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I'm not a geography major but I do follow current events across the world a lot so that made this class easy for me. You cover a TON of material in this class and I can easily understand how people who have never been exposed to a great deal of world history or geographic information may have felt overwhelmed by what was discussed in class.
The most obvious point to make about this class is that there are a TON of PowerPoint slides that Mr. Cary uses. This is not to say that this is bad because it is always nice to have visuals BUT it does mean that you need to take a lot of notes. You also need to make sure to write down information other than what is written on the slides which can become difficult since some slides have 7-8 pieces of information to get down at the same time. Basically, you just have to have a good ear for information that you might think is relevant for the exams.
As far as the grade breakdown in this class it is out of 550 points. You have four exams that are worth one hundred points, nine to ten map quizzes that are worth ten points a piece, and then a brief research paper you write over anything dealing with geography that interests you worth fifty points. Mr. Cary gave us a few points of extra credit at the end of the semester for filling out a survey but that's basically all that's available in this class.
Attendance was said to be mandatory on the syllabus but after a few weeks he quit taking roll. DO NOT let this fool, you, though, because you NEED to be in class every day to get the notes for the tests since he does not take all of the test material out of the book.
Overall, I found Mr. Cary to be a geniuinely nice guy. He does tend to speak pretty fast but he is very laid back and has some fun stories about different parts of the world. Also, he goes over material several times, especially in the beginning when your talking about the Coriollis effect, ocean gyres, and other basic information you need to understand climate patterns for the other world regions. He was also helpful for students who needed map locations pointed out to them on the map because sometimes the book would not be too accomodating with you on that front.
To do well in this class YOU HAVE to read the book. Mr. Cary will take five or more test questions from the book and they are easy if you have read the chapters. Since the final exam was over four chapters this was a bit tedious but I credit reading with helping me do well on it. This is the only college class I have had so far where I had to read the entire textbook cover to cover but I think that's the reason I got an A.
Therefore, to do well on the tests you need to read the book, take good notes in class and also spend a great deal of time on memorizing map locations which can be countries, mountain ranges, rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, cities, states, etc. Each test has forty multiple choice questions over general material that was covered in class/book, then nearly twenty questions over map identifications. For the map identifications you can identify some through multiple choice. For others, though, you have to write down where they are on the map so you can't just guess and expect to have a good chance at getting it right. Then you have 1-2 short essays on each test as well and for those it is VERY important to read the book to do well on. However, if you study well you should get at least a B and I was just amazed at how many people in my class failed the first two exams because most of the questions on the test aren't tricky.
If your willing to come to class everyday, know how to take good notes, and enjoy reading then this is the class for you. However, if you aren't good or don't enjoy doing those things I just listed then you should probably avoid this guy for your Geography credit.
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