How to learn every country in the world (and remember them)

Almost everyone knows a lot of countries, and almost everyone gets stuck on the same few: the small ones, the ones with similar flags, the ones whose capital isn't the biggest city. Learning them all is very doable, if you go about it the right way.

1. Test yourself instead of re-reading

Looking at a list of countries feels like learning, but it's weak. Trying to recall an answer, even if you get it wrong, is far more effective. Cover the capital and try to say it. Look at a flag and try to name it before you check. That small effort is what makes memories stick.

2. Learn in chunks

Two hundred countries is a daunting number. Forty-odd in Europe, fifty-odd in Africa, and so on is far more manageable. Pick a region and stay with it until you're comfortable, then move on. Smaller groups also let you use neighbours as clues.

3. Use more than one clue

Countries come with several handles: the flag, the capital, the shape on the map, the neighbours, the continent. The more ways you connect to a country, the more routes you have to remember it. If you forget the flag, you might remember where it sits, or which countries it borders.

That's why Atlas asks about flags, capitals, the map, neighbours and continents, and counts a country as learned once you've got it right two different ways.

4. Space your reviews

A fact you've just learned fades quickly, but each time you recall it, it lasts longer. So come back to a country after a day, then a few days, then a week, rather than testing it again and again in one sitting. Atlas keeps track of this: a country counts as mastered once you still remember it days later, and review rounds bring back the ones you're about to forget.

5. Spend extra time on the tricky ones

Everyone has a handful of stubborn countries. When one trips you up, give it a story or a link: a landlocked country surrounded by three others, or a flag that looks like another's with a small difference. A silly connection you invent yourself works better than one from a book.

6. Learn the neighbours

Neighbours are some of the most useful clues. If you know that Luxembourg is surrounded by Belgium, France and Germany, you know where it is, and you've reinforced three other countries at the same time. World facts, such as which countries are landlocked, give you groups to hold on to.

7. Little and often

Ten minutes a day beats a long session once a week. Atlas has a daily challenge, the same ten questions for everyone, which is a good habit to build.

8. Try to recall without prompts

Once you know a good number, test the hardest kind of recall: write down every country beginning with a single letter, from memory. Atlas has a mode for it called Name them all. Seeing the blanks you can't fill tells you exactly what to study next.

9. Make it fun

You'll learn more if you enjoy it. Trophies, quizzes and the satisfaction of watching the map fill in all help. Atlas has 94 trophies, from your first country to all 200.

Go beyond countries

Once you know the world, you can try smaller maps. Atlas Plus adds the 50 US states and every county and council area of the UK.

See Atlas, or browse our other calm puzzle and quiz games.