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If you are a college student, you have to make notes when you are attending lectures or studying at the end of the day. You latter use those notes to study for your exam at the end of the semester. This can be tedious and often counterproductive. How often do you take notes and never look at them again or find that they are incomplete.

You may have thought there must be a better way take notes. Is there a method that will work better than than my current technique?

There is probably no one way of note taking that works best for everyone in all classes, since people all have their own learning style.

The big issue with conventional note taking is that this is a passive process. Simply taking notes during class does not get the brain to interact with the material and store the information. When your brain is more actively involved in organizing the learning material it will recall it better later.

If you are a strong visual learner, one thing that you can benefit from is making notes that include lots of images, such as graphs, drawings, or even cartoons. If you are a lousy writer and more of an auditory learner than a visual one, tape recording your lectures may be the way to go.

For highly visual learners a particular method of note taking is called mind-mapping. Sometimes referred to as a learning map.

Although it takes some exercise and training to utilize mind-mapping effectively, people who become efficient at it find they can retain and remember more material in a lot less time.

The technique of the learning-map is very simple. The supplies you need include: a blank piece of paper, the larger the better, at least one pen, more if you want to use a variety of colors.

A mind map can become quite busy as you add your notes to it, so it is important to keep the size of your writing quite small. A fine point pen can help with this. Over time you will be able to judge what size of writing will work best.

Determine what you think the central theme is as you listen to the lecturer, or as you read the textbook you are studying. For example, you might be reading about the Great Depression where you decide the main topic is , “What was the new deal?” .

Write down the main topic in the center of the page and circle it. You may also want to highlight your central topic. Do not write formally. Just write down a sentence or a fragment, whatever it takes to bring the ideas back into your mind.

Continue reading or listening, and paying attention for the first main sub-topic.

When the first major sub-topic presents itself, write down a few key words on the page to summarize the sub-topic. Circle the the words you just wrote down. Connect the sub-topic with the main topic by drawing a line.

Repeat this every time you come across a new sub topic. Eventually it will start resembling a wagon wheel, with the main topic surrounded by sub-topics.

Remember this is not an art project, the lines or spokes do not have to be straight or perfect, and they can vary in length as needed. The circles do not have to be round; they can be oval, triangles, or squiggles, or even hearts if you prefer. Different colors may help you organize the thoughts more completely.

As the lecture continues, you will find that some of the material being covered includes details that support one of the sub topics that you have all ready isolated. Using just a few words, write down these second generation topics, put a circle around them and connect them to their sub topic with a line. It is best to use a different color pen for each sub topic.

As the lecture progresses and the instructor expands on her ideas your sub-topics will have many second generation topics surrounding it. When you look at your paper you will instantly know the dominant themes of the lecture and the organizational structure of the topic.

Do not be afraid to write down any ideas or even questions of your own while listening to the talk.

This shows you have your brain actively interacting with the material and will remind you of where further study is needed.

The visual document that is created through the mind mapping technique differs a lot from classical note taking methods.

People who learn very well visually will love mind mapping; people that do not learn visually tend to find mind maps a waste of time. What kind of learner are you?



By: Gene Grzywacz

About the Author:

Famous Weddings

Maps – A Powerful Approach to Note Taking

INTRODUCTION:

Mind map is a trade mark of the Buzan Organistion, ltd. In the UK and the USA. And it was popularized by Tony Buzan. Mind map can be used by not only students but by people in any stream. This will be helpful to remember the things that we have to accomplish. We can even use this method while going for presentation for making notes on key words instead of using too much of papers.

Mind map:

A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making and writing.

The elements of a given mind map are arranged intuitively according to the importance of the concepts, and are classified into groupings, branches, or areas, with the goal of representing semantic or other connections between portions of information.

Uses of mind map:



Mind Mapping is a useful technique that improves the way you take notes, and supports and enhances your creative problem solving.

By using Mind Maps, you can quickly identify and understand the structure of a subject, and the way that pieces of information fit together, as well as recording the raw facts contained in normal notes.

More than this, Mind Maps encourage creative problem solving, and they hold information in a format that your mind finds easy to remember and quick to review.

Mind Maps abandon the list format of conventional note taking. They do this in favor of a two-dimensional structure. As such, a good Mind Map shows the ’shape’ of the subject, the relative importance of individual points, and the way in which facts relate to one another.

Mind Maps are more compact than conventional notes, often taking up one side of paper. This helps you to make associations easily. And if you find out more information after you have drawn the main Mind Map, then you can easily add it in.

Other uses:



1.Summarizing information

2.Consolidating information from different research sources

3.Thinking through complex problems

4.Presenting information in a format that shows the overall structure of your subject.

5.They are very quick to review as you can often refresh information in your mind just by glancing at one.

6.They can be effective mnemonics: Remembering the shape and structure of a Mind 7.Map can give you the cues you need to remember the information within it.

