Poor geographic knowledge among students and citizens, in general, has been one of the main research concerns in the area of geography education. This study is part of a project aimed at determining compulsory secondary education students' level of geographic knowledge and providing tools to improve learning. Following quantitative research methods, the geographic knowledge and competences of the participating students have been assessed through an online test. Additionally, the circumstances associated with the students' personal and academic environment that contribute to explaining the results have been established. The findings show the participating students' scarcity of geographic knowledge, both regarding specific curricular contents and spatial competence. The results obtained suggest the pressing need to find a new geography teaching approach that is more clearly linked to the language of maps.