Boost Your Learning With Mind Mapping

By Varsha Ravivenkatesh | 16th July, 2023

Discover how mind mapping can make studying more enjoyable and help you understand complex concepts. Learn the benefits, step-by-step guide, and online tools to create mind maps. Enhance your creativity, memory retention, and exam preparation with this effective study technique.

Let me set the scene: You sit down finally after weeks to study for your upcoming exam. You blow the dust from your chemistry or physics textbook and open it to the chapter you have to study. But, let’s be honest: When we look at endless sentences marching across our pages, we get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of words and concepts. Plus the way all information is written is very hard to even begin to understand. Furthermore, most textbooks are written in endless black and grey, only pushing us into further gloom. Well, what if I told you can make learning more fun and engaging as well as help you understand your material better? Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to the fine art of mind mapping.

So, What Is Mind Mapping?

Mind mapping is basically structuring different concepts into a hierarchy you can understand. This may be linking different concepts to a central idea or just writing the order in which events occur. So how to get started:

Why Does It Work?

As you have the complete freedom to design your mind map as you please, it boosts your creativity and you can use different coloured markers and embellishments to make your study material more eye-catching and engaging. Also, linking things through arrow marks and clouds forces your brain to remember how the different concepts are linked and prevent you from easily forgetting information. Also, since you create the mind map, it strengthens your understanding of the topic and makes your concepts clear. Also, as you are writing and drawing your mind map, you simultaneously also get writing practice, which is extremely beneficial during exams, Also, they’re perfect for revision as they provide information in a clear-cut manner.

Don’t Like Drawing On Pen And Paper? There’s A Solution:

There are many free online mind mapping tools where you can simply add in the title, topics and subtopics and they will generate a mind map for you. These can reduce the time taken to create mind maps and also create a digital version that you can simply print out or download for future use. Such websites are MindMapping.com, canva and Edrawsoft.

Drawbacks:

It might be hard to draw and link all the different concepts initially, but in the long run, it’s good practice for your future exams and they are perfect for revision. So power through and use your time to create good mind maps and future you will thank you for it just before a test. And, if you think it’s a waste of time, think about it this way: as you are making the mind map you are actively practising and understanding concepts.

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