8.They engage much more of your brain in the process of assimilating and connecting facts, compared with conventional notes.

Guidelines to draw mind map:

  1.  Write the title of the subject you’re exploring in the center of the page, and draw a circle around it.

  2.  As you come across major subdivisions or subheadings of the topic draw lines out from this circle. Label these lines with these subdivisions or subheadings as lines.

  3.  As you “burrow” into the subject and uncover another level of information i.e., further subheadings, or individual facts belonging to the subheadings above, draw these as lines linked to the subheading lines.

  4.  Finally, for individual facts or ideas, draw lines out from the appropriate heading line and label them.

 

IMPROVING MIND MAPS:

The following suggestions may help to increase its effectiveness:

1. Use single words or phrases for information.

2. Use color to separate different ideas.

3. Use symbols and images.

4. Using cross-linkages.

CONCLUSION:



Mind Mapping is an extremely effective method of taking notes. Mind Maps show not only facts, but also the overall structure of a subject and the relative importance of individual parts of it. They help you to associate ideas and make connections that you might not otherwise make.

So I suggest everyone to use this mind map technique to enhance their creativity in problem solving and decision making.

By,

G.P.Divya & S.Padmavathi,

Lecturers,

SSM Educational trust,

Erode.



By: Divya

About the Author:

Insurance Magazines

Do you ever feel like you have some great ideas, but when you sit down to write them, they’re not so great? Or even worse, you can’t really get a sense of what the ideas were?

In one of my graduate student coaching groups we have been discussing the difficulty of translating partly formed ideas into words on paper. One technique that makes use of a normally underutilized part of our brain is called “Mind Mapping.”

What is a Mind Map?

Tony Buzan, who created the word “Mind Map” and has written extensively on it, describes it as a powerful graphic technique that makes use of the way our brains naturally work. He says it has four characteristics.

1. The main subject is crystallized in a central image

2. The main themes radiate from the central image as branches

3. Branches comprise a key image or key word printed on an associated line.

4. The branches form a connected nodal structure

How Do You Mind Map?

Mind mapping is best done in color. If you have some markers or colored pencils, and a sheet of white paper, you’re ready. If you don’t, just use what you have.

Start with the central idea that you are trying to wrap your mind around. It could be the big picture (e.g. your next chapter) or a smaller idea (e.g. the next few paragraphs.) Write it down in one or two words at the center of the paper, and draw a circle around it. If there is a symbol or picture that you can put with the words, sketch that in. The idea is that you are activating the non-verbal side of your brain. The quality of what you draw is not important, since you will be the only one seeing it. The same is true for the ideas you come up with. Don’t edit, just put in what comes to mind.

There are no rules for the way to proceed from here. I tend to break rules, anyway. The way my mind works, I start thinking of related ideas, categories, and ideas, which I write in little circles surrounding the circle in the middle. I then use lines to connect them.

Tony Buzan likes to draw curved lines emanating from the center, and write the related or associated ideas on the lines. The result looks like a tree emanating from a central spot.

My technique looks more like a bunch of lollipops.

As you continue to add associated ideas to your outer circles or branches, you continue to draw the connections. You will notice as you fill them in that there are cross connections that appear. I find it helpful to draw lines between those interconnecting ideas.

How Does a Mind Map Help?

The brain is an associative network, and the right hemisphere (in most people) is responsible for non-verbal, visual, associative and much creative thinking. Normally when writing, we are mostly making use of our left hemisphere, which tends towards the analytical, one-thought-at-a-time approach. Our internal thoughts, however, are not shaped like that. Thus we have a roadblock as we try to get our brilliant thoughts on paper.

By using a Mind Map as a starting point for thinking, you can bypass the blockage and feeling of overwhelm caused by overly analytical thinking. The Mind Map allows you to see more than one thought at a glance, and in doing so helps clarify your thinking. It shows the way ideas are interrelated (or less related than you thought.) It allows more access to creative, non-linear parts of your brain.

How Can Grad Students and Professors Use Mind Maps?

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “How is it that Gina writes so brilliantly and clearly? How does she keep all her creative thoughts straight?” The secret is that I use Mind Maps to write my articles. So it’s not a high IQ but my Mind Mapping skills that got me where I am today.

Here are some helpful ways to make use of Mind Mapping.

1. Use it for brainstorming ideas for your proposal or new research project.

2. Make a Mind Map of your next chapter or the one you’re currently stuck on.

3. When planning your career, make a Mind Map to show the pros and cons of your available options.

4. Use a Mind Map to take notes.

5. Mind Mapping can help keep you awake and interested in your subject.

6. Prepare for an upcoming meeting with a Mind Map and use it to explain your ideas.

7. Use it in teaching, both to prepare classes and for handouts.

Play around with Mind Mapping. You’ll find it’s a refreshing break from the one-foot-in-front-of-the-other way that we approach many things in life.



By: Gina Hiatt Ph.d.

About the Author:

Transportation