Human geography

Traps in Human geography

• Uses the wrong operation
  Picture the situation (higher = colder; back bearing = ± 180°) before choosing the operation.
• Divides the quantities the wrong way round
  Write the unit you need (people per km², km per cm) and let it tell you which quantity goes on top.
• Converts units with the wrong factor
  1 km = 100 000 cm. Convert map distance × scale denominator to cm first, then ÷ 100 000 for km.
• Settlement pattern errors
  Nucleated: clustered (defence, water point). Dispersed: scattered farmsteads. Linear: along roads, rivers or coasts. Site = actual land; situation = relation to surroundings.
• Picks a closely related feature or term
  Learn related features as contrasting pairs: how each forms and what it looks like.
• Reverses the process or effect
  Trace the cause and effect step by step and check the direction at each step.
• Misreads population concepts
  Population density = population ÷ area. Natural increase = birth rate − death rate.
• Gives only part of the answer
  Recall the full definition or list of factors and check the option covers it.
• Stops at an intermediate value
  Check the final number answers the question asked (temperature AT the summit, not the change).
• Chooses a true but irrelevant statement
  Test each option against the exact term or feature in the stem.
• Picks the wrong place or location
  Learn each resource or feature with its location on a map, and the reason it occurs there.
• Uses an everyday idea instead of the geography
  Test the intuition against the physical process; geography terms and causes often differ from their everyday sense.
• Misunderstands farming systems
  Shifting cultivation/bush fallow: subsistence, hoe and cutlass, moving plots as soils tire. Plantation: large-scale cash crops, capital-intensive.
• Over-generalises a pattern
  Geographic patterns have exceptions; be wary of always/never/all.