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How important is it to have the most recent edition of a text for AP Human Geography? Is the exam highly dependent on the student knowing the most current maps, etc.? 

I am looking at the James Rubenstein text, and the price differential between the 9th ed. (2007) and the 11th ed. (2013) is significant. And the price for the most recent 13th ed. (2019) is 😱.

If we can get by with the 9th, that would be preferable for my pocketbook.

Posted

We used the 11th edition 5 years ago and it was good for all the general background on the topics. I'm not familiar with the current test. We used various online tools for population research and things so I think that is where you get the current data. The most helpful thing for us was to practice writing the FRQs from previous exams. This helped my dd learn how to use specific examples from history to support her answers. For instance some things that were easier for me just being aware of current events for 50 years were difficult for her. For example, one question was about physical boundaries separating people. I don't remember the specific terminology anymore, but I was able to rattle off three things like the Berlin Wall, the division between North and South Korea, and the Rio Grande. She wasn't able to do that so these questions helped us identify gaps in her general knowledge of world history and geography. 

We were lucky in that on her exam one of the FRQs was about language barriers in a country. Living and experiencing that in Belgium gave her tons of real world examples to answer with. So I think there is a certain amount of luck in the FRQs.

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Posted
16 hours ago, PeachyDoodle said:

How important is it to have the most recent edition of a text for AP Human Geography? Is the exam highly dependent on the student knowing the most current maps, etc.? 

I am looking at the James Rubenstein text, and the price differential between the 9th ed. (2007) and the 11th ed. (2013) is significant. And the price for the most recent 13th ed. (2019) is 😱.

If we can get by with the 9th, that would be preferable for my pocketbook.

DS15 took AP Hug with a Rubenstein text and the book itself is 😱. He got through it. We often joked that it was written by a 12-year-old ghost writers in working for $1/day and that they couldn't bother to edit it afterwards. Captions that claimed the graphs showed the opposite of what they showed etc. But the AP people have you over a barrel.  The class itself (he took it at public school) was amazing; definitely his best teacher, full of passion, assigning amazing projects to go with it.

DS's school used the 11th edition.

Posted
6 minutes ago, EmilyGF said:

DS15 took AP Hug with a Rubenstein text and the book itself is 😱. He got through it. We often joked that it was written by a 12-year-old ghost writers in working for $1/day and that they couldn't bother to edit it afterwards. Captions that claimed the graphs showed the opposite of what they showed etc. But the AP people have you over a barrel.  The class itself (he took it at public school) was amazing; definitely his best teacher, full of passion, assigning amazing projects to go with it.

DS's school used the 11th edition.

Wow, really?! That's annoying, especially given the price point. And the fact that, as you say, the AP folks have us over a barrel. 😒 Good to hear we could probably get by with the 11th edition at least.

Would love to hear about the projects your ds did.

 

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