Teacher License – Social Studies Complete Review Guide 2026–2027

4. The eight planets in order from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune. Earth is the third. (6.38.6-2)
5. Earth makes one full rotation (360 degrees) in about 24 hours, which is 15 degrees of longitude per hour, or one degree every 4 minutes. (6.38.6-3)
6. The Equator is latitude 0 and divides Earth into northern and southern hemispheres. The Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn lie at about 23.5 degrees north and south, and the polar circles at 66.5. (6.38.6-4)
7. The Greenwich meridian is longitude 0 (the prime meridian). Longitude is measured east and west of it up to 180. The farther east you go, the later the clock time. (6.38.6-4)
8. Elements of weather and climate: temperature, air pressure, wind, humidity and rainfall. Temperature depends on latitude, altitude, distance from the sea and ocean currents. (6.38.6-5)
9. Population growth has two parts: natural increase (births minus deaths) and net migration. Arithmetic density = population ÷ area. (6.38.7-1, 6.38.7-2)
10. Settlement types are rural (villages and farms) and urban (cities). Common urban problems are traffic congestion, pollution and housing demand, and they are handled with urban planning and public transport. (6.38.7-3, 6.38.7-5)
11. Economic activities: primary (farming, mining, fishing), secondary (manufacturing) and services (trade, transport, education, tourism). (6.38.7-4)
12. Map elements: title, legend (key), scale and north arrow. A scale of 1:1,000,000 means 1 cm stands for 10 km. (6.38.8-1)
13. Remote sensing collects information about Earth's surface without touching it, using sensors on satellites or aircraft. Geographic information systems store data in layers and analyse it, and are used in urban planning and resource management. (6.38.8-3, 6.38.8-4)
14. Saudi Arabia lies in southwest Asia between roughly latitudes 16 and 32 north, with the Red Sea on the west and the Arabian Gulf on the east. (6.38.9-1)
15. Landforms of Saudi Arabia: the Tihama coastal plain, the Sarawat mountains in the west (highest peaks in the south), the Najd plateau in the centre, the eastern plains, the Empty Quarter in the south and the Nafud in the north. (6.38.9-2)
16. Most of the Kingdom has a hot desert continental climate, hot and dry in summer. The Asir highlands get summer rain, the north gets winter rain, and the coasts are more humid. (6.38.9-3)
17. The Saq layer is the largest aquifer in the Kingdom. Storage dams mainly hold flood water and recharge groundwater; generating electricity is not their purpose. (6.38.9-5)
18. Economic resources of the Kingdom include oil, gas, minerals, agriculture and fisheries. The 2022 census counted about 32.2 million residents. (6.38.9-4, 6.38.9-5)

Common mistakes in this chapter

• ✕ Mixing up weather and climate: weather is the state of the atmosphere at a given place and time; climate is the general average over many years.
• ✕ Mixing up rotation and revolution: day and night come from Earth spinning on its axis; the seasons come from its orbit around the Sun.
• ✕ Saying the seasons are caused by Earth being nearer to or farther from the Sun. The cause is the tilt of Earth's axis together with its revolution.
• ✕ Confusing parallels and meridians: parallels run side by side and differ in length; meridians meet at the poles and are all the same length.
• ✕ Confusing annual and perennial plants: in the guide's sample question lavender is the annual, while acacia (talh), boxthorn (awsaj) and salam are perennials.
• ✕ Population density is population divided by area, not the reverse, and the result is persons per square kilometre.
• ✕ Mixing up aerial photographs and satellite images: the first are taken from an aircraft at lower altitude, the second from a satellite orbiting Earth.
• ✕ With a 1:1,000,000 scale it is easy to forget the unit conversion: 1 cm on the map stands for 10 km on the ground.