How to answer test questions (2hv)

• Aardrijkskunde
• Middelbare school
• havo, vwo
• Leerjaar 2

Answering test questions

Today

• General steps to answer 'open' questions effectively.
• Practice with the steps.

What do you do when you have to answer a test question?

General Steps

Always, take the following steps when answering a question:

1. Read the question carefully.
2. Identify possible keyterms in the question.
3. Ask yourself: what information does my teacher want from me?

Practicing the steps

On the next couple of slides you will see a few test questions. 

You don't have to answer the test question. 

Only answer the question about the test question.

The test question is:
"Explain how the high urbanization rate in China has caused the environmental issues in Chinese cities to increase."

Which keyterms can you identify in this test question?

So where do we go from here?

• We read the question
• We identified the keyterms 

• Lastly we need to see what information your teacher needs from you. 

What information does your teacher want from you?

You will find that most of the more difficult questions on the geography test will ask you for causes and consequences of to explain different processes.

Cause/ Consequence	Why does x cause y ? How does x enhance y ? Why does x happen?
Process	How is x formed? How does x work?

What information does your teacher want from you?

In our question we already identified the keyterms: 

"Explain how the high urbanization rate 

in China has caused the 

environmental disasters in 

Chinese cities to increase."

Cause/Consequence	Why does x cause y ? How does x enhance y ? Why does x happen? etc.
Process	How is x formed? How does x work? etc.

What information does your teacher want from you?

In our question we already identified the keyterms: 

"Explain how the high urbanization rate in China has caused the environmental disasters in Chinese cities to increase."

High urbanization rate                            Environmental disasters

               Tip: explain the keyterms in your answer to come to a complete                             answer. 

Use the steps you just learned to answer the test question:

Explain how the high urbanization rate in China has caused the environmental disasters in Chinese cities to increase.

Homework

Start studying all the keyterms of:

1hv: Chapter 7

2hv: Chapter 5

3hv: Chapter 1

Next class: practice test