Do you ever feel like you’re drowning in a sea of information? Confused about how all the facts, concepts, and data relate to each other?
For all students, learning new information can be overwhelming.
This is especially true in online setting, where you do much of the learning on your own; the teacher is not always standing by to help.
When you’re feeling confused, try creating a mind map to clarify the material. Mind maps are diagrams that visually represent how concepts are related to each other. (Mind maps are similar to flow charts.)
Here are 6 ways to use mind maps to boost your grades:
- Take lecture notes in the form of a mind map. The mind mapping technique is particularly effective when your professor presents information in a non-linear way or often goes on tangents.
- After taking regular lecture notes, review your notes by summarizing the key concepts and sub-concepts in a mind map.
- In preparation for writing a research paper, plan out the flow of ideas in a mind map. Start with your central thesis in the center, and add all supporting arguments as branches extending from that central thesis bubble. Examples and supporting evidence can be further branches extending out of the argument bubbles.
- Make a to-do list of all your tasks in the form of a mind map. Start with a central bubble saying “To Do” and then add bubbles with the names of each of your courses. Extending from each course bubble can be the tasks and assignments that you have to do, such as “Pick topic for research paper” or “Comment on discussion board.”
- Create a mind-map to organize what you plan to say in a class presentation.
- When you are working on a group project with your peers, create a mind map to plan out the necessary tasks and divide up the work among each of your classmates. Place each task in a separate bubble and then add branches from each bubble indicating which person is responsible for that task.
How have you used mind maps to improve your learning? Let us know!
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