I kind of wonder where these serveys are held.

Is this stuff really THAT important?

These stories are all about "ahhh ha ha ha look what Americans don't know" do you really think they would go to a place where the results wouldn't lead to what they wanted to prove anyhow? that would waste their cash.

I agree that the 'man on the street' stuff is mostly bullshit.

And BTW, I agrue that knowing where Iran is on that map isn't all that important to the adverage American.

>>>Does that knowledge actually serve a useful purpose?>>>

Well, I grew up with my family playing trivial pursuit, so trivia about geography helped my self esteem a bit and my family reunions had people climing over each other to have me on their team. But yeah, trivia has weird odd uses, but not in every job. Sometimes my trivia gets me into trouble as people think I make stuff up and are mad at me ! Other times if I am in a chat room and that chat room is a world wide one, then my world geography does come in handy with making temporary friends and acquantances too. If the person in that room chatting is from a city called New Orleans and I know zip about it, then they might think I was self centered and didn't care about Louisiana at all.

Jonathan

USA states test. Quiz over... Perfect Score! Just remember Vermont is shaped like a V. That helps me to remember, since I have never been to Vermont before. (^:

Jonathan

I've just done the quiz and I got 90% - I got the gold rush wrong (said Alaska).

I'm British, but I did study US Geography at school (over 20 yars ago), but not US history...

I own up to the fact my world geography isn't as strong as I would like it but I can recognize all 50 states and the major European countries, with a dash of those in Asia and Africa. When it comes to naming rivers and mountain ranges of the world I'm even weaker and want that improved also.

Ugg, I got 78 out of 162 in Africa. You can tell I have never traveled there. My roommate in college was from south africa, so luckily that helped me a little as he used to talk about certain countries he had visited.

I got 73 out of 87 in Asia. 22 of 24 in Australia. 39 of 39 for Canada. 26 of 66 for the Carribean, wow I tanked those. I can't believe that I memorized all the world capitals in 5th grade. LOL Whew, I got 41 of 42 in Central America ! But since I went to Costa Rica once last year, it really helped me since I looked at maps before, during, and after my visit. The plane ticket to Costa Rica was only 350 bucks so my whole family went there. Ouch, I got 89 of 111 in Europe. Just remember Croatia is in the shape of a C. (^: Hmmmm, 70 of 87 in the Middle East. I am 38 years old so I only learned USSR in grade school. (^: 33 of 39 in South America. Never been there, but I like soccer so I knew some of them. 52 of 96 for Oceania. Not bad for never going there. I can't even attempt Mexico regions or China regions either. I've only been to Baja in Mexico.

Jonathan

>>>I think most people could tell you it was Louisiana. Being able to pin point the state doesn't seem that important so long as you know what happened there.>>>

Agreed. Knowing what happened there recently can help with debates online and with friends about politics or world events. But really when was the last time anyone anywhere encountered a map with no words on it or country names ??? All it is testing is outline recognition mostly. The only time the outline might be handy is if you are playing Amazing Race tv show and the clue is the shape of a country. LOL

Jonathan

Everyone keeps talking about It's american thing. It's not. I've seen these exact same kind of stats in London Articles.

I don't think it's bad to point at Syria instead of Iraq, as long as you're close and you're not the president. You only have problems when you point to Japan instead of Iraq. These articles don't consider a close estimate correct so the results aren't as shocking as they make them out to be. I would think Louisiana would be easier to pick out than Nebraska, or Utah though. I mean it has a pretty distinct shape and location..

If you don't use what you learn, you're going to lose it. If you aren't watching Jeopardy or the news, or actually going to these places you're just going to forget.