1) Decide on your paper size Before you start writing anything it’s really important to work out what size paper you want to do your mindmap on. Be it A3, A4, A5 or any other size you can think of, deciding this early on will make things much easier in the long run and leave you with a much more organised mind map
2) Work out the basics Before you actually start writing anything it’s a really good idea to work out the basics of your mind map. What type of bubble do you want the title to be in? Spiky or a cloud or just a plain circle? What kind of lines to you want leading off from it? Arrows or just plain lines? Straight or curved? Taking 30 seconds to work these out before you start will make everything much easier in the long run and leave you with a much neater and better organised mind map
3) Choose what to write with This part is all down to personal preference. Do you prefer writing in a plain colour and then highlighting later? Do you want each section in a different colour? Felt tips or biros? Fineliners or pencils? This is the time when you can think about what you’re most comfortable writing with and what’s going to make it easiest for you to retain the information
4) Add pictures and diagrams Adding little drawings to aid your explanations is a really great way to help you remember what you write. You don’t have to be good at art to make this work, just add a few little diagrams here and there and you’ll be surprised how much more easily you retain the information
5) Have fun with it You may be looking at a picture of a mind map online and saying to yourself ‘that’s exactly what I want mine to look like’ but in reality that’ll never happen. You’ll never manage to get a mind map that looks exactly the same as someone else’s and in all honesty that would be a bit boring. Instead just get stuck in and create your own unique masterpiece
I am the kind of person who likes to do things systematically, so here’s kind of a routine of how I go through my readings (this is applicable to all readings, and if you are wondering, I study law (thus this includes cases) and social sciences.
1. Glance through your reading once - look at the titles, have a brief idea of the structure of it.
Philosophical papers (social sciences readings), for example, typically have a structure and a main idea throughout the paper. This is the step where you try to figure out its structure and the point that the author is trying to illustrate.
For cases, you can have a look at how many judgements and a brief look at the facts to know what you are about to read.
2. Highlight your reading - colour coding is fundamental. It will help you to keep track of the structure and main point of the readings.
Red: main/central idea of the article
Pink: subsequent point
Orange: subsequent point of the points in pink
Yellow: other important information
Green: key words
Blue: conclusion
3. Type an outline of the article - you may skip this part if you want, but if your exams syllabus include that reading, it will be very handy for you to have an outline so that you don’t have to go back and read the reading once again.
Basically this part is where you type/write the information you deem important or that will be examined. You should do it in an outline format so that it will be easier for you to study.
4. Summarise the outline/reading on an index card - this is a way to show yourself that you have truly completed the reading. Have the very important information on index card will recall your memory regarding the reading, and the more index cards you got, the higher the motivation you will have to complete the readings since you can see tangible progress. It’s also a great way to review the information especially before/after lectures or before exams.
Taken from Sophia Chua-Rubenfeld, daughter of the Tiger Mother
Preliminary Steps
1. Choose classes that interest you. That way studying doesn’t feel like slave labor. If you don’t want to learn, then I can’t help you. 2. Make some friends. See steps 12, 13, 23, 24.
General Principles
3. Study less, but study better. 4. Avoid Autopilot Brain at all costs. 5. Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 6. Write it down. 7. Suck it up, buckle down, get it done.
Plan of Attack Phase I: Class
8. Show up. Everything will make a lot more sense that way, and you will save yourself a lot of time in the long run. 9. Take notes by hand. I don’t know the science behind it, but doing anything by hand is a way of carving it into your memory. Also, if you get bored you will doodle, which is still a thousand times better than ending up on stumbleupon or something.
Phase II: Study Time
10.Get out of the library. The sheer fact of being in a library doesn’t fill you with knowledge. Eight hours of Facebooking in the library is still eight hours of Facebooking. Also, people who bring food and blankets to the library and just stay there during finals week start to smell weird. Go home and bathe. You can quiz yourself while you wash your hair. 11.Do a little every day, but don’t let it be your whole day. “This afternoon, I will read a chapter of something and do half a problem set. Then, I will watch an episode of South Park and go to the gym” ALWAYS BEATS “Starting right now, I am going to read as much as I possibly can…oh wow, now it’s midnight, I’m on page five, and my room reeks of ramen and dysfunction.” 12.Give yourself incentive. There’s nothing worse than a gaping abyss of study time. If you know you’re going out in six hours, you’re more likely to get something done. 13. Allow friends to confiscate your phone when they catch you playing Angry Birds. Oh and if you think you need a break, you probably don’t.
