Study Methods: Mind mapping and Color-coded notes

Another week, another post about 2 extra study methods. This week, we are going to explore “Mind mapping” and “Color-coded notes”. They may sound fairly simple, but students have to pay attention to some details when it comes to these methods. Each method has its own structure and focuses on different areas. However, it goes without saying that both of them are great tools for students.

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Mind mapping vs. Color-coded notes

Mind mapping

What it is

Learning method that focuses on a main idea (a word or a phrase). Students have to write down the topic or the central idea of their material. Then, they have to think of words or phrases that can be correlated to the central idea and expand the main theme. Visually, it can look like a spider web in the end.

How it is done

First, students have to choose the topic that is going to be studied. They, then, have to come up with a word or a phrase that represents the main idea of this topic. They should write it down on a piece of paper, preferably in the middle.

The next step is to associate and correlate. To be more specific, students have to come up with words or phrases that are relevant to the main idea they have written down. They should also write them down radially. Again, from every word or phrase, they have to come up with a set of relevant words/phrases. Finally, a mind map should look like a tree with branches.

When students feel satisfied with how deep they have gotten analyzing the main idea, it’s time to revise their mind map. It is very useful to swap any phrases with more abstract single words and therefore add more branches to every one of them.

Next, it could be very helpful for students to identify the different themes/ categories of their mind map and paint each one of them a different color. In this way, every time they look at their map they can immediately see what ideas relate to each other.

Lastly, students can replace words with images if that’s easier to them. It helps with memorization and it acts as a way to simplify their mind map.

Advantages

There are a lot of benefits when it comes to mind mapping. First of all, mind mapping is a tool itself that students can use to reinforce their memory. What is more, mind mapping helps with categorization and organization of thoughts and ideas, making any topic look clearer and well documented. Last but not least, students can become more creative and better at problem-solving using this study method.

Disadvantages

Of course, mind mapping has some weak points as well. In the beginning, students can find it hard to create a mind map that is concise and practical. Moreover, mind mapping is a study method that requires a lot of time and therefore isn’t suitable for monthly exams or chapter revisions. On top of that, mind mapping is a coded study method, meaning that it doesn’t provide enough information at first sight, making it difficult for students to catch up after a while.

Color-coded notes

What it is

Learning method where students have to take notes and color them according to the categorization they have decided on their minds.

How it is done

This is a study method especially for taking notes. So, if students decide to go down that road, color-coding their notes can take their studying to the next level. First and most importantly, they have to take down everything they think that’s useful.

Next step is to color-code. However, they have to adhere to a specific color system. For example, they can use red color for definitions, blue color for any important information, and yellow color for formulae and so on.

The point is not to color code every single text word. Instead, students can come up with their own color coding system where they have specific colors for specific types of information.

Advantages

Color-coded notes is a very efficient study method especially for students who learn visually. Plus, because students use liners that usually have bright colors, this learning method can draw their attention to the really important information and help them revise in an effective way. Lastly, it is a study method tailor-made to every student’s wish, enabling them to navigate their studying process as they see fit.

Disadvantages

Taking notes whether they will be color-coded afterwards or not can be quite tiring. There are numerous students that get bored using this method. Also, it is very easy for students to go overboard and color-code everything they see, once again misinterpreting the purpose of this method. Another weak point is that color-coding can be a distraction instead of a helpful tool towards memorization and learning.

To sum up, in this article we discussed two different study methods; mind mapping and color-coded notes. Have you ever tried either of these two learning methods? If so, in what ways did you find them helpful? Comment down below and share this article with your friends and family.