Practice Test 92 - AP Human Geography

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

Start practice test

1. Secondary source excerpt (embedded): Urban sociologists link globalization to cosmopolitanism and cultural diversity in certain cities. Global labor markets, universities, and multinational firms attract migrants and mobile professionals, increasing linguistic diversity, transnational social networks, and global consumer cultures. However, this diversity is not uniform across all cities; it tends to be strongest in places deeply integrated into international flows of people, capital, and media. Question: Which statement best reflects the excerpt's argument?
2. A school district maps average commute times to schools using a household travel survey. The survey was conducted online and had low response rates in neighborhoods with limited internet access and in households where English is not the primary language. Which option best describes the most likely bias introduced into the mapped commute-time patterns?
3. Secondary source excerpt (boundary disputes and conflicts, 75–125 words): Resource-related boundary disputes arise when valuable resources are located near a boundary or when a boundary crosses a resource system. Examples include rivers shared by upstream and downstream states, mineral deposits that straddle a border, and offshore oil or gas fields linked to competing maritime claims. These disputes can intensify when technology makes extraction profitable or when scarcity increases political pressure. Unlike positional disputes, the line may be widely recognized, but conflict persists because the boundary determines who can legally access and profit from the resource. Question: Two neighboring countries accept their land boundary, but they clash over drilling rights in an offshore oil field near the maritime border. Which type of boundary dispute is this?
4. A secondary-source comparative study finds that City H reduced electricity use per capita after expanding mixed-use zoning and public transit, while a similar-sized City I saw rising demand as jobs and housing decentralized to the periphery. The authors link land-use patterns to building energy and transportation energy. Which conclusion best aligns with the study's explanation of energy consumption differences?
5. Secondary source excerpt: In many multinational states, centrifugal forces arise when economic inequality overlaps with ethnic or linguistic regions. When a peripheral region contributes valuable resources but receives limited public investment, residents may view the central government as extractive. Political entrepreneurs can then frame budget disputes as identity-based grievances, increasing support for regional parties and autonomy referenda. Over time, these dynamics can weaken national cohesion and make devolution or even secession more likely. Which outcome best illustrates a consequence of the centrifugal forces described in the excerpt?
6. Secondary source excerpt: Internal political boundaries are often treated as lines on a map, but they can also reflect historical compromises and identity politics. Boundaries may be drawn to separate language groups, recognize religious regions, or manage ethnic tensions—sometimes reducing conflict, other times hardening divisions. Once established, boundaries can influence school curricula, official languages, and access to government jobs. Over time, these effects can deepen differences between neighboring regions. Which interpretation best matches the excerpt's emphasis on identity and politics?
7. A 90–110 word secondary-source excerpt describes terraced rice agriculture in a mountainous region. It explains that farmers built stone walls and irrigation channels to slow runoff, reduce erosion, and create level plots, enabling intensive cultivation on steep slopes. The author notes that terraces require continual maintenance and collective labor to prevent collapse during heavy rains. Which option best identifies the interaction shown?
8. Urban scholars describe the primate city pattern as one in which the largest city dominates political power, investment, and cultural influence, often shaped by colonial history or strong centralization. In Country Z, the capital contains most national ministries, top universities, and media; it has 9 million people, while the next largest city has 3.9 million. Which additional observation would most strongly support a primate city interpretation?
9. Secondary source excerpt: Fair trade and alternative trade networks attempt to change how value is distributed by guaranteeing minimum prices, supporting cooperatives, and adding social and environmental standards. These programs aim to increase the share of final retail value captured by producers, but they operate within global markets where branding, certification costs, and consumer demand in wealthier countries still strongly shape outcomes. Which scenario best matches the goals of fair trade and alternative trade networks?
