Guessing states in USA

I decided to play a game where I take 10 minutes to guess the 50 states in the U.S. I came across this website that helps you do exactly that.

My score: 43 out of 50 states in 10 minutes.

I guessed the first 40 states in 5 minutes, and struggled to get the remaining 3 in another 5 minutes. 7 remained that I couldn't guess at all.

The states I could not guess: Alaska, Hawaii, Iowa, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Wyoming

My own thoughts on my approach to guessing and how I fell short?
My approach is to have a mental map of the United States, and start identifying states starting with the West Coast and moving to the East Coast. With that approach, I realize why I would never guess Alaska or Hawaii - they are not part of mainland.

Iowa, Montana, Nebraska, and Wyoming - I still can't put a mental map of where they are - they get lost amidst all those states out in the middle of nowhere - neither East Coast or West. I am glad I got more states on paper than I thought I would.

Louisiana - was a big miss - I missed it as I was going between Texas and Florida, and once I missed it, there wasn't a way I would guess that again.

P.S: Perhaps a week or so from now, I plan to guess via a 2nd round - this time with the aid of an actual US map (with state borders but without names). I hope to get to say 47 states, at least, in 10 minutes. What would be a shame is guessing less than 43 despite the aid of a map :-)