Map Star support

Map Star asks the question out loud — “What is the capital of Indiana?” — and your child says the answer. There is no multiple choice to guess from, so remembering the answer is the whole exercise.

Six ways to play: Capital, State, Letters (the two-letter abbreviation), Nickname, Map (tap the state), and Mix it up. Progress is kept for every state in every quiz, and Practice drills fixed sets of ten.

Map Star runs on iPhone and iPad with iOS 18 or later. One purchase covers both, and Family Sharing covers brothers and sisters. · Privacy policy

Getting started

Tap a quiz on the home screen to begin. The first question asks permission to use speech recognition and the microphone; both are needed to hear the answer, and the quiz can still be played by typing if you decline.

Choose how many states a round asks — 10, 25, or all 50 — at the top of the home screen. The same row turns “Read the question out loud” on and off.

When a question appears, tap the microphone and say the answer. Listening stops by itself when your child stops talking. A missed answer is shown and read aloud before the next question.

Common questions

The microphone doesn’t work, or it says speech isn’t available

Map Star recognizes speech on the device itself, which needs the offline dictation files for English. Open Settings › General › Keyboard and turn on Enable Dictation, then open Map Star again. On a device that can’t recognize speech offline, every quiz can still be answered with Type it.

Why does iOS say my speech is sent to Apple?

That alert is Apple’s standard wording, and its text can’t be changed by an app. Map Star asks for on-device recognition only, with no server fallback, so your child’s voice never leaves the iPhone or iPad. Nothing is recorded, and nothing is saved.

It marked a right answer wrong

Say the answer on its own, without a sentence around it, in a quiet room. Map Star accepts imperfect pronunciation, but it deliberately won’t accept a neighboring state’s name: “South Carolina” is never taken for North Carolina, and “West Virginia” is never taken for Virginia. If a particular state is misheard every time, tap Type it for that question and email us the state and what was said.

My child would rather type

Tap Type it under any spoken question and answer with the keyboard. The round is scored the same way.

The small states are hard to tap

In the Map round, use the Small states button above the region buttons. It zooms into the crowded stretch from Maryland to Vermont, so Rhode Island and Delaware become easy to hit. The four region buttons — West, Midwest, South, Northeast — zoom into a region, and Whole map goes back out. Zooming never counts against the answer.

What does “mastered” mean?

A state counts as mastered in a quiz once your child answers it right three times in a row there. One miss starts it over. Mastery is kept separately for each kind of quiz, so knowing Indiana’s capital doesn’t mark it mastered on the map.

How do Progress and Practice differ?

Progress, at the top right of the home screen, shows every state and how it’s going, with one tap to practice the weakest ones. Practice drills fixed sets of ten in alphabetical order, or by region for the map, and each set has a study list that reads a state aloud when it’s tapped. Quizzes stay random on purpose — a test you can steer isn’t much of a test.

Can I start the progress over?

Open Progress and use Start over. It clears the mastery record. Best scores are kept.

Is there a way to turn the voice off?

Turn off “Read the question out loud” on the home screen, and questions appear without being spoken. The microphone still works. The device’s volume buttons work as usual.

Does it work on iPad?

Yes. Map Star uses the full iPad screen in any orientation, and one purchase covers iPhone and iPad. It needs iPadOS 18 or later, so the oldest iPads can’t run it.

Is anything collected about my child?

No. Map Star has no account, no advertising, no analytics, and no links out of the app, and it makes no internet connection at all. Settings, best scores, and the progress record stay on the device. The privacy policy has the details.

Contact

Found a problem, or have a question this page doesn’t answer? Email justin@physicsway.com. It helps to include the device, its iOS version, which quiz you were in, and a screenshot if you have one.