Why have map quizzes?
This course is not about memorization, it is about thinking, learning, and understanding. This might reasonably (and perhaps should) lead you to question why it includes five quizzes in which you have to regurgitate memorized information. I can think of two answers to this question.
First, it’s a matter of basic vocabulary; very field of learning and endeavor relies on this. You can’t appreciate a poem in Spanish unless you know the meaning the individual words in it; mastering vocabulary is a matter of memorization (conscious or otherwise.) Try understanding geology without remembering rocks types and categories, or chemistry without knowing the names of the elements, and their place on the periodic table. In the same way, we can’t discuss what’s going on in Africa unless you know (or at least recognize) the names of the places (countries, capitals, and physical features) we are talking about, and also where they are.
Second, as in everything else in this course, the map quizzes are not about grades and results, they are about learning and understanding. If map quizzes were about grades, then great way to study for them might be by using mnemonics: perhaps by coming up with a nonsense sentence or two in which each word begins with the same letter as a country on Africa’s west coast, from Morocco: M,W,M,S,G and so on. This might do a great job of helping you remember the names, and therefore doing well on the quiz, but you wouldn’t learn much.
Another way of studying for a quiz is to use an online place name game like These games help you memorize the names of countries and their capitals, and test whether you know them, but that’s about all. Some don’t even need maps. They can help you a lot in preparing for a test and they can be good ways to test yourself once you have studied. But it is a test-focused rather than learning-focused; you can’t learn much by taking it. To get the most out of the map quizzes, you should learn while you study for them. That’s why I encourage you all also to use some more cumbersome but also more valuable study techniques as well.
One very useful and interesting way of remembering and learning about capital cities is to find each one on Google Earth, and spending some time looking at and exploring it. You will be amazed and how much you learn by doing this. Once you have an image, an idea, or a question about a place you will be much more likely to remember it (that’s why you will remember the names and locations of places you have visited but forget those you have studied – the old fashioned way – for a map quiz.)
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What is covered on the map quizzes
For the map quizzes, you will need to be able to identify all independent countries, their capital cities, and the physical features . There will be five map quizzes during the semester, each for a different region (or combination of regions).
For each map quiz, I will give you a map (or maps) showing countries, capital cities, and selected physical features of the region. Your job will be to identify these various features. So, for example, on the map quiz covering Australia and the Pacific, you might be asked to identify a number of national capital cities (Wellington or Canberra, perhaps), a river (e.g. the Darling River), and a country (which might be Nauru, New Zealand, or any other independent country in the region. I won’t ask you to identify colonies or dependent territories, such as New Caledonia, a French dependency.) Nor will I ask you to identify the states or provinces that are part of an independent country so, for example, you won’t need to be able to identify Tasmania or New South Wales.) Similarly, in the quiz on North America I won’t ask you to identify Puerto Rico, Alaska, or Alberta.
I will not provide a list of names for you to choose from; you will need to remember them.
Independent countries are those labeled “A” in the Political Information Table in Goode’s World Atlas. National capital cities are also listed in the World Political Information Table in Goode’s. In National Geographic’s College Atlas of the World, independent countries are listed in the World Facts section (beginning on page 258); note that places listed as ‘Territories and areas of Special Status’ are not independent countries. If, after looking at either of these sources, you are still in doubt whether a territory is independent, check the , or the pages.
If there is any conflict between the information in your atlas and information you find anywhere else, the atlas will prevail.
To find out which specific countries are included in each map quiz, check your textbook and the atlas. So, for example, the first quiz (on Europe and Russia) will cover all of the countries covered in the Europe and Russia chapters in de Blij, Muller, and Winkler Prins’s The World Today (Chapters 1 and 2.) The Americas quiz likewise includes all countries covered in the textbook chapters on North America, Middle America, and South America.
The five quizzes cover
The order in which the quizzes will take place will vary from semester to semester, so check the Course Calendar on this site for details.
More study tips for map quizzes