1) Decide on your paper size Before you start writing anything it’s really important to work out what size paper you want to do your mindmap on. Be it A3, A4, A5 or any other size you can think of, deciding this early on will make things much easier in the long run and leave you with a much more organised mind map
2) Work out the basics Before you actually start writing anything it’s a really good idea to work out the basics of your mind map. What type of bubble do you want the title to be in? Spiky or a cloud or just a plain circle? What kind of lines to you want leading off from it? Arrows or just plain lines? Straight or curved? Taking 30 seconds to work these out before you start will make everything much easier in the long run and leave you with a much neater and better organised mind map
3) Choose what to write with This part is all down to personal preference. Do you prefer writing in a plain colour and then highlighting later? Do you want each section in a different colour? Felt tips or biros? Fineliners or pencils? This is the time when you can think about what you’re most comfortable writing with and what’s going to make it easiest for you to retain the information
4) Add pictures and diagrams Adding little drawings to aid your explanations is a really great way to help you remember what you write. You don’t have to be good at art to make this work, just add a few little diagrams here and there and you’ll be surprised how much more easily you retain the information
5) Have fun with it You may be looking at a picture of a mind map online and saying to yourself ‘that’s exactly what I want mine to look like’ but in reality that’ll never happen. You’ll never manage to get a mind map that looks exactly the same as someone else’s and in all honesty that would be a bit boring. Instead just get stuck in and create your own unique masterpiece
[02.01.18] Hi everyone! I have received a lot of feedback on my one page note summaries. I had always planned on sharing some of them with you all in PDF format but never had the time to. So here are some of my favorites and most requested! :D
Amino Acids
Cross-Bridge Cycle
Hypothalamic-Pituitary Axis
Mitochondria & Electron Transport Chain
The Digestive System Overview
The Kidney Overview
The Periodic Table & Trends
Viruses
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
writing adult emails is awful
its like
hi [name of person],
this formatting is making me uncomfortable but I have to tell you something / ask you something that is vital to my career as a student.
I re-read and edited that sentence for an hour, but you’ll probably just glance over it for half a second.
thanks!
- [name]
in lecture:
i like to take quick/shorthand notes because i think learning to discriminate between what is and isn’t important material is a good skill to have so i’m not drowning in useless information when it’s time to study for a midterm or final.
i like to bring my ipad and use the notability app. it’s easier for me to just carry an ipad mini and stylus than it is for me to lug around a heavy notebook/binder and several pens/pencils.
if the professor makes lecture slides available to students online (via a class website), i like to download them onto notability and annotate them as the professor goes along. that way, i can focus more on what the professor is saying and less on merely writing everything down.
if lecture slides aren’t available, i type out my notes as i find it faster than handwriting them.
at home:
once i’m home, i take out my ipad and copy down my lecture notes into a specified notebook for that class, explain everything more thoroughly, make them neater, and organize them in a way that makes more sense to me (as opposed to copying them down exactly as how they were presented in lecture).
i like to use lots of colors, highlighters, and etc. and make them as pretty as possible so i actually want to use them to study from in the future.
integrating reading notes:
normally, what professors will do is assign reading from a textbook and base their lectures around the reading (or have the reading be based on the lectures). usually exams/tests will rely mostly on what was said in lecture instead of in the reading and this is partly because they overlap so much. what the professor says in lecture, you should consider the “important points” in your reading. sometimes, though, there are things in the reading that seem important and weren’t mentioned in lecture.
what i’ll do if this is the case is take post-its, write the piece of information down, and stick the post-it in my notebook in the corresponding section (i.e. where it fits best with my notes)
i like this method as opposed to taking notes directly in my textbook or having a separate notebook for only reading notes because 1) i’ve consistently found that reading material is not as heavily focused on in tests as lecture material and 2) i like to have all of my information in one place
using my notes to study:
when an exam is coming up, what i like to do is take all of the information in my notebook and condense it into a study guide that i can use to study from.
the format of my study guide varies depending on the class and which type of study guide and method of studying i think will help me best. my study guides range from flash cards to mind maps to sheets of paper with a bunch of condensed information.
if i come across a concept on my study guide that i can’t completely explain to myself/don’t fully understand, that’s when i’ll look back in my notebook for a better and fuller explanation of it.
i also like to give myself some time before an exam to completely read through my notebook and look at all the notes i’ve taken (not just what i have on my study guide) because i think it’s a good refresher of all of the lecture and reading material and all of the information will be brought forward in my mind.
