | 1 | A real DTM limitation (Eurocentric, ignores migration/policy/shocks) with a reason | Vague "it's just a model"; describing the DTM instead of critiquing it |
Scale-analysis callout: Part F is the required scale move — graders want you to name the scale you jump to ("At the global scale…") and attach a concrete effect. Verb callout: Part A (describe) must stay observational; Parts C–G (explain) each need a "because." Explaining on A or describing on C–G is the top point-loss on this FRQ.
Weight Section I and Section II equally (50% / 50%). Convert each to a percentage, average them, then read the band below. These bands are approximate teaching guides, calibrated to typical AP cut points, not official.
| Composite (avg. of the two 50% halves) | Approx. AP score | Reading |
|---|---|---|
| ~75–100% | 5 | Strong command of Units 1–4; verbs and scale handled cleanly |
| ~62–74% | 4 | Solid; occasional verb mismatch or thin explanation |
| ~48–61% | 3 | Passing; models mostly known, execution uneven |
| ~35–47% | 2 | Gaps in models or verb discipline |
| below ~35% | 1 | Rebuild core Unit 1–4 models before Mock Exam 2 |
Diagnostic tips. (1) On MC, review any missed stimulus item — misreading a pyramid, map, or table is the most common mid-course weakness. (2) On FRQ, the fastest points to recover are verb-match points: reread each part and confirm you described when asked to describe and gave a because whenever asked to explain. (3) If you lost the scale point (FRQ 2F), practice explicitly naming "local / regional / global" in every synthesis answer before Mock Exam 2.
HumanGeoIQ · Mock Exam 1 of 2 · Mid-Course Diagnostic · Units 1–4 (Lessons 1–16)
This is exam-preparation material for the AP Human Geography exam. AP is a trademark of the College Board, which does not endorse this product. Geographic models and theorists (DTM, Ravenstein, Zelinsky, Mackinder, Spykman) are attributed and described qualitatively. "Country X/Y/Z/M/N/P/Q" are hypothetical teaching constructs; all densities, pyramid figures, vote/district patterns, and any numbers are illustrative, not real-world data. Content pending external geography review.
Your running multiple-choice score appears in the bar below. Self-score the free-response section with the rubrics in the answer key, then use the diagnostic table to target review.