Day 84
Student contribution by Anonymous
A thing that is done well in class is the availability of online resources. With the use of Schoology checklists and useful, outside websites, our class can effectively study for the AP Human Geo exam. One of these resources that we use is Our World In Data which hosts a wide degree of thematic maps. Through other resources like that, we can gain a greater understanding of the expected knowledge that we must know going into the AP exam.
Suggestions
The thing I struggle the most at would be the map reviews. They’re hard because you need to remember hundreds of different political and geographic entities. Going more into depth for these entities might help me with the very specific AP exam questions. The general reviews assigned for homework are also hard, owning to the fact that they hold a wide variety of questions, new and old. Those are the two things I think are the most difficult for me.
It might help the class more to create greater use of the college board multiple-choice practice exams. It would also help to somehow make it easy to see the maps of what we’re identifying right next to the answer area. That way, we don’t have to scroll back up for each problem or display it on a different monitor. I don’t know if you would be able to implement the second one as Schoology might not have an option to do it.
Next Steps
It’s not a surprise that this post is test-centric. This time of year tends to bring the test into focus. I love his suggestions and one of the reasons I haven’t used the College Board multiple-choice test bank as much as he would like is I feel it is better used as we near the AP exam.
As one student wished for more resources, this student points out that there are plenty to utilize. I think the truth lies somewhere in between. I can always add more, but I’m skeptical of adding too much as it will overwhelm some students. I have had it in the past where students feel they have to go through every link I post. I’m mindful of that now.
For me, I need to continue to prepare them for the exam without it being the only thing we are doing. I met with a group of teachers to discuss ways to do this. I picked up a few suggestions from Patrick McGing and Jon Pieper which I hope to implement starting second semester.
Look for big changes next month.