Study Tips

Here are some tips to help you prepare for the Challenge:

  • Review previous years' questions, available here. This will help students become comfortable with the tone and types of questions they will encounter. You can also view the 25th National Final virtual round here or try some of the Canadian Geographic trivia here.

  • Encourage your students to play online geography games to expand their geography knowledge. See the list below and follow Can Geo Education on Twitter (@CanGeoEdu) for more ideas.

  • Work the Canadian Geographic Challenge into your classroom however works best for you.

    • Have the students find the answers in pairs to eliminate the stress for students who do not want to participate. Then, have the top five students answer the tie-breaker questions to determine the School Champion.

    • Have students answer a few questions each day and then host one competition day.

    • Creating a geography club is also a great way to encourage students who are the most passionate about geography to participate.

  • Students who have a vision of moving onto the Provincial/Territorial round or the National Final should read widely, whether that's current events in the news or scientific and geography-related websites. They should look at publications such as Canadian Geographic and National Geographic, explore websites such as Britannica and Our World in Data, review factbooks and statistics from organizations and government agencies such as NASA, United Nations, WHO, Statistics Canada, and CIA, and make use of interactive online resources such as Google Earth to learn about the world.

  • The students who seem to rise to the top know their world atlas inside and out. We would recommend that they start with a Canadian atlas as early as Grade 4. 

  • Direct students to the wealth of free resources that Canadian Geographic Education has to offer. 

  • Getting parents involved in the Challenge is a great idea, as they may have their own experiences or knowledge to contribute. Alternatively, suggest that students hold their own mock Challenge rounds—sometimes the best way to learn is by doing!

  • In the end, geography is such a vast subject area that students should consider the world from an economic, political, spatial, environmental, cultural and physical perspective.