How to learn the countries of Oceania

The three large ones

Australia, New Zealand to its south-east, and Papua New Guinea directly north of Australia, on the eastern half of the island of New Guinea. Everything else is placed from these three.

The chain to the south-east

From Papua New Guinea a line of island countries runs out into the Pacific, each further south-east than the last: the Solomon Islands, then Vanuatu, then Fiji. Carry on past Fiji and you reach Tonga, with Samoa to its north. Tuvalu is north of Fiji.

The row in the north

North of that chain, near and above the equator, five more lie roughly in a row from west to east:

• Palau, closest to the Philippines.
• Micronesia, a long scatter of islands north of Papua New Guinea.
• The Marshall Islands, with Nauru, a single small island, to their south.
• Kiribati, the furthest east and the most spread out.

Practise it

These are the hardest places on the globe to click, so begin with Name it, where each one lights up for you, and move to Find it only when the names are sure. Take one group at a time. Play it on Name it until the names come without thinking, then switch to Find it, which asks the harder question: given only the name, where is it? What you miss comes back sooner in Review, and what you know comes back less often, so a few minutes a day is enough.

• Countries of Oceania: all 14.
• Capitals of Oceania and Flags of Oceania.