UNLESS you have that coveted photographic memory, exams can be dreadful. The scores of notes sitting at your desk can be an intimidating sight. However, Tony Buzan, the inventor of Mind Maps, doesn't think that having to memorise all those textbooks would lead to major hair loss. That is, if you know the right way to do things. Before you decide it's crunch time and start cramming down the whole semester's worth of work, pause for a second and consider mind mapping your notes instead.
Mapping out the exam strategy
Admittedly, when you stare at those numerous facts and endless case studies in your textbooks, the thought of attempting to finish studying and even memorising everything can be frightening. But Mr Buzan thinks it doesn't have to be. Mind mapping, he said, can even be used with note-taking from textbook, lecturers and even your own ideas. It can also be used for planning essays and using that plan to write out the essay.
According to the Buzan World website, a mind map is a graphic technique that connects a full range of skills like word, image, number, logic, rhythm, colour and spatial awareness. Mind mapping involves writing down a central idea that branches out into new and related ideas. With the use of lines, symbols, words and images, connections can be shown between the ideas generated on your mind map.
"So if you know how to image, and all mind maps have a central image, you could memorise a hundred different cases... whereas the average student can't remember that many," said Mr Buzan. He added that a memory experiment showed that the memory rate for images was almost 97 per cent, while the rate with words is almost zero.
For Beatrice Tan, manager of corporate training and profession development at SIM, mind mapping disciplined her to capