AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHYThe Exam

Exam Overview

Exam questions assess the course concepts and skills outlined in the course framework. For more information, download the AP Human Geography Course and Exam Description (CED).

Encourage your students to visit the AP Human Geography student page for exam information.

Digital Practice and Testing Information

Updated April 8

Digital Practice Now Available

Starting April 8, students can try out the test-day experience by answering example questions in the digital testing application. See the Digital Practice page for general information about practice options.

AP Human Geography students will have two options to answer example questions in the digital testing application. Both provide approximately the same time limit per question as the full exam.

• Digital Practice has a shortened multiplechoice section (12 questions, 12 minutes), a shortened break of 5 minutes, and a full-length free-response section (3 questions, 75 minutes).
• The App Demo is an even shorter subset of the questions in Digital Practice–5 multiple-choice questions, a 2-minute break, and 1 free-response question.

We highly recommend all students take the Digital Practice, and strongly advise that if they can’t take the Digital Practice, they at least take the App Demo. Both can be taken multiple times, and can be accessed directly in the digital testing application. Students can access their answers and solution materials (MCQ answer key, FRQ scoring guidelines) for the Digital Practice. Note: Taking the App Demo after completing Digital Practice may override student answers from Digital Practice. Teachers can also access digital practice from the teacher dashboard, available beginning April 22.

Taking the Digital Exam

Students should be aware of some aspects of testing digitally that they’ll encounter—in the Digital Practice and on exam day:

• As a reminder:
  • Students will answer all multiple-choice questions and type all free-response answers directly in the digital exam application. Scratch paper is permitted for notes or planning, but students cannot handwrite or otherwise upload responses.
  • Students cannot go back to questions they’ve already answered, and cannot skip ahead.
• Exam directions and section-specific directions will not be read by a proctor–they’ll appear entirely in the application. Students will see them at the beginning of each section, and can access them at any time during the exam. Please note that the exam timer starts when the directions appear. While students should read the directions, they should be aware that the timer will be running while they do so. Teachers and students can view the full text of the exam and section directions in advance of the exam.

More information about taking digital exams is available in the Digital Testing Guide.

Digital Exam Readiness Dashboard

Beginning April 22, AP teachers and AP coordinators will have access to a new digital exam readiness dashboard. Teachers and coordinators will access the dashboard from their personalized AP login page (after signing in through AP Central or through myap.collegeboard.org). The dashboard can be used to monitor students’ progress in taking the steps necessary before and on exam day to enable them to take a digital exam. See details in the “Preparing for Digital AP Exams” section of the AP Digital Testing Guide.

Exam Format

The AP Human Geography Exam has question types and point values that will remain stable from year to year, so you and your students know what to expect on exam day.

Note on 2021 exams: Both the paper and digital versions of the AP Human Geography Exam will be full-length, containing the typical multiple-choice and free-response sections, and cover the full range of skills and knowledge specified in the course and exam description. 

There are differences between the paper and digital versions of some 2021 AP Exams, and those variations differ by course. The information below applies to AP Human Geography only. View a summary of all 2021 AP Exam formats.

Section I: Multiple Choice

60 Questions | 1 Hour | 50% of Exam Score

• Individual questions.
• Set-based questions.
• Approximately 30%–40% of the multiple-choice questions will reference stimulus material, including maps, tables, charts, graphs, images, infographics, and/or landscapes, roughly evenly divided between quantitative and qualitative sources.

Section II: Free Response

3 Questions | 1 Hour 15 Minutes | 50% of Exam Score

• Each free-response question presents students with an authentic geographic situation or scenario and assesses students’ ability to describe, explain, and apply geographic concepts, processes, or models, as they analyze geographic patterns, relationships, and outcomes in applied contexts.
  • Question 1 does not include any stimuli.
  • Question 2 includes 1 stimulus (data, image, or map).
  • Question 3 includes 2 stimuli (data, images, and/or maps).
• At least one of the free-response questions assess students’ ability to analyze across geographic scales to explain spatial relationships.

Exam Questions and Scoring Information