This thread is for the 2015-2016 AP human geo students. Please post any information that the new students can utilize. Thank you.
I plan on taking it online, I am going. To need all the help I can get
I would suggest using the PR book just because I’ve heard so many great things about it. I am excited to be taking this class!
I took the exam this year and used Barron’s, and it worked very well.
Princeton Review or Barron’s? Which is better for this course?
Barron’s worked well for me. It does contain some excess information though. I understood the material well and hopefully got a 4 or 5.
Princeton Review worked best for me…covered all topics and much more understandable (although the practice tests in the PR are much more easier than the Barron’s)
I used PR and Barrons (self-study) and I got a 5 on my exam, in conjunction with some online exams. I felt that PR was much more readable, and more interesting that barrons and gave more practical examples.
I can send practice exams with keys for any of the major topics, that were made by me as a study guide, and to help other students self-study along with me in my school. PM me and I can send you them. (Example of one - final exam on slide share, http://www.slideshare.net/ryan8227/ap-human-geography-practice-exam)
I am going to be taking it online as a senior.
I would definitely go with Princeton Review. I really liked the way everything was explained. I had a super bad teacher for the class, and still managed to get a 5 by learning the material from this book three weeks before the exam. New students: START STUDYING EARLY. Most students who take this class are freshman or sophomores and this is the only AP class they are taking, so utilize your opportunity. Remember to know all the vocabulary and the models, too.
I’m excited to take this class this year! I’ll be self-studying it, and will probably use Barron’s, but maybe PR.
would the pr and barrons review books be ample learning tools, or would buying a textbook be worth the investment? also, would somebody please give us any essay tips and how to write a good one?
@boltaspirations I didn’t use the Princeton review book so I can’t really comment on it, but I thought that the Barron’s book was very useful. I used it this past year and got a 5.
The textbook that I used was very long and was filled with many more examples than needed. If you have the time you can use the textbook but it contains alot of extra information.
For the FRQs, just make sure to answer them directly and not go overboard. The readers just make sure you got it right, so I wouldn’t hide the answers in a wall of text that isn’t relevant.
Hey guys, I took the class this year, and ended up getting a 5 on the test. You guys are all most likely freshmen taking the class as your first AP; I was as well when I took it. I personally thought the class was really easy, however honestly it can be a hit or miss depending on how you learn memorize learn 
and how good of a teacher you have.
My teacher taught us the class in 7 units. If I remember correctly, they were:
- General Geography
- Population & Migration
- Culture, Religion, Language, and Ethnicity
- Political Geography
- Agriculture & Rural Land Use
- Industry & Economics
- Cities & Urban Land Use
My first tip: especially if this is your first AP class, the first unit is NOT as easy as it sounds. Sure, it has stuff you learned such latitude and longitude that you learned in the 4th grade, but it also goes in depth into things such as vernacular, functional, and formal regions as well as scale. These are things that you have to know well, as you will do poorly on your first test in the class if you don’t understand these topics. Units 2, 3, 4, 6 were nice because they were easily applicable to the real world; I personally did not like 5 and 7 because my teacher taught the mass of memorization in those units within a short amount of time.
I used Princeton Review and REA Crash Course; I did the practice tests in PR about 3 weeks before the test (yes I am a crammer) and read through the content in the books in the week leading up to the exam. I also worked through 1 or 2 sets of released sets of FRQ’s the night before the test as well. Note that the practice tests in Princeton Review are really easy, especially the FRQ’s, and it would help if you did the released exams if you could get your hands on them (my teacher used them when we were reviewing for the exam in class). Barron’s is alright for test practice however my friends who used Barron’s said that the content review was very recondite and confusing A.K.A. not cram-friendly at all. On the other hand, PR and CC’s content review serve as good refreshers considering they are concise, to the point and easy to read.
As far as FRQ’s go, if you want to study for them the only thing you can really do is go over everything in the course and know WHY everything happens, as well as by practicing as many FRQ’s you can on the Collegeboard website so you can get a feel for how to write them. However, the FRQ’s were a joke this year (gerrymandering, lingua francas, refugees; really basic concepts) so YMMV based on how difficult/outlandish they are in 2016 (such as the infamous Rostow’s model FRQ from 2014 which a bunch of people got 0 points on).
These are my $0.02 on APHG. Have fun in the class!
Thanks for the tips!
Is it ok if I get a Barron to like get a lot of the info and PR 2 months-ish before the AP to get it settled?
and also do you guys recommend using flashcards?
@SEALteamsix Both are pretty short, so it doesn’t matter that much, but I used Barron’s only and got a 5.
Does anyone know if theres a really good book out there for this class? I am looking for something similar or exactly like the AMSCO book for APUSH but for this class and its content. Any suggestions?
@SEALteamsix Flashcards were required in my class, and were definitely helpful.