Breeze Through Your Exams by Infinite Ideas

Author:Infinite Ideas [Infinite Ideas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Infinite Ideas Ltd
Published: 2012-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

So there you have it, a summary of the common types of question you should expect to see cropping up on any exam paper.

Get hold of some past exam papers and create outline answers for each type of question. So for a compare and contrast type question, draw up an outline and then check it against a model answer, if one exists. After a while you’ll get used to, and hence tuned into, the types of question you will face in the exam.

12. Let me look into your mind

One of the hardest jobs when it comes to studying is distilling your copious notes into a manageable number of words, pictures, key words and bullet points that you can remember. One of the best methods is mind mapping.

The mind is an extremely powerful thing – more powerful than you’d probably imagine. It has seemingly infinite capacity, which permits us to learn as much (or as little) as we’d like, and what’s so great about it is that, unlike our bodies, we can’t overfeed it! So, what does this mean for studying? Quite simply, that with the appropriate tools, techniques and training we can absorb all those notes we’ve made and, more importantly, remember them all. Enter the mind map, which was devised by the now-famous Tony Buzan. The mind-mapping technique works on the principle of engaging both the right and left hemispheres of your brain. In so doing, it mimics the way the brain packages, retains and recalls information. Here’s how to create a mind map.

Sit down with a blank piece of paper and pick a subject which you are studying. Once you’ve decided on the subject, pick a key topic. For example, if it’s history you are studying, you might choose the British Wars of the Roses. Write this at the centre of the page and enclose it in a box, bubble or cloud. Now consider the topic, and for each line of thought draw a line radiating out from the central box (or bubble or cloud). The thickness of the line should represent the importance of that line of thought. So you may have a thick line with key battles written along it, or key personalities. Then you can draw thinner lines from the end of the thick lines to highlight the next level of distillation. So for the battles you would have lines for the battles of Towton, Tewkesbury, Bosworth and Barnet and so on. If you want to add further facts about the battles, you draw even thinner lines from each and annotate them with the information you need to recall – like the number of dead and wounded, for example. The process may seem almost endless, but you will eventually run out of things to capture. If you are really sophisticated, you can draw the odd picture to act as an additional memory jogger. By completing the mind map you will have achieved two things. First, you will have reinforced your prior learning through the creation of the mind map.

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