GeoActivity Types in APHG: Exam Preparation

The Advanced Placement Human Geography (APHG) exam consists of two sections: sixty multiple-choice questions (MCQs) and three free-response questions (FRQs); both sections have equal percentages in the exam weighting (College Board 2020). Because the main motivation of the students taking this course is to earn college credit by scoring a three or higher on a scale of five, being successful in the APHG exam is particularly significant. Among any other activity types, taking a quiz or test may be the most direct way to help students prepare for the APHG exam. Taking a quiz or test belongs to convergent knowledge expression activities, where students demonstrate their prior knowledge building on structured forms, and is frequently used to review and examine students’ understanding and expressions of knowledge (Harris, Mishra, and Koehler 2009; Harris et al. 2010; Hofer and Harris 2011). This paper introduces two useful approaches for the MCQ and FRQ sections—AP Classroom’s Personal Progress Checks (PPCs) and Google Forms—to evaluate students’ level of understanding, help them prepare for the APHG exam, and ultimately improve their learning. Using these two technology-based approaches has been particularly beneficial during the COVID-19 pandemic because the instructions should be flexible to meet the need (in-classroom, hybrid, or virtual), and the College Board has offered online testing options.1