Hi Kenneth,
some tips on MindMapping I worked with in my own studies:
- When in doubt, take the title of the course as the main topic.
- If a sub-topic starts too many branches, start a new MindMap with the former sub-topic as the main topic.
- Only use the wording of the lecturer/book if absolutely necessary – or if it is consistent with your or own wording.
- Adding little pictures/icons to a topic can be a) fun and b) brings you to thinking more deeply about the topic because you’re looking for a way to visualize it.
- Take as few notes as possible.
- Use different types of branches for different things. The standard „curved line“ for, well standard issues and/or structure, „boxes“ for definitions, „circles“ for key phrases.
- Two different ways to colour your MindMap:
a) Use always the same colour for the same structure leve (e.g. black for main topic and first level branches, blue for the second level, green for the third, pink for defninitions, violet for comments, grey for links between different branches).
b) Use a different colour scheme for for each branch, e.g. all kinds of blue for one, all kinds of red for another.
- Links between branches could be one-way or two-way arrows, straigth or dottted lines etc. Just come up with your own legend to what what means.
- For longer sequences of arguments or quotations, you can use a system like footnotes. For example, you can turn your exercise book by 90 degrees, use the upper sheet for a MindMap and the lower for normal writing, lists, graphics, ...
- For things like mathematics and informations sciences, I used an alternative to MindMapping:
Again rotate your exercise book by 90 degrees so that you have an upper an lower sheet. Divide both upper and lower page by a line in the middle. Do this with some pages to follow. Now, you have two long columns on your sheets. On the left, write down what your lecturer writes/draws/projects; on the right, write down what your lecturer says. You can also add your own thoughts in the right column. And, this is important, take care to make the columns fit together! If your lecturer just writes one sentence and then goes on to talk for an hour about it, and then writes a second sentence, leave a blank space under the first senctence until the end of the commentary/notes on the right side. This really should look like a table in your word processor or something like that.
- A friend of mine used to jot down any unusual things happening during the lesson, like people falling from their chairs, the lecturer telling a joke etc. This notes helped him to recall the specific lesson better.
Hope this helps,
Jens
[This message has been edited by Jens (edited April 02, 2001).]
