Skip to main content
Sign in Create a free account
Varsity Tutors
Sign in Sign up

Practice Test 82 - AP Human Geography

20 questions. Answer them in any order, then submit to see your score and every explanation.

  1. Secondary source excerpt (political power and territoriality): Maritime territoriality divides ocean space into zones with distinct legal powers. A state's territorial sea grants sovereignty similar to land territory, while the EEZ grants rights to exploit and manage natural resources but does not provide full sovereignty over navigation. Mislabeling zones can cause international incidents when states attempt to apply the wrong level of control to ships or resource extraction. Which statement correctly matches a maritime zone with the rights it provides?
  2. Secondary-source excerpt: In Canada, federal leaders have alternated between negotiating with Quebec's provincial government and using constitutional or legal tools to limit secession efforts. Political geographers note that when the central government offered expanded provincial powers over language policy, education, and immigration selection, separatist support sometimes declined; when Ottawa emphasized uniform national standards, regional parties often gained momentum. The pattern suggests that state strategy—concessions versus resistance—can shape how much authority ultimately shifts to regional governments. Which devolutionary factor is most directly emphasized?
  3. Secondary source excerpt: Climate projections for several staple-crop regions anticipate more frequent heat extremes and greater rainfall variability, even where annual precipitation changes modestly. Agronomists observe that short, intense heat events during flowering can sharply reduce yields, while heavier storms increase erosion and disrupt planting schedules. Adaptation options—altered planting dates, irrigation expansion, new cultivars, or crop insurance—carry tradeoffs and may favor producers with better information and capital. Consequently, climate risk is mediated by both local ecology and unequal adaptive capacity. The pattern described most directly results from which of the following?
  4. In 2024, Country Y reports a crude birth rate (CBR) of 14 births per 1,000 and a crude death rate (CDR) of 12 deaths per 1,000. The government notes that the country also has net in-migration of +6 migrants per 1,000. Secondary sources emphasize that rate of natural increase (RNI/NIR) excludes migration, while population growth rate (PGR) includes it. Which statement is most accurate about Country Y's demographic change?
  5. A secondary-source excerpt explains that early urbanization required not only surplus food but also systems to store, tax, and redistribute grain, along with institutions (religious or political) that coordinated labor for irrigation and construction. Which factor best complements agricultural surplus in explaining the rise of early cities?
  6. A secondary source on family planning notes that in City A, community-based distribution of contraception and legal recognition of women's consent in healthcare increased women's ability to act on desired family size. The author argues that fertility decline accelerated when women could negotiate timing and number of births, but progress stalled where partners or elders controlled decisions. Which statement best captures the role of women's agency in reproductive decisions described here?
  7. Secondary-source excerpt (boundary disputes and conflicts, 75–125 words): Even when a boundary is recognized, disputes may persist over what the border grants access to. Allocational disputes concern the distribution of resources tied to a boundary zone, such as groundwater basins, offshore oil fields, or river water for irrigation. These conflicts may involve competing interpretations of maritime boundaries, exclusive economic zones, or the extent of resource deposits that cross a political line. By contrast, locational disputes focus on the boundary's exact placement, and operational disputes focus on day-to-day border management and enforcement practices. After an offshore gas field is discovered near a maritime boundary, two states argue over which state has drilling rights. Which dispute type best fits?
  8. A drought and job losses in rural Guatemala lead many working-age adults to migrate to the United States. In Guatemala, grandparents increasingly care for children, and some villages report fewer people in their 20s and 30s. In several U.S. cities, schools enroll more children from Guatemalan families and the median age in some neighborhoods declines. Which demographic pattern is most consistent with these changes?
  9. Which research question is best answered with regional-scale data?
  10. In a pastoral-agro system, men typically travel with herds to distant grazing areas, while women maintain home gardens, cultivate small plots near settlements, and process milk into butter and cheese for local exchange. When drought increases, women's garden production becomes more important for household food security. Which of the following best describes women's role in the agricultural system described?
  11. A demographer describes Country A as having an expansive population pyramid: a very wide base (ages 0–14) and a rapidly narrowing top (65+). In a 95-word secondary-source excerpt, the author notes that this shape reflects high fertility, relatively low life expectancy, and a large cohort entering school age each year. Which planning priority most directly follows from this age structure over the next decade?
  12. An economics paper on Country E explains the "demographic dividend" as a period when the working-age share rises relative to dependents after fertility declines, potentially boosting growth if jobs and education expand. The paper notes Country E recently reduced total dependency from 70 to 48 in two decades. Which condition most supports realizing a demographic dividend in Country E?
  13. A scholar describes historical waves of urbanization: early city formation in river valleys, rapid industrial-era urbanization in Europe and North America, and more recent explosive urban growth in parts of Asia and Africa. Which interpretation best aligns with this idea of multiple waves?
  14. An ethnography of a Mediterranean olive-growing area reports that women's labor peaks during harvest and processing, including sorting, curing, and bottling, while men more often handle pruning and sales to wholesalers. The author notes that when olive prices rise, men increasingly claim the identity of "producer," even though women's processing labor remains essential. Which of the following best describes women's role in the agricultural system described?
  15. A secondary source describes a government that bans regional political parties, restricts minority-language media, and uses security forces to suppress protests. The author notes that the state may appear unified in the short term, but these methods can create grievances and deepen identity-based opposition. Which consequence of strong centripetal forces is being emphasized?
  16. A secondary source excerpt on central place theory notes that higher-order centers tend to be fewer in number and farther apart, while lower-order centers are more numerous and closer together, reflecting different thresholds and ranges for goods and services. In a planned region, there are many villages with small markets, fewer towns with hospitals, and only one city with a specialized medical center. Which pattern best matches the excerpt?
  17. Secondary source excerpt (about 95 words): During mid-twentieth-century independence negotiations, colonial administrators often preferred transferring authority to a single centralized government within the colony's existing boundaries. Anticolonial leaders sometimes accepted these borders to speed recognition and avoid reopening territorial disputes, even when the lines cut across multiple ethnolinguistic regions. The resulting states inherited colonial-era legal systems and administrative districts, which shaped later political geography and occasionally fueled separatist conflicts. Which process best explains why many post-independence borders resemble earlier colonial boundaries?
  18. A secondary-source overview of globalization emphasizes container shipping as a key driver of lower transport costs and higher trade volumes. Which change most directly reflects containerization's impact on the world economy?
  19. A secondary-source map caption states: "The Niger-Congo language family dominates much of Sub-Saharan Africa, while Afro-Asiatic languages are concentrated in North Africa and parts of the Horn; both families include many branches and local languages." Which option best interprets this distribution at the appropriate scale?
  20. Secondary source excerpt (boundary disputes and conflicts, 75–125 words): Boundary disputes can be categorized by what is being contested. A territorial dispute occurs when two or more states claim sovereignty over the same land area, often invoking history, ethnicity, or strategic security. A resource-related dispute centers on valuable materials near or across a boundary, such as oil fields, river water, or offshore fisheries. A functional dispute focuses on how a boundary is administered—customs procedures, immigration enforcement, or cross-border transit. A positional dispute is about the precise location of a boundary line, even when both sides accept the boundary's general existence. Question: Two states both claim legal sovereignty over the same peninsula and each maintains a military outpost there. Which type of dispute is most directly described?

Practice tests