Phase III: Assignments
14.Stop highlighting. Underlining is supposed to keep you focused, but it’s actually a one-way ticket to Autopilot Brain. You zone out, look down, and suddenly you have five pages of neon green that you don’t remember reading. Write notes in the margins instead. 15. Do all your own work. You get nothing out of copying a problem set. It’s also shady. 16. Read as much as you can. No way around it. Stop trying to cheat with Sparknotes. 17.Be a smart reader, not a robot (lol).Ask yourself: What is the author trying to prove? What is the logical progression of the argument? You can usually answer these questions by reading the introduction and conclusion of every chapter. Then, pick any two examples/anecdotes and commit them to memory (write them down). They will help you reconstruct the author’s argument later on. 18.Don’t read everything, but understand everything that you read. Better to have a deep understanding of a limited amount of material, than to have a vague understanding of an entire course. Once again: Vague is bad. Vague is a waste of your time. 19. Bullet points. For essays, summarizing, everything.
Phase IV: Reading Period (Review Week)
20. Once again: do not move into the library. Eat, sleep, and bathe. 21. If you don’t understand it, it will definitely be on the exam. Solution: textbooks; the internet. 22. Do all the practice problems. This one is totally tiger mom. 23. People are often contemptuous of rote learning. Newsflash: even at great intellectual bastions like Harvard, you will be required to memorize formulas, names and dates. To memorize effectively: stop reading your list over and over again. It doesn’t work. Say it out loud, write it down. Remember how you made friends? Have them quiz you, then return the favor. 24. Again with the friends: ask them to listen while you explain a difficult concept to them. This forces you to articulate your understanding. Remember, vague is bad. 25.Go for the big picture. Try to figure out where a specific concept fits into the course as a whole. This will help you tap into Big Themes – every class has Big Themes – which will streamline what you need to know. You can learn a million facts, but until you understand how they fit together, you’re missing the point.
i’m so behind oops. Also, thank you guys so much for 1k followers! I’ll try to be more active on here since it makes me motivated seeing that people enjoy my content!
i know studyblrs really promote handwriting notes and aesthetically pleasing notes but i just want y’all to know it is OKAY to take notes on the laptop too. sometimes your professor talks too fast or you can’t handwrite everything on the slides or your handwriting becomes messy. taking notes on the laptop is way better than taking no notes or putting off taking notes in the hopes of maybe writing them later!!
Here are some study tips for different learning styles that I’ve gathered from talking to friends and from what some professors have recommended their students to do:
VISUAL
draw pictures in your notes
benefit from illustrations & presentations that use color
use diagrams, graphs, underlining, mind-maps, etc
study in a visually appealing place
AUDITORY
study in groups, discuss things out with other people
record lectures, take part in a study group, go to tutoring
reduce lecture notes to only the main ideas
read texts out loud, pretend to teach someone else
explain ideas to other people
recite, recite, recite
create jingles or mnemonics
READ/WRITE
take notes during the lecture
underline, highlight, or circle printed material
borrow other students’ notes to compare and contrast
use a variety of colors, pens, highlighters, note cards, etc
write it out, re-write your notes, create mind-maps
make and use flashcards for studying
KINESTHETIC
trace letters and words to learn spellings, etc
take several breaks
write everything out
move around to learn new things
use non-distracting movement while you learn (like shaking your leg/foot, chewing gum, tap your pen/pencil)
listen to non-distracting music
study while walking or working out
MULTI-MODAL
write things out but also use colors and diagrams
move around, study in an isolated space, work at a standing desk
If you have any additional tips, feel free to add it and/or let me know!
If I had only one piece of study advice to pass on, it would be constant summary pages. Every week or two, take one side of A4 and write down everything important by hand from that period. It might take 5 minutes, it might take 30. Either way, when that exam burnout sets in, you will thank yourself. Don’t use the pages as exhaustive study - use them as a contents page for your revision, or as a checklist to see what you do or don’t remember.
