US Map / US Map Quiz / Midwest States Quiz

Midwest States Map Quiz

Twelve states between the Ohio River and the High Plains, clicked on the map as they are named.

Two groups, learned separately

The Midwest splits cleanly in two, and the halves are learned by different methods. The five Great Lakes states — Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin — are shape states: Michigan is two peninsulas, Wisconsin sits between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, Ohio has Lake Erie on top and the Ohio River on the bottom, Indiana is the narrow one between Ohio and Illinois, and Illinois runs long and south to the confluence at Cairo.

The Plains column is about order, not outline

Four of the seven West North Central states are near-rectangles with nothing but position to tell them apart, so the only reliable way to place them is to remember the stack. North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas run north to south in that order along the western edge of the region. The other three have shapes you can actually use: Minnesota sits above Iowa with the Great Lakes reaching for its northeastern corner, Iowa is bounded by rivers on both sides, and Missouri sits below Iowa with a bootheel hanging off its southeastern corner. Learn the four-state column as a single unit and the rest of the region falls into place. The Midwest region page has all 12 with capitals, and the East North Central and West North Central pages match the two halves described here.

One landmark worth knowing

Nearly every border in this region is either a river or a survey line, and knowing which is which speeds the clicking up. The Mississippi forms the wiggling eastern edge of Iowa and Missouri and the western edge of Illinois and Wisconsin; the Missouri cuts the diagonal across South Dakota and runs down Nebraska's eastern side; the Ohio River makes the southern edge of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Everything else is straight, and straight edges mean you are looking at the Plains half of the region.

More quizzes

Every deck on the site scores as you answer and reshuffles on reload. There is the full 50-state map quiz for all 50 in one round; the capitals quiz for multiple choice on every state capital; the abbreviations quiz for the two-letter postal codes; the easiest-states deck for fifteen outlines you can spot on sight; the hardest-states deck for the twenty that decide your score; and one region at a time — Northeast, South, West.