/anki-ultimate-geography

Geography flashcard deck for Anki

Primary LanguageHTMLOtherNOASSERTION

Ultimate Geography

Geography flashcard deck for Anki featuring:

  • the world's 206 sovereign states (824 cards)
  • 52 territories, world regions, and other entities (98 cards)
  • 39 oceans and seas (39 cards, maps only)
  • 7 continents (7 cards, maps only)
  • for a total of 304 unique notes, 968 cards, 222 flags and 304 maps.

The deck is available in English, German, Spanish, French, Norwegian Bokmål and Czech.

Table of contents

Features

The standard version of the deck comes with four note templates: Country - Capital, Capital - Country, Flag - Country, and Map - Country. An extended version is also available, with two additional note templates: Country - Flag and Country - Map.

Flag - Country
FrontBack
Map - Country
FrontBack
Country - Capital
FrontBack
Capital - Country
FrontBack

Supplementary information

To help with memorisation and provide context while learning, most notes include extra information:

  • similar flags - e.g. Iceland = Norway (red background, blue cross)
  • governance information - e.g. Cayman Islands = Overseas territory of the United Kingdom
  • alternative and former country names - e.g. East Timor = Also known as Timor-Leste
  • additional capitals - e.g. Sucre, Bolivia = While Sucre is the constitutional capital, La Paz is the seat of government.
  • statehood information - e.g. Transnistria = Independent state claimed by Moldova.

Custom study

Anki's search feature, coupled with the deck's comprehensive tag structure, allows for the creation of filtered decks covering a wide range of learning goals and abilities. Here are some search queries you can use:

  • card:"Flag - Country" to learn flags and nothing else;
  • tag:UG::Sovereign_State to focus on sovereign states and exclude dependent territories, water bodies and continents;
  • -tag:"UG::Oceans+Seas" (with "-" in front of the filter) to learn everything except oceans, seas and other water bodies;
  • card:"Map - Country" tag:UG::Sovereign_State tag:UG::Europe to learn the location of Europe's sovereign states;
  • (card:"Country - Capital" or card:"Capital - Country") tag:UG::Sovereign_State to learn the capitals of the world's sovereign states;
  • tag:UG::North_America -tag:UG::Caribbean to focus on the countries in North America, but not in the Caribbean (i.e. those in Northern and Central America).

Getting started

First-time here? Welcome! If you're happy using the standard, English version of the deck, here is how to get started:

  1. Go to the Releases page and find the latest release.
  2. In the Downloads section, find the Anki package Ultimate_Geography_v[...]_EN.apkg and download it.
  3. Import it in Anki, synchronise your devices and you're good to go!
  4. To stay informed of new releases, make sure to watch this repository's releases.

You can also download the latest Anki package from the shared deck page.

Other languages and versions

The standard English deck is the only version available as an Anki package. If you'd like to use the standard deck in another language, or the extended deck in any language, first install the CrowdAnki add-on then follow the steps below.

Please note that importing an extended deck on top of a standard deck is not recommended. You should either remove the standard deck first (by following the instructions in the Major version section), or import the extended deck in a separate Anki profile.

  1. Go to the Releases page and find the latest release.
  2. In the release's Downloads section, find the ZIP archive of the version you're interested in using (e.g. Ultimate_Geography_v[...]_DE.zip for the standard German deck) and download it.
  3. Extract the content of the archive on your machine.
  4. Open Anki and make sure your devices are all synchronised.
  5. In the File menu, select CrowdAnki: Import from disk.
  6. Browse for and select the folder you extracted from the archive, which should contain the deck's JSON file and media folder.
  7. Perform the import.

Upgrading

If you're looking to upgrade to a newer version of the deck, this section is for you. The process differs depending on whether you're upgrading to a minor (e.g. v2.6) or a major (e.g. v3.0) version.

For more information about versioning and the differences between minor and major, please refer to the Versioning section.

Minor version

For a minor version upgrade (e.g. from 2.3 to 2.6), do not import the APKG package in Anki as you may have done initially or you will lose your progress. Instead, proceed as described in the Other languages and versions section, making sure to pick the correct archive (e.g. Ultimate_Geography_v[...]_EN.zip for the standard English deck).

If you've moved some of the cards out of the default Ultimate Geography deck and into another deck, by default CrowdAnki will move those cards back on import. This behaviour can be disabled.

Major version

Upgrading to a major version (e.g. from 2.6 to 3.0) typically leads to a loss of progress. Therefore, unless the release's page tells you otherwise, it is recommended to perform a clean import by following these steps:

  1. Open Anki and make sure your devices are all synchronised.
  2. Delete the Ultimate Geography deck.
  3. In the Tools menu, select Manage Note Types, then delete the Ultimate Geography note type.
  4. In the Tools menu, select Check Database.
  5. Sync the changes with AnkiWeb and with all your devices.
  6. You can now follow the steps of the Getting started section and install the major version with its APKG package.

Deck structure

Beware that changing the structure of the deck may prevent you from upgrading it without loss of progress.

The notes are based on a note type called Ultimate Geography, which defines eight fields: Country, Country info, Capital, Capital info, Capital hint, Flag, Flag similarity and Map.

The cards are generated by Anki on import based on four templates: Country - Capital, Capital - Country, Flag - Country and Map - Country. The extended version of the deck includes two additional templates: Country - Flag and Country - Map.

The appearance of the cards is controlled solely with CSS; the content of the notes is free from HTML markup.

Every note is tagged. The tags, which are listed below by category, are prefixed with UG:: so they don't conflict with other decks. They can be used to create filtered decks for custom study.

  • Type - UG::Sovereign_State, UG::Oceans+Seas, UG::Continents
  • Continent - UG::Africa, UG::Asia, UG::Europe, UG::North_America, UG::Oceania, UG::South_America
  • Region - UG::Caribbean, UG::Middle_East, UG::Southeast_Asia, UG::European_Union, UG::Mediterranean, UG::East_Africa, UG::West_Africa