Unit 1 · 8 to 10% of the exam

Unit 1 practice test: Thinking Geographically

twelve questions, every option explained

12 exam-style questions from the unit, free, with an explanation for every option. Each has four answer choices (the real exam and the practice exams have five), and sets share one map, table, chart, image or passage. None of them is in the two practice exams. Covers: Introduction to Maps; Geographic Data; The Power of Geographic Data; Spatial Concepts; Human-Environmental Interaction; Scales of Analysis; Regional Analysis.

Start at question 1

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Planning flood shelters with satellite images (written for practice, LevlPrep 2026)

After heavy rains in an invented river town, the district office compared satellite images taken before and after the flood. The images showed which streets were under water and for how many days. Using a GIS, staff layered the flooded streets over the census count of people on each block. They chose three schools on high ground as shelters, each within a short walk of the blocks with the most people. One officer noted that clouds hid part of the town on the second day, so some flooding there may not have been recorded.

1. Which two kinds of data did the district office combine?

  1. Interviews with families and photos taken by residents
  2. A reference map of the town and a weather forecast for the week
  3. Satellite navigation logs and a survey of shop owners
  4. Satellite images of floods and census counts by block
Show the answer

The office layered remote sensing data and census data in a GIS to make a local decision.

  • Interviews with families and photos taken by residents: Neither interviews nor residents' photos are mentioned.
  • A reference map of the town and a weather forecast for the week: The passage names no weather forecast; the images were taken after the rain.
  • Satellite navigation logs and a survey of shop owners: Neither navigation logs nor a shop survey appear in the passage.
  • Correct: Satellite images of floods and census counts by block: Right: the passage names satellite images (remote sensing) and the census count on each block, layered in a GIS.

2. At what scale of analysis was the shelter decision made?

  1. Local: blocks and streets within one town
  2. National: the whole of the country
  3. Regional: several countries in the river basin
  4. Global: the world's flood risk
Show the answer

Name the scale from the units: blocks and streets in one town are the local scale.

  • Correct: Local: blocks and streets within one town: Right: the data and the decision are about blocks, streets and schools in one town.
  • National: the whole of the country: Nothing in the passage covers a whole country.
  • Regional: several countries in the river basin: Only one town is in the passage.
  • Global: the world's flood risk: The passage is about one town, not the world.

3. What limitation of the satellite data does the officer point out?

  1. Satellite images are hard to layer in a GIS with census data
  2. Clouds hid part of the town, so some flooding may be missing
  3. The census counted people by block, which is too detailed
  4. The schools were on high ground, so the images could not see them
Show the answer

Every source has limits. Remote sensing can miss what clouds, roofs or darkness hide.

  • Satellite images are hard to layer in a GIS with census data: The passage shows the opposite: the images were layered in a GIS.
  • Correct: Clouds hid part of the town, so some flooding may be missing: Right: optical satellite images cannot see through clouds, so cloudy areas leave gaps.
  • The census counted people by block, which is too detailed: Block counts were what made the shelter choice possible.
  • The schools were on high ground, so the images could not see them: High ground does not hide a building from a satellite.

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The shrinking Aral Sea (written for practice, LevlPrep 2026)

The Aral Sea, on the border of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once one of the largest lakes in the world. From the 1960s, Soviet planners diverted the two rivers that fed it, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya, to water huge new cotton fields. Cotton output rose. The sea shrank and split into parts, its fishing towns were left far from the water, and winds blew salty dust from the dry seabed onto nearby farms. Since 2005, a dam built with World Bank support has helped the northern part of the sea refill partly.

4. Which change in land use started the sea's decline?

  1. River water was taken to grow cotton on new fields
  2. Fishing towns were built along the shore of the sea
  3. Salty dust was blown onto nearby farms by the wind
  4. A dam was built to hold water in the northern part
Show the answer

Land use is how people use an area of land. A shift to cotton fields used the water that fed the sea.

  • Correct: River water was taken to grow cotton on new fields: Right: turning dry land into cotton fields used the rivers' water, so less reached the sea.
  • Fishing towns were built along the shore of the sea: The fishing towns were there before; they suffered from the decline.
  • Salty dust was blown onto nearby farms by the wind: The dust was a result of the shrinking, not its cause.
  • A dam was built to hold water in the northern part: The dam came after 2005 and helped part of the sea refill.

5. Why is the Aral Sea often used as an example of resource use that was not sustainable?

  1. Cotton is a natural resource that will not grow again once it is picked
  2. The rivers were used so heavily that the sea, its fish and nearby farms suffered
  3. The sea was too far from big cities to be useful to the people of the region
  4. The rivers ran dry because the climate of the region changed by itself
Show the answer

Unsustainable use meets present needs in a way that harms the ability of others, now and later, to meet theirs.

  • Cotton is a natural resource that will not grow again once it is picked: Cotton can be grown again; the problem was how the water was used.
  • Correct: The rivers were used so heavily that the sea, its fish and nearby farms suffered: Right: meeting one goal (cotton) used up the water so fast that other needs and future users lost out.
  • The sea was too far from big cities to be useful to the people of the region: The sea supported fishing towns; its loss mattered to people.
  • The rivers ran dry because the climate of the region changed by itself: The passage gives the cause: the rivers were diverted by planners.

6. The partial refilling of the northern sea after a dam was built shows which idea?

  1. Environmental determinism: the sea's climate decided its fate
  2. Distance decay: towns far from the sea lost contact with it
  3. Possibilism: people chose a new way to manage the same environment
  4. Absolute location: the sea moved to a new position farther to the north
Show the answer

Human choices, not the environment alone, shaped the Aral Sea twice: by draining it and by partly restoring it.

  • Environmental determinism: the sea's climate decided its fate: The passage shows human choices, first harmful and then helpful, shaping the sea.
  • Distance decay: towns far from the sea lost contact with it: The towns lost the water, not contact by distance; this misses the dam.
  • Correct: Possibilism: people chose a new way to manage the same environment: Right: a human choice changed the outcome in the same physical setting.
  • Absolute location: the sea moved to a new position farther to the north: The sea shrank and refilled in place; it did not move.

7. You want a map that shows how many people live in each part of a country, with each dot standing for 10,000 people. Which map type is this?

  1. A cartogram
  2. A dot density map
  3. An isoline map
  4. A reference map
Show the answer

A dot density map shows counts as dots, which makes it easy to see where things are clustered or dispersed.

  • A cartogram: A cartogram resizes whole areas by a value; it does not use dots.
  • Correct: A dot density map: Right: a dot density map places one dot for a set count, so crowded areas fill with dots.
  • An isoline map: An isoline map joins points of equal value with lines.
  • A reference map: A reference map shows locations and names, not counts.

8. A geographer studies a neighborhood in Lagos, Nigeria, using a GIS. She adds a layer of flood-prone streets and a layer of clinic locations. What question can the layers now answer?

  1. Why residents chose to live on the flood-prone streets of the neighborhood
  2. How residents feel about the care they get at the clinics near them
  3. What the neighborhood looked like a hundred years ago
  4. Which clinics are on streets that flood and may be hard to reach in the rains
Show the answer

A GIS answers "where do these things overlap?" by stacking layers tied to location.

  • Why residents chose to live on the flood-prone streets of the neighborhood: Reasons for choices need interviews or other qualitative sources.
  • How residents feel about the care they get at the clinics near them: Feelings need surveys or interviews, not map layers.
  • What the neighborhood looked like a hundred years ago: These layers show the present; old maps or records would be needed.
  • Correct: Which clinics are on streets that flood and may be hard to reach in the rains: Right: overlaying layers shows where two things meet, which is what a GIS is built for.

9. Which description gives Kansas City's relative location?

  1. Near the middle of the United States, where two big rivers meet
  2. About 39 degrees north and 95 degrees west
  3. A city of rolling hills and bluffs on the banks of two rivers
  4. A city its residents call home and are proud of, with famous barbecue
Show the answer

Relative location says where a place is compared with other places and features.

  • Correct: Near the middle of the United States, where two big rivers meet: Right: relative location places it by what it is near.
  • About 39 degrees north and 95 degrees west: Coordinates give absolute location.
  • A city of rolling hills and bluffs on the banks of two rivers: The look of the land at the city itself is closer to site.
  • A city its residents call home and are proud of, with famous barbecue: Feelings for a place are sense of place.

10. A student finds that Brazil's national average rainfall is moderate and concludes that the city of Manaus gets moderate rain. Why is this conclusion weak?

  1. Rainfall data are qualitative, so averaging them gives a misleading number
  2. A national average is aggregated, so it hides very wet places like the Amazon
  3. Manaus is outside Brazil, so Brazil's national data leave the city out
  4. Rainfall is measured at the global scale, so national averages are wrong
Show the answer

Do not apply an aggregated national value to one local place; check data at the local scale.

  • Rainfall data are qualitative, so averaging them gives a misleading number: Rainfall is measured in millimeters: quantitative.
  • Correct: A national average is aggregated, so it hides very wet places like the Amazon: Right: an average for a huge country blends very different climates; Manaus, in the Amazon, is far wetter than the national average.
  • Manaus is outside Brazil, so Brazil's national data leave the city out: Manaus is in Brazil, in the Amazon region.
  • Rainfall is measured at the global scale, so national averages are wrong: Rainfall is measured at weather stations, place by place.

11. Ask Americans which states are in "the South" and you get different answers. Why?

  1. It is a formal region with a border set in federal law, which people forget
  2. It is a perceptual region, so its edges depend on what each person believes
  3. It is a functional region tied to one city, Atlanta, by daily commuting
  4. It is not a region, since it has no clear edges that everyone can agree on
Show the answer

Perceptual (vernacular) regions are shaped by culture, history and the media, and people draw them differently.

  • It is a formal region with a border set in federal law, which people forget: No law sets the region's edges.
  • Correct: It is a perceptual region, so its edges depend on what each person believes: Right: perceptual regions are real in people's minds, and minds differ, so the edges blur.
  • It is a functional region tied to one city, Atlanta, by daily commuting: The South is not defined by trips to one city.
  • It is not a region, since it has no clear edges that everyone can agree on: Regions with fuzzy edges are still regions; most regions have them.

12. A grocery chain studies census data on the number of households and their ages in each neighborhood of Atlanta before opening a store. What kind of decision is this?

  1. A business decision at the local scale
  2. A government decision at the national scale
  3. A personal decision at the global scale
  4. A government decision at the regional scale
Show the answer

Census and satellite data inform personal, business and government decisions at every scale.

  • Correct: A business decision at the local scale: Right: a company is choosing among neighborhoods of one city.
  • A government decision at the national scale: The decision maker is a business, and the choice is among neighborhoods.
  • A personal decision at the global scale: A company is deciding, and the data cover one city, not the world.
  • A government decision at the regional scale: No government is deciding, and no group of countries is involved.