Exams - Studying and Reviewing with Mind Maps

Studying and reviewing for exams can be overwhelming and a strain to your brain if you don't have the right techniques to help you consume information in a brain friendly way.

Below is an overview of the Mind Map Organic Study Technique (MMOST) recommended by Tony Buzan in his book "Use Your Head".  Use these steps as guidelines, they don't necessarily have to be in order. 

Remember to actively select and reject information.  Many people have the tendency to take superfluous notes that actually get in the way rather than help them get better grades.  Discipline yourself to focus on what's really important, and capture these with key words instead of sentences.

Before exams, look at the Mind Maps you have created.  It will enable you to see all the important information and how they connect to each other.

The Mind Map Organic Study Technique (MMOST)

1. Browse. First and foremost, before you take any notes, flip through the entire book or article to get a general feel of the information.

2. Time or Amount. Decide on the time you are going to spend studying or the amount of material you are going to cover in that time.

3. Knowledge Mind Map. If you already know information about the subject, spend about five minutes quickly Mind Mapping what you know. 

4. Goals Mind Map. Create a separate Mind Map to define your goals for the study session and include questions you want answered from the article or book you are about to study.

5. Take an overview of the material.  To do so, look at results, illustrations, summaries, conclusions, table of contents, capitalised words and other important elements rather than read the content word for word.  This will help you determine the structure of your Mind Map and provide you with relevant information to create the Basic Ordering Ideas (BOIs) or the main branches of your Mind Map.

6. Preview.  Here, concentrate on the beginning and ends of paragraphs, chapters and sections.  Once again, as in the preview, don't read the entire text, but focus on specific areas.

7. Inview.  In this step, fill the in rest of the information that was not covered in the previous steps.  If you find sections difficult, skip it  and come back to it later.  0nce you have more information on the matter and get "bigger picture", you may find the section you skipped easier to comprehend.

8.  Review.  In this stage, go back over areas that you skipped and review the text to add important information that you haven't already included your Mind Map.

Try the above suggestions and see how they work for you.  If you would like to work with a coach to learn effective study techniques, check out our Study Coaching Program.