Study Guide · Chapter 15
Mnemonic Index
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Every "Memory hook" callout in this book, gathered in one place for a single drilling pass. Cover the right-hand column and see how many you can reproduce from the trigger phrase alone.
| # | Section | Trigger phrase | Covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | How to Memorise | "Cluster by continent, then sub-region" | Breaking 195 countries into small, revisable clusters |
| 2 | How to Memorise | "Border ring around India" | Walking India's seven neighbours as one closed clockwise loop |
| 3 | Asia | "SAARC is eight, ASEAN is now eleven" | SAARC's fixed 8 members vs ASEAN's 2025 expansion to 11 with Timor-Leste |
| 4 | Asia | "The Caucasus Three, plus Turkey and Russia" | Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (Asia by geography) and the two genuinely split countries |
| 5 | Europe | "27 in the club, 20 share the wallet" | EU's 27 members vs the eurozone's 20 euro-users |
| 6 | Africa | "Same name, two banks, one continent split in half" | The two non-interchangeable CFA franc zones (BCEAO/West, BEAC/Central) |
| 7 | North America | "Six small islands, one shared dollar" | The Eastern Caribbean Dollar's six sovereign-state users |
| 8 | South America | "Twelve countries, easy to finish" | South America's short, easily-completed 12-country list |
| 9 | Oceania | "Oceania is Australia's currency zone" | Kiribati/Nauru/Tuvalu (AUD) and Marshall Islands/Micronesia/Palau (USD) |
| 10 | Multiple Capitals | "Three functions, three cities" | South Africa's executive-legislative-judicial split, and the shorter two-way splits elsewhere |
| 11 | Renamed Countries | "Old skin, new name — same country underneath" | Burma→Myanmar, Swaziland→Eswatini, Macedonia→North Macedonia, Zaire→DRC, and others |
| 12 | Currency Families | "Follow the coloniser, not the map" | Why peso/franc/dollar/dinar/rupee names recur across unrelated countries |
| 13 | Superlatives | "R for Russia, largest; V for Vatican, smallest" | Anchoring every other superlative to the two clearest area extremes |
| 14 | India's Neighbours | "PC-NB-BM, plus two islands" | India's six land neighbours plus Sri Lanka and the Maldives by sea |
| 15 | Exam Traps | "If it sounds too obvious, check it" | Capital-vs-largest-city and country-name confusion traps |
| 16 | Asia | "Landlocked dozen, led by Kazakhstan" | Asia's twelve landlocked countries and Kazakhstan as the world's largest landlocked country |
| 17 | Europe | "Five micro-states, all genuinely sovereign" | Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino, Vatican City as a closed set |
| 18 | Africa | "Sixteen landlocked, one fully enclaved" | Africa's sixteen landlocked countries, with Lesotho fully enclosed inside South Africa |
| 19 | North America | "No landlocked, but thirteen islands" | Every North American country has a coastline; thirteen of the 23 are islands |
| 20 | South America | "Bolivia and Paraguay, the continent's two exceptions" | The only two landlocked countries in South America, and Bolivia's lost coastline |
| 21 | Oceania | "One land border in the whole ocean" | Papua New Guinea-Indonesia as Oceania's only land border |
| 22 | Blocs | "G7 is fixed, G20 just grew by one whole continent" | G7's stable seven vs the African Union's 2023 G20 admission vs BRICS's two expansion rounds |
| 23 | Blocs | "Never a British colony, still in the Commonwealth" | Rwanda, Mozambique, Gabon, Togo as non-colonial Commonwealth members |
| 24 | Exam Traps | "Sound-alike Southeast Asia: Baht-Kip-Riel-Dong" | Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam's four distinct, unrelated currencies |
| 25 | Exam Traps | "Largest city that isn't the capital" | Sydney, Mumbai, São Paulo, Istanbul as the four classic instances |
| 26 | Currency Families | "Kuwaiti dinar, the world's priciest unit" | The Kuwaiti dinar as the world's highest-valued currency |
| 27 | Superlatives | "La Paz up, Baku down" | The world's highest capital (La Paz) and lowest capital (Baku) |
| 28 | Multiple Capitals | "Sri Lanka and Bolivia: the famous one isn't official" | Colombo and La Paz as the well-known but non-official capitals |
| 29 | Renamed Countries | "Prespa fixed a name, unlocked NATO and the EU" | North Macedonia's 2019 rename and its accession consequences |
| 30 | India's Neighbours | "Doklam: three countries, one plateau" | The 2017 India-Bhutan-China standoff as a live example of the border-ring cluster |
| 31 | Asia | "SAARC's two non-land-neighbours" | Afghanistan and Maldives as SAARC members without a land border with India |
| 32 | Africa | "West Africa's coast, Central Africa's interior" | A spatial cue for sorting the two CFA franc zones' member lists correctly |
| 33 | Currency Families | "Won is one word, two economies" | North and South Korea's shared currency name despite total non-convertibility |
| 34 | Exam Traps | "Niger, Nigeria — one letter's worth of population difference" | The size and currency contrast between the two similarly named countries |
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