10. A development report excerpt explains that GDP per capita measures average economic output per person, while GNI per capita includes income earned by residents from abroad (such as remittances and profits from overseas investments). It warns that in countries with large diasporas, GNI per capita may exceed GDP per capita. Which conclusion follows most directly from this distinction?
11. A secondary source summarizing Ravenstein's laws of migration notes that most migrants move short distances, migration occurs in steps (rural to town to city), and each migration flow can produce a counterflow. In a country, many residents move from small villages to a nearby market town, then later to the capital; meanwhile, some retirees move from the capital back to smaller towns. Which choice best reflects Ravenstein's ideas?
12. A secondary-source excerpt on fair trade notes that while it can improve incomes for participating producers, certification costs and limited market share can constrain its overall impact. Which statement best reflects this limitation?
13. A secondary-source excerpt about the Sahel states that highly variable rainfall limits rain-fed farming; households respond by planting drought-tolerant millet, keeping mobile herds, and relying on seasonal migration and remittances. The author emphasizes these practices as long-term adaptations that reduce risk rather than "defeat" the climate. Which framework best matches this explanation?
14. Secondary-source excerpt (Sub-Saharan Africa hearth): Studies of the Sahel emphasize that early cultivation emerged in semi-arid zones where pearl millet and sorghum tolerated variable rainfall. Rather than a uniform transition, communities combined herding, seasonal mobility, and small-scale planting; some groups maintained pastoral lifeways even as crops circulated through exchange. Diffusion southward into wetter savannas and forest margins required new field management, including shifting cultivation and different storage practices, producing multiple locally distinctive farming systems. The excerpt best illustrates which of the following characteristics of agricultural hearths?
15. A secondary-source description emphasizes assumptions behind von Thünen's model: a single market, uniform terrain, and equal transport conditions in all directions. In a real region, a large river makes shipping cheaper along one corridor, and farming zones stretch outward along the river rather than forming circles. According to the von Thünen model, which of the following best explains the agricultural pattern described?
16. A secondary-source excerpt claims that when former colonies rely on exporting a single cash crop, price drops can force them to borrow, cut social spending, and open markets to foreign firms, deepening inequality. The author argues the international economic system is structured to transfer value from poorer to richer regions. Which theory best matches this explanation?
17. Secondary source excerpt (75–125 words): Boundaries vary in permeability and porosity. A border may be highly permeable for certain flows—such as daily commuters with permits—while remaining difficult to cross for others, including undocumented migrants or restricted goods. States can selectively increase screening at particular crossings, use technology to monitor remote areas, or create special economic zones that encourage some trade while limiting settlement. These uneven rules mean that permeability is not a single, fixed trait of a boundary; it depends on who is crossing, what is moving, and how policies are implemented across different segments. Which choice best reflects the main idea?
18. Secondary source excerpt (diffusion of religion): By the 700s–1200s, Islam expanded from Arabia across North Africa into Iberia and eastward into Central and South Asia. The excerpt notes that armies and new administrations often established Muslim rule, while merchants and Sufi teachers spread Islamic practices along caravan routes and Indian Ocean ports. Local communities frequently blended Islamic beliefs with preexisting customs, producing regionally distinct traditions. Which option best identifies the diffusion processes described?
19. Secondary-source excerpt (democracy vs. authoritarianism, competitive elections): Competitive elections require more than voting; they involve real uncertainty of outcome, legal opposition, and protections that allow parties and civil society to campaign and criticize leaders. Authoritarian regimes may hold elections but restrict candidacy, manipulate media access, or intimidate opponents, reducing the ability of citizens to remove leaders peacefully. Which indicator best supports classifying a system as democratic using the excerpt's criteria?
20. A secondary source evaluating early Green Revolution programs in South Asia argues that new high-yield seed packages and irrigation expanded grain output, but extension training and credit were often directed to male landholders. Women continued labor-intensive tasks (e.g., weeding and post-harvest processing) and sometimes faced reduced access to common resources as farming intensified. Which of the following best describes women's role in the agricultural system described?

Practice tests