Accelerated and Effective Learning using Mind Mapping for Students

Different people learn in different ways. Some students find that learning in a classroom is a lot harder than for others. NovaMind can make a BIG difference to your learning (regardless of how easily you learn) because the notes you create suit your personal learning style.

If you learn best by using words, you can string ideas together by using arrows or abbreviations. If you learn best by using pictures, you can easily add images, borders and colors and you'll find the classroom a much more enjoyable place to be!

When you use a mind map, note taking often feels compact and complete. An entire class or lecture can be seen at a glance. It's incredibly effective for a study review, which you'll see once you begin using NovaMind.

Preparing an assignment or presentation can be difficult. Students often feel like they don't know where to start, or how to connect related topics. Mind mapping is the perfect way to use your specific talents.

After classes and some reading you'll be pretty familiar with the subject. The challenge is: how to present that information in the best possible way. Using NovaMind to create a mind map lets you start with the big issues, and add information in a personal and effective way. Let's look at an example:

This presentation is about Vincent Van Gough. His name goes in the centre, then branches are created to label the 4 main topics of this presentation: His life, his career, his influencers and his main artworks. Next, we fill in more branches where they belong: his emotions, his mental health, his travels and studies.

Very quickly, the ideas are organized and they make sense to you - that's the real power of mind mapping. It's an easy way of presenting the ideas because it's what comes naturally to you. That makes it easier to follow and remember in an exam.

NovaMind makes brainstorming a breeze. Two truths about the program are particularly worth pointing out.

The first is that it is so easy to create a structure with branches and sub-branches, connecting lines, visuals and color, and even change it if it is not exactly what you want.

And secondly, if you are stuck for ideas, the NovaMind Suggesterator will unhook you with its own suggestions for moving your thinking forward.

Brainstorming is only one small use for mind maps. Other educational uses that are popular with students include note taking in class, assignment making, research organizing, and planning out goals.

Using a mind map to create an assignment is perfect. You can record the goals, identify the requirements, choose your research approach, and list your ideas. You'll soon get to that place where it all makes sense and you can begin writing. It's ideal when a mind map can help you realize what you want to do with any given assignment - and even to confirm that you have understood it properly.

While using a mind map, you are assured of completing all the requirements of your assignments. You can cross off each task or steps within an assignment as you complete them. All these small points add up to a recipe for success and great marks for your assignments - all with reduced stress.

Mind maps are absolutely fantastic at summarizing a lot of information. The use of connecting branches, colors, graphics and keywords really helps your memory. You get all the information down in one place, and it makes perfect sense to you, because it's suited to your learning style.

A single picture or word can make a big difference when doing an exam. Just having that icon in your mind can help your remember 5 or 6 important points that give you extra marks.

Researchers Mastropieri and Scruggs have identified eight guidelines for improving memorization using conscious strategies:

• Increase attention,
• Promote external memory such as in using a student calendar,
• Enhance meaningfulness (make it personal),
• Use pictures,
• Minimize interference,
• Promote active manipulation,
• Promote active reasoning (ask questions), and
• Increase the amount of practice

Mind Maps address each one of these elements to help you remember.

It's a really good feeling to be sitting in an exam knowing exactly what to write next and being able to give a great answer to every question. Students are finding that NovaMind is the tool you need to give you that kind of result.

NovaMind creates stunning presentations. It also gives you a lot of flexibility, both in creating the presentation and delivering it. You can start with an outline and build the presentation with more resources as you go.

You can link to other maps, web pages or files so you don't leave out important information. Color, visual organization and background images will make the entire presentation even more memorable. If you're using handouts, NovaMind will produce the perfect handout - the map without the text - so your audience can complete the map in their own words and make take their own notes next to yours.

A lot of people are nervous when it comes to giving a presentation. Students find using a NovaMind mind map takes care of those nerves, giving you everything you need for a powerful, memorable, winning presentation.

A mind map offers amazing ease for building your ideas up gradually, layering the details you find either by making simple connections ideas, by linking to other more detailed maps or linking to other documents like web pages or Word docs. This makes your research extremely well organized.

You'll even find relationships between ideas or topics that you never realized before. Just getting it all down on paper in a way that makes sense to you can open up your mind for that extra zing.

When starting a research project, students often don't know what they need to know. Using a NovaMind mind map quickly shows you where you need to start and how many gaps there are that need filling.

No more last minute dashing to the library for something you forgot!