This study was conducted to help teachers decide what factors govern high school students' knowledge of geography. Information was gathered about the students' background, including: gender, exposure to a course of study in world history, overall grade point average, travel experience outside the United States, and habits of reading newspapers and watching world news on television. A second set of data were gathered that concerned the rationale for the choice of countries for the test, including countries appearing in the news frequently, countries involved with the United States due to military action, countries geographically located close to the United States, and countries chosen at random. The data showed that there was a negative correlation between knowledge of geography and exposure to world history, and that recent news exposure did not help students recognize countries. The study concluded that prior knowledge might be more responsible for high performance. (KM)