[* a few of you have asked me for a advice on note taking: how i take notes, methods i use, how i study from them, and etc. i hope this post was helpful to you! feel free to message me if you have any other questions. happy studying! ^_^]
PLEASE MAKE A REAL COLLEGE TIPS POST BC I WAS TRUSTING THE ONE FROM THE FIRST YEAR UNTIL NOW
minimize gaps in your schedule if you’re commuting unless you work better on campus, in which case schedule large gaps and stay on campus all day
use academic advising services as early as possible to formulate your post-grad plan. don’t leave it until third or fourth year and risk missing prereqs, work/volunteer experience or references
networking sucks ass but guess what? you have to do it. figure out what your classmates are doing, who they’re speaking to, etc
make sure your profs know you. sit near the front, see them during office hours (make up questions if you have to), attend events, pick their brains. you might get an academic reference out of it or even a grad student position
you most likely have an online portal. visit it hourly. leave it for even a day and you will miss something
find out what textbooks you need before the semester starts and download the e-book, buy it used, whatever. just don’t fuck yourself over within the first couple weeks waiting for your book to arrive
read your syllabus very carefully. set all dates in your phone with an alarm days prior
get credit audits every year to make sure you’re on track to graduating when you anticipate
don’t take evening classes. you’ll never get anything done prior to class like you planned. ever.
Maybe it’s just me, but I think a significant part of career planning and goal setting in medicine is developing the ability to acknowledge that you can have an interest in many things (which is a good thing, it keeps you keen and motivated) but you become conscious of the fact that that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to/can/should aim for a career in that area, if you know what I mean? And that realisation that you now have an idea of where you want your career to go is what ends up motivating you once you get past that initial ‘everything in medicine is exciting’ phase. At the beginning of med school/clinics, you think to yourself “woah, I’m interested in so many things - neuro, cardio, infectious diseases, general surgery, anaesthetics - I wish there was a path that would combine everything!” and yeah there are generalists and all that but (at least personally) sometimes you think about it all and you realise that there are aspects of medicine that you are happy to keep as just a ‘personal interest’, and others which you just can’t let go of. For example, I am fairly committed to paeds (I mean, I haven’t graduated yet but I’m 99% certain I want to work in paeds) but I also have special interests in psychiatry and anaesthetics/intensive care medicine - but over the years I’ve come to realise that just because I’m particularly interested in it does not mean I’m now ‘destined’ to be a psychiatrist or an anaesthetist, nor do I think an academic interest in neurological research would make me a good neurologist. When it comes down to it, even the basic divisions like medicine/surgery/GP can feel confusing when you’re 95% set on medical but have a lingering interest in ENT or neurosurgery - and I’ve talked to a couple different people who have interpreted this lingering interest as a sign that they need to somehow combine all their interests into one impossible career. When you’re younger and in school it feels like you have so many routes and can keep up with every single little thing you’re interested in, and everything seems so pressured, when in reality I think the path is a little clearer than some people would have us believe? As intelligent, curious people, it’s only natural to feel keen on learning about so many different things, but I think we all have to recognise that not everything is a 'sign’ - sometimes you are just interested in interesting things.
i never used to do notes for any classes but this year i promised myself to put effort into making my notes look decent and it’s definitely a work in progress ✨
wants to work through your essay with the instrumental sounds of your favourite movies in the background, perfect to calm and focus your mind? then this is the playlist for you
view the full thing here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/75T4VhthKFdSnvZ2Llhpwx
‘Married Life’ by Michael Giacchino from Up (2009)
‘Time’ by Hans ZImmer from Inception (2010)
‘The Shire’ by Howard Shore from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
‘Romantic Fight’ by John Powell from How To Train Your Dragon (2010)
‘Mr. Fox in the Fields’ by Alexandre Desplat from Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
‘Lady Bird’ by Jon Brion from Lady Bird (2017)
‘Dance on the Porch’ by Alexandre Desplat from Little Women (2019)
‘The Imitation Game’ by Alexandre Desplat, London Symphony Orchestra from The Imitation Game (2014)
“I’ve been living alone so long, everything about me’s private. I’m surprised anyone’s able to understand a word I say.”
— Kurt Vonnegut, from Mother Night; “Werner Noth’s Beautiful Blue Vase,”