How to learn the world’s capitals and flags without losing your mind

1. The map first, details later

Before memorising capitals, it helps to know where each country is. Continents mode is the best starting point: it makes you place each country in its region, and everything else falls into place around that. Map mode is the next step: recognising the country by its shape and location.

Study one continent at a time. It’s easier to remember the countries of South America together than mixed in with Asia’s, and on Normal and Hard some wrong options come from the same continent, so telling neighbours apart is exactly what the game asks of you.

2. Flags in families

Many flags share a design because they share a history. Learning them in families, noticing what changes within each one, is far easier than one by one:

• Nordic cross: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland; the colours of the cross and the background change.
• Pan-Arab colours (red, white, black and green): Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and others.
• Pan-African colours (green, yellow and red): Ghana, Ethiopia, Senegal, Mali, Cameroon and many more.
• Near-twin tricolours: Chad and Romania, Monaco and Indonesia, Ireland and Côte d’Ivoire. Check the order of the colours and the proportions.

3. The trick capitals

The most common mistake is assuming the capital is the biggest or most famous city. In many countries it isn’t, and those are worth learning first because they are the ones people miss most:

• Australia: Canberra (not Sydney). Canada: Ottawa (not Toronto).
• Brazil: Brasília (not Rio de Janeiro or São Paulo). Turkey: Ankara (not Istanbul).
• Nigeria: Abuja (not Lagos). Switzerland: Bern (not Zurich or Geneva).
• New Zealand: Wellington (not Auckland). Morocco: Rabat (not Casablanca).

4. Review without pressure, in order

Easy has no timer and uses the best-known countries: it’s the mode for learning. Normal adds more countries and 20 seconds per question; Hard, every country and 10 seconds. Move up when you get almost everything right, not before.

Play several short 10-question games rather than one long one: repeating on different days sticks far better than cramming. And pay attention to the right answer when you miss: it’s exactly what you still need to learn.

5. If you also want a high score

Each correct answer is worth 100 points, plus up to 100 for your streak of correct answers and up to 50 for answering fast. The streak weighs twice as much as speed, so in long games it pays to be sure rather than rush.

In endless mode, with three lives, the strategy is the same: a slow but correct answer keeps both your streak and your life. Country and capital names are in your language, so you can also use it to learn what they’re called in other languages by switching the site language.