Several students have asked for help in studying for the exam. This is what I have been sending via email to those who ask for study tips. Hopefully it will be of some use to other students as well.
The exam will be fifty questions, about 20 True/False, and about 30 Multiple Choice. The entirety of the material will be covered from Chapter One through almost the end of Chapter Three, as I mentioned today in class. If you concentrate on key concepts, and understand those (the back of each chapter has a section "Key Terms"), you should be in good shape. Of course, as always, understanding the vocabulary of the course is fundamental to understanding the questions as they are presented, but you should be able to use the vocabulary to answer questions related to course content, not just memorize the vocabulary. The back of each chapter also has questions for review. If you're able to answer all of those questions, you should be in good shape for the exam as well, as that indicates that you are understanding key concepts and issues. I've tried to focus the exam on key concepts and issues rather than on memorizing facts and figures, but you should be aware of regional examples as they are used in the textbook. It is not my intention or goal to find particularly difficult or obscure information to test the students on.
While I don't expect students to "memorize" any maps, per se, I do expect them to know the general regions and how they relate to the issues that are discussed. For example, you should know where the major moutain ranges are, where the plains are, but you should also understand concepts so that when you look at a map you recognize why conditions are the way they are. As another example, you should know not only where major deserts are by why they are there. Remember that the world maps in the introductory chapters are primarily used to introduce concepts that will be discussed in greater detail as the regions are covered in later chapters. When looking at world maps, try to get the general concepts, and high points. For example, when looking at the map in Figure 1.10, the point is not to memorize where every dot on the map is, but notice that the population of the world is not evenly distributed. Note where there are high concentrations, note where there are low concentrations, and ask yourself why this may be the case.
In many cases, maps illustrate points rather than provide information you would be expected to remember. For example, looking at Figure 3.23, the important issue here is that the U.S. imports goods from all over the world, and I would not expect anyone to memorize which countries send beer to the U.S. and how much. You should should use your own judgment in this regard, and ask yourself, "What is important in this map? Is it the geographic patterns shown, or does this map simply illustrate issues discussed in the text?"
It may be helpful as you're reading the book to take notes. You may want to pause at the end of each paragraph and/or section and ask yourself the following questions:
For example, if you were to read the first section under "Social Conditions in China" on page 488. You might take notes (even if only in your head) as follows:
The key is to identify key issues, regional differences, and the scope/size. You can often reduce most of the book to only one or two sentences per paragraph. Focus on your class notes and the outline as topics covered in both the book and in class are the most likely to be on the exam.
This page is http://www.geocities.com/lsugeog1001/examcomments.htm