Get a Head Start on Successful Studying

Soon schools and colleges will start back after long holidays, back to study, revision and cramming. What if I could give you information on how to make studying and more importantly revising for exams easier, quicker and fun? I am not saying that studying will become a breeze but that revision of notes and cramming will flow better and simpler. This is what I would have loved to have known about in university, as I found revising my cramped notes and illegible handwriting very difficult.

I tried everything to make studying easier but I found retaining information hard and the amount of notes to revise before an exam daunting, if only I could make this mass of information into the Cliff note version, the short, essential knowledge needed for success. What if there was a proven method of studying to increase your level of success? There is!

There has been a great leap in knowledge about how the brain learns to retain and retrieve information for life and studying. Making lists and copying out lecture notes is not the most effective way of learning, in fact it can be boring and very laborious which encourages you to give up. The brain can actually learn quicker and easier if the information is laid out over the page in what some people call Mind Mapping. All you need for mind mapping is paper and a pencil.

1. Put the subject of your notes in the center of the page i.e. Christmas2. Radiating from the center write all you can remember about the subject or write from your notes for example: presents, decorations, carols, tree, turkey etc3. Connect the ideas up with lines or different colors.4. You find as you look at the page more ideas come to you and are easy to add.5. Expand on the subject i.e. from the Christmas tree may spring the ideas of lights, tinsel, candles, star or angel.6. Soon instead of a blank page you have filled the page with all your knowledge on any particular subject. It can show at a glance gaps in knowledge or areas of strength.

Mind maps can aid you in maximizing your mental abilities, not only for studies and work but in improving your memory and showing you a positive way to learn. This gives you a gift and thirst for learning and knowledge, when you see that the steep uphill struggle to learn has an elevator.

Mind maps are a way of displaying information in a way that the brain works, the human brain does not work by lists but on making connections. Mind maps lay out information in a nonlinear way that triggers the brain to make connections. You can add drawings and color to expand on your ideas but for those of us who are not very artistic, I use stickers and highlighters. The mind maps are a way of making notes as you learn which can speed up note taking and revision as you are writing key words rather than every detail of lectures.

As you hit the books new information you learn are easy to add as mind maps can be expanded on to extra paper or even start with A3 sized paper if the project is a big one. Once you incorporate mind maps into your study methods even shopping lists will be revolutionized