Earth Science Today

General Exam Study Guide

Study for basic knowledge part.

These questions are about 60% of each exam. An “A” student should get 95-100% of these questions right. A “C” student should get at least 80% right.

The following refer to things that WILL BE on the exam. To help you prepare, do the following:

Exam 3:

1) Know the properties that define climate and how it differs from weather. Be able to give an example of two different climates that have the same average annual temperature and precipitation and explain why they are different.

2) Be able to explain with illustrations how “greenhouse warming” of the earth occurs, including appropriate reference to wavelengths incoming and outgoing energy, absorption, and emission.

3) Be able to describe and explain one “feedback loop” that can effect Earth climate.

4) Be able to illustrate a high and low pressure area with isobars, show the direction of force applied by pressure gradients, and draw arrows showing appropriate wind directions (ignoring friction with the ground).

5) Be able to draw isobars showing the difference between an area with high wind speeds and an area with low wind speeds.

6) Be able to tell the story of how a cloud forms, including the following concepts (decompression of the air, lower pressure, decreasing temperature, adiabatic, increasing relative humidity, saturation (100% humidity), condensation, dewpoint, rising air)

7) Be able to give one example of what might make air rise (resulting in clouds or precipitation).

Study for application part.

I like to emphasize science reasoning and critical thinking in all of my classes. This will be about 40% of exams. These are hard to study for because I am not asking you to know some particular fact, but rather to use facts to figure out problems, or to see things in a new way that I haven’t specifically described. A person does not simply study hard and learn science reasoning. Rather, one gradually gets better at science reasoning through lots of practice. Sometimes, I mix the basic knowledge part with an application question, but these questions can also cover a wider range of topics that I discussed in lecture or in my notes.

Therefore, the best way to study is to practice. Go over my example questions on the web page. Think about them. Think about how questions might be different. Go over the questions on the final exam. Think about them.

An “A” student should get about 70% or more of these questions (concepts are a little harder than the previous tests). A “C” student should do better than random guessing (better than about 30% on average for multiple choice, often about the same for sketch questions and essays).