GED Geography Practice
Geography and the world makes up about 15 percent of the GED Social Studies test, and much of it is map-reading rather than place-name recall.
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On a standard map, the legend is used to
Reading a map correctly
Every map question starts with the legend and the scale. The legend decodes symbols, shading, and line types. The scale converts map distance to real distance — if one inch equals 50 miles, then three inches is 150 miles. Check the compass rose before answering any direction question.
Thematic maps carry data rather than terrain: population density, rainfall, election results, resource distribution. Read the title first, because it tells you what the shading actually means.
Why people live where they live
Early settlements clustered along rivers because water supported drinking, irrigation, and transport before roads existed. The same logic explains why coastal ports grew into major cities and why arid interiors stayed sparse.
Urbanization describes population shifting from rural areas into cities, usually pulled by work. It brings its own consequences — housing pressure, infrastructure strain, changing labor markets — which the test asks you to identify.
Migration and the environment
Push factors drive people out of a place: drought, conflict, unemployment, persecution. Pull factors draw them toward another: jobs, safety, family, education. Most real migrations involve both, and GED questions typically ask you to sort a listed cause into the right category.
Human-environment interaction covers how people alter landscapes through farming, damming, mining, and building, and how physical geography constrains them in return. Answers usually describe a tradeoff rather than a clear benefit or harm.
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need to memorize world capitals for the GED?
- No. Geography questions focus on reading maps and understanding patterns of settlement, migration, and resource use.
- What is a push factor?
- A condition that drives people to leave an area, such as drought, conflict, or lack of work.