Welcome to our first interview of our AP Spotlight series! In this article, you will hear from Ms. Avellino, who teaches AP Human Geography. AP Human Geography is typically taken by freshmen as their first-ever AP class, which can be very intimidating at first, but as you will read below, it prepares students for future AP classes and college-level coursework! It is described as an introductory college-level course in human geography, delving into topics such as population, agriculture, and industrial and economic development patterns. The exam itself is 2 hours and 15 minutes long, consisting of 60 multiple-choice questions and 3 free-response questions. If you have any further questions about the class after reading the interview below, feel free to contact Ms. Avellino ([email protected])!

What is AP Human Geography?

Excellent question! AP Human Geography, I like to say, is a little bit of everything. It’s why people move certain places, it’s why people have certain religions, it’s why people live where they do, essentially.

What is your grading policy?

So, my grading policy is, I believe you can be successful in this class, even if you struggle. A lot of students feel that if they’re not getting certain grades, they aren’t going to be successful, and that’s absolutely not true. It’s going to challenge you, but I also do it in a way so that you’re successful in the end, not only on the exam, but also your grade in class; your overall grade usually shows your success as well!

What is homework like?

You’re going to get homework every night, I’m not going to lie about that; you’re going to get homework every night, but if you’re doing the homework, that’s where you’re going to be successful. If you’re doing the homework, and you’re putting the effort in, you’re going to see the success on the quizzes, you’re going to see the success on the other assignments in class because you already have the knowledge from doing the homework. It is about 1-2 hours a night, but if you’re putting that effort in, you’re going to reap the rewards in your quizzes and tests.

Why should someone take the class despite the challenge?

It’s so much fun! My class is so much fun; we do a lot of fun activities. It seems, from what I hear – that students say every year – in the class itself, we do a lot of fun activities; it’s the work outside that can be challenging. But, you’re going to not only be better friends with your classmates, but you’re also going to have fun with what we do in class. I promise!

What job careers would benefit from taking this class?

That’s a really good question! I honestly think, obviously if you want to work with the land in any type of way, any environmental science, there’s a lot of connections with environmental science and AP Human Geography. And then, if this something that interests you, definitely working with statistics, population, migration, immigration, things like that, all of those job fields would be perfect for AP Human Geography.

Anything else you’d like to say?

Initially, you’re going to not like the class, but I promise you, by the end of the year, not even by the end of the year, you will be so glad that you took the class, and that you finished your first AP and all of the other ones will seem easier to you because you’ve already done one. It is absolutely worth it!