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THE MIND MAP ORGANIC STUDY TECHNIQUE |
As another summer ends, yet another academic term begins for the millions of students around the world who will return to school, college or university. It amazes me that generally, students are still not taught how to learn - the one basic skill that you would think is fundamental for successful education. Things are changing and as the awareness in the brain's capability increases it is becoming more and more accepted that we can learn how to learn. Schools and education authorities worldwide are beginning to incorporate "Accelerated Learning" concepts and principles but progress is still painfully slow.
I hope you are lucky and attend a school or college that embraces learning to learn, but if not then where do you turn and what can you do? If you are a regular visitor to Project HappyChild then you will know something about how to learn from the articles in the Accelerated Learning section.If this is your first time then have a browse around this part of the site because there is plenty of guidance on how to improve your study skills and ability to learn and remember information.
My subject this month will be of value to new visitors and regulars alike and covers a technique that will help you swiftly and easily get through your study text books. It is called the Mind Map Organic Study Technique (MMOST) and was devised by Mr Tony Buzan, the renowned inventor of the Mind Map.
I can remember how difficult it was to get motivated to work through a text book when I was studying at university (unfortunately I discovered these techniques after I graduated). I would get my books out, tidy my desk, sharpen my pencils, all with the best of intentions yet very quickly get distracted by anything ranging from an interesting documentary on TV to the offer of a game of squash with one of my friends. Although it was essential and important to study it was much easier to find an excuse not to do the work. Does this sound familiar to you too? The Mind Map Organic Study Technique can help you deal with this.
This technique is divided into two parts - Preparation and Application.
A: Preparation
This part of the technique is vitally important and should never be overlooked as it helps create the right frame of mind for the studying to come. It consists of:
Lets go through each one of these in turn.
The Browse - This first activity should be approached as through you are in a book shop flicking through the pages of a book you are considering buying. Get a good general "feel" of the book by noting its structure, layout, use of diagrams and density of text. This will give you a good overview of the nature of the material that you are about to study.
By setting clear goals and objectives you will find that words, paragraphs, heading and diagrams will "jump out" at you from the page. It is a strange experience when it first happens but all it is, is your mind drawing your attention to what you have defined is important to you.
The first part only takes 20 minutes so now after that you are ready to apply yourself to the second part of this process.
The second part of the MMOST consists of the following stages:
Overview - When you do the browse as part of the Preparation phase it is as simple as flicking through the book to get a feel of it. The Overview takes this one stage further and concentrates on getting a graphical feel of the contents. For example trace diagrams with your finger or a pointer of some sort. This will not only give you a visual memory of the diagram but also a kinaesthetic (feeling) memory of the material. Again, this is an important step to go through as one friend of mine relayed to me once. He knew of a student who waded through a 450 page text book only to find that the last 50 pages contained a summary of the entire book which was all he needed to read in the first place.
In Use Your Head, Tony Buzan gives a wonderful analogy of this process by likening it to the most effective way of putting together a large jigsaw puzzle. Look at the box to get an overall idea of the picture, find the corners then the edges. Gather together the pieces of the same colour/design and put them together and finally fill in the gaps with the pieces that are left.
This technique is well worth the effort and although it may feel a little strange at first, once you get the hang of it you will wonder why you ever read a text book from start to finish.
Try it out and let me know how you get on with it.
To ask about any aspect of Accelerated Learning, you can contact Michael Tipper direct via the link at the top of this page.
Frequently Asked Questions | MIND MAPPING | MEMORY | SPEED READING | GENERAL | |
WELCOME PAGE | The Accelerated Learning pages at Project HappyChild were written (free) by Michael Tipper, Silver Medallist in the World Memory Championships. |
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BOOK REVIEWS | MNEMONICS | AMAZING BRAIN | GREAT MINDS | MEMORY TRAINING | |
The main index to Michael Tipper's pages on Accelerated Learning is at https://www.happychild.org.uk/acc/tpr/index.htm located in Area 3 at Project HappyChild - linking children all across the world
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