Why have quizzes?

Memorization and rote learning are not a central part of this course. You can always look up factual information, so committing it to memory is often a pointless exercise. It's far more important to understand geographic principles and concepts, so that you can apply your understanding to unfamiliar situations and ideas you might encounter in the future.

Against this background, it might seem that the whole idea of map and readings quizzes is inconsistent with the basic philosophy of the course, since these quizzes mainly test your knowledge of factual information such as the names and locations of countries and their capitals. The reason, however, that you need to learn this factual information is that it is part of the essential vocabulary of world regional geography. You can't appreciate the beauty and complexity of a Shakespearian sonnet unless you have committed to memory some basic English vocabulary. In the same way, you can't expect to understand the geographic underpinnings of the ethnic and religious conflicts in the Caucuses region unless you know where the region is, and what countries and peoples are located there. That's what the map quizzes are for.

Similarly, you won't be able to follow our class discussions unless you are familiar with the basic geography of the places we are talking about. Keeping up with the readings in the textbook is therefore crucially important, and pop quizzes on the readings can provide a good incentive to help you work up the enthusiasm to read.

Quizzes together count 50 percent of the final grade for the course. This means that if you keep up with the readings and do well in the quizzes, you are well on your way to doing well in Geog 101. It also means that if you miss or do badly on quizzes, you can't possibly do well in the course.

What do the quizzes cover?

There are two kinds of quizzes in this course: Map Quizzes, and News and Readings Quizzes.

In each Map Quiz, I will give you several maps showing countries, capital cities, and selected physical features. Your job will be to identify these various features. So, for example, on a map of Australia and the South Pacific, you might be asked to identify a number of national capital cities (Wellington or Canberra, perhaps), a river (e.g. the Darling River), and a country (which might be Nauru, New Zealand, or any other independent country in the region. I won't ask you to identify colonies or dependent territories, such as New Caledonia, a French dependency.) Nor will I ask you to identify the states or provinces that are part of an independent country so, for example, you won't need to be able to identify Tasmania or New South Wales.) Similarly, in the quiz on North America I won't ask you to identify Puerto Rico, Alaska, or Alberta.

Independent countries are those labeled "A" in the Political Information Table at the back of Goode's World Atlas, and independent countries are listed by region in the World Demographic Table. National capital cities are also listed in the World Political Information Table. The physical features you need to know are listed on the Physical Features page on this web site. If there is any conflict between the information in your text and the information in the atlas, the atlas will prevail.

To find out which specific countries are included in each map quiz, check your textbook and the atlas. So, for example, the first quiz (on Europe and Russia) will cover all of the countries covered in the Europe and Russia chapters in de Blij and Muller's text (Chapters 1 and 2.) The Americas quiz likewise includes all countries covered in the textbook chapters on North America, Middle America, and South America.

News and Readings Quizzes

There will be three kinds of questions in these quizzes. All quizzes will be multiple choice format.

News questions will cover stories in the Washington Post dealing with international news. A news question will cover only those stories appearing in the print edition of the Post during the week preceding the quiz. So, for example, if a quiz is held on a Thursday, it will cover the news from the preceding Friday until the Wednesday before the quiz. A news quiz will not cover any news from the paper on the day the quiz is held. I won't try to trip you up on the details of any news story, but I will ask questions designed to make sure that you are following major stories in the news.

Readings questions will cover the text and other assigned readings listed on the course calendar. Make sure that you read the regional text chapter before the day on which we are scheduled to begin our class discussion of that region. If we are scheduled to begin a discussion of Europe, for example, I might give you a quiz on the Europe chapter in the text on the day our discussion of Europe is scheduled to begin. I will never give you any notice of a Readings Quiz, so expect one at any time!

Geographic Detective Work. Questions in the quizzes will frequently be designed to test your ability to think geographically. They may pose questions that do not deal directly with material you have read about or learned about in class, but instead require than you apply logic, geographic, the resources available in the atlas, and common sense.

You will usually be allowed to use your atlas in the news and readings quizzes.

News and Readings quizzes may be either in class or on Blackboard (take-home.)

VERY IMPORTANT. There are no make-ups for News and Readings Quizzes unless you have a bona fide medical excuse or personal emergency. If you miss a quiz for any other reason, you will receive a score of zero for the quiz.

List of physical features

Click here for a list of the physical features you may be asked to identify.

Study tips

One of the best ways to study for the quiz is to get yourself a blank outline map of the region you are learning about, and, using your atlas as a guide, fill in the names of the countries, capital cities, and physical features you need to know. To help you study for the quizzes, you may download blank outline maps from National Geographic and the Geography Department web sites. I will use maps from both of these sources as base maps for the quizzes.

Memorizing maps is something that seems to come easily to some people, but not to others. This isn't necessarily an indication of your intelligence or your aptitude for geography; it may simply be a result of the way you process information. In the past, students who have struggled with the map quizzes have come up with some suggestions that may help you. Here are a few:

    1. Start studying early. Preparing for the map quizzes takes a lot of work. There are over 50 countries in Africa, for example, as well as numerous physical features which you will need to be able to identify. If you wait until the day before the map quiz to start studying, you will have a hard time learning the material. But if you study, say, three countries a day for the two weeks preceding the quiz, your task will be a lot easier.

    2. Draw the map. This may sound crazy, but it works! Instead of studying by downloading the blank outline map and filling in the names of the countries, capitals, and physical features, try tracing the outlines of the countries onto a sheet of blank paper, then filling in the information. For some people, this little trick has produced miraculous results!

    3. Map games. Several web sites (such as this one) contain map games designed to help you learn country names, capitals, and physical features. You may find that they help you learn. A word of warning about these sites, though. Don't assume that the information they provide is reliable. Goode's World Atlas is the definitive source of information for this course,so if you use another source, verify information with the atlas.

Grading and returning of quizzes

I will do my best to grade quizzes quickly and get them back to you in as short a time as possible. You will identify yourself on your quiz using your Banner ID number, not your name. In this way, students' anonymity will be preserved. After the quizzes have been graded, I will enter your grades on Blackboard.  I will then put all quizzes in a box outside my office, so that you can collect your quiz. I will leave quizzes there for two weeks from the date of the quiz. If you don't pick up your quiz during this period, I will assume you don't want it and I will recycle it. If you object to your quiz being left in a publicly accessible place, please let me know and I will keep it for you in my office.

Donald N. Rallis

Associate Professor