Marathon-notasprint - To Help Me

hi there, can you make a post about making mindmaps please?

There are many types of mindmaps, and they are all different depending on what they’re focused on ~ generally, they have the same structure, but just be careful if you’re doing a science-based one while following a literature-based tutorial. 

Here’s a tutorial based on my most recent one {for English class, based on the novel Brooklyn}, hope it helps!

Keep reading

October 2015 Monthly Pastel Planner Printables

By request! Comes in the 5 colours pictured above (peach, pink, lilac, blue, mint). There’s two versions. One where the week starts with Monday and one with Sunday. 

Download from Google drive for free (PDF files):

Starts with Monday (October 2015)

Starts with Sunday (October 2015)

My other pastel planner printables:

Weekly

Daily

Hope you enjoy them! If you share pictures with them here, tag me with #studyblrbunny.

My Study Method

by futurecomposer

Notes and processing info: 

i write my notes with Google Drive / Docs (android / itunes)

before the lecture: First of all I write the textbook notes and maybe articles about the subject, that way, when I go to the lecture, I already understand the topic. If there’s available slides, print them, so you can annotate on them later.

during the lecture: Take as many notes as you can, but also write about the most important stuff. For this I use paper. I feel like It’s easier to link stuff, draw diagrams, etc. … It doesn’t matter if your notes are messy, you’ll rewrite them later. Remember: if it’s in the blackboard, it’s because it’s important.

after the lecture: After the lecture I write my lecture notes in the previous document. Now it’s time to get fancy: use bold, italic,, both of them to indicate keywords and/or important phrases. But be careful: don’t overuse them, or they will become useless. 

At this point you should have all the information you need for the exam perfectly summarised in a doc.

Summarising and flashcards

bullet points: It’s time to make another doc. This time we’ll resume the information in bullet points. The goal is to have clear, concise, brief facts.

summary cards: Here comes the most important part. Summarise one topic in one flashcard. The point is to really condense the information and see what’s most important. Fill the flashcard with info, don’t get cut back by aesthetics. The previous doc is your guide.

This system’s point is to manage and work the information, get familiar with it, then find the most important concepts. This way, you have actively worked with it, and have more tendency to remember it.

Superb Study Guides and Mini Moleskines

(A more concise version of this will be published in my college’s newspaper on Thursday. I will likely add or link diagrams and examples to this post, so you can check the original here.)

As a tutor, many students ask me for tips on making study guides. Generally, my response is that, “it depends”.

But hold on. Before we continue we should discuss what the purpose of a study guide really is.

Study guides fall into two main categories: study guides that prompt you to find/think about information and study guides that directly organize the information you need to know. Some professors provide you with study guides of the former kind (i.e., you’re not given the answers), and it’s essentially your job to create your own study guide of the latter type. Both categories serve the purpose of organizing information you already have in order to synthesize a study tool that best facilitates your comprehension and memorization of the information at hand, just at a different stage in the process.

Before you even start, it is helpful to be aware of the level at which you are required to know the information for your test. The most basic of these is recalling definitions, which can accomplished by use of flashcards. Other information you’ll have to know will require you to compare ideas or apply them. Think of your learning process as literal → interpretive → applicative, meaning you will need study guides that help you visualize, draw relationships, and understand material so you may memorize less in a way that helps you answer more, and better than straight memorization ever could.

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Concept Map:

These can be anything from a basic branching diagram to a complex mind map. This type of study guide allows you to compare information in a more spatial manner than strictly linear. Let’s be honest; sometimes linear learning is unrealistic, because our world is not truly linear. This format allows you to start from the basic, bare bones of the topic you’re studying and expand into very specific details and examples. This way you can get a really solid overview of the information and delve deeper as necessary. At least for mind maps in specific, Mindly is a beautiful and highly functional mind mapping app for iOS. It’s worth the small price, I can tell you that.

Comparison Chart:

Another visually-oriented type of study guide, comparison charts are the easiest way to map out similarities and differences for various topics. The biggest advantage of this method is that you can easily find the important similarities and differences of the subjects in question without having to reread a chapter or search through your piles of notes. It won’t help you visually connect topics like a mind map would, but this very simple tool is important and useful in its own rite.

Index Cards:

Before you skip over this because you think you know what I’m talking about, this is not the same as a flashcard. Flashcards have the very basic purpose of helping you memorize information, and little else. Index cards, however, are like flashcards on steroids because they contain much more information and are used primarily to summarize key information in a portable way that allows you to easily locate more details if necessary. Allow me to break down how you might want to use this method.

Front:

Middle: Main idea [e.g. alveoli]

Upper Right: Organizational term [e.g. respiratory system]

Bottom Middle: Source of information [e.g. Chapter 17, pg. 479 or Notes from 11/26/2013]

Back:

In your own words, what’s most important to know about the concept.

Include examples, summaries, diagrams, definitions, etc.

Be detailed! Remember, this is not about strictly memorizing.

Make sure the content corresponds to level of understanding your professor excepts

Diagram:

This one is pretty self-explanatory, but is extremely dependent on the topic at hand. This could be anything from a chemical reaction scheme, a cycle, Venn diagram, etc. You may even consider making a timeline, which is great for chronological organization of ideas. This is not limited to history, though! You can also organize information from classes such as anthropology, psychology, biology, anatomy, physiology, ecology, etc. If it has a specific, linear order, it can be made into a timeline.

Question Prompts:

This method I find works very well if you use the Cornell note-taking method. If you’re using Cornell notes, you would write your prompts in the left hand column next to where the answers are located, then just cover up the answers when studying. For example, for something as simple as a definition you could write, “What is _____?” For something more complicated such as a comparison chart, you could write, “What are the key differences between _____ and _____?” If you want, you can even ask questions that aren’t directly answered in the adjacent text such as, “Why is [idea] important to [concept]?”

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Now that you know what formats you might use for your study guides (remember you don’t have to stick with just one), you may wonder where you can put this information. The basic answer to that question: anywhere. Many people like to draw these things on computer paper. You may want to type some of these things. If you’re using Mindly then you would be inputting the information into an app. I would like to offer up the suggestion of little mini notebooks for each class. I personally make these study guide materials on paper or a computer first, then when I’m satisfied with the result, I copy it down into my pocket-sized Moleskine notebooks. I personally prefer the squared, dotted, or blank notebooks, but whatever suits your fancy. The benefit to these little notebooks is that you have all of the information you need to study for in a small, convenient little book that you can easily keep in your backpack all the time because of its size. (Ladies, it will even fit in a clutch!) Study on the bus, waiting for class to start, when eating at the cafeteria, while waiting for your laundry to finish, etc. Not to mention, this will help you avoid losing papers because they’re all in one place.

Just try not to lose the notebook.

// not like anybody cares but here’s my summer study notes //

Note taking masterpost:

An anon requested this today. I though I had already made one, but apparently not.

General note taking and guides:

Combining lecture and reading notes

Resources about making chapter outlines

Recognising key points in a lecture / reading (for efficient note taking)

10 tips for good note taking in lectures

Guide to note taking (the major approaches and techniques)

What to do after you take your notes

Organising a notebook

Taking notes that work (By Dustin Wax)

Top note taking tips

An example of me using cornell notes

Visual / Pretty Notes:

Visual guide to illustrating notes

How to make your notes prettier!

Pros and cons of pretty notes

Guide to colour coding

Guide to my graphic notes

How to make notes cute and neat

Inspiration: 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 /

Electronic Note taking:

Guide to taking typed notes

Handwriting versus typing your notes

Organising your typed notes

Note taking apps

While you’re on a study break:

Paint your nails. Doesn’t matter if you’re good at it or not. It’s a quiet, calming, easy activity that takes up the perfect amount of time for a break and still requires some amount of focus. Put on a Youtube video or Netflix while you do it.

Watch a John Oliver video. If you don’t know him, he’s a comedian and host of Last Week Tonight on HBO. His pieces are hilarious, informative, and all around 15-20 minutes. 

Change the sheets on your bed. Changing your sheets often is good for your skin, still technically productive, and who doesn’t love snuggling up in a fresh bed after a long day? 

While you’re at it, clean your space. It’ll get you on your feet and again, still technically being productive. 

Make yourself something to drink. I hate to be that blogger™ but  Stay hydrated, loves! No energy drinks, if you need something more exciting. We are adults in this household, we get our caffeine like adults. Always go tea or coffee. 

Take a nap. There are legends that if you drink a coffee before you take a nap, the caffeine will wake you up naturally a little bit later and you’ll feel super energized. That sounds fake but idk knock yourselves out. 

Put on an RIP Vine compilation and dissociate for a bit. I’m not kidding.

Take a shower. Or just stand there under the hot water a bit. You’ll feel like a new being. 

Know that you are a boss

Seriously 

You got this and I believe in you 

2/4/2015 // I love experimenting with pretty, new hand writing styles for my study notes! I made this info-graphic and scanned it in to show you some of the styles I am loving right now.

if you’re looking for some journal inspiration, i recommend following pepperandtwine on instagram! she posts beautiful journal spreads every day that are just so inspiring and creative❤️

04:10 PM // Hello! I made these mind maps a few days ago. I’m really proud of them considering I never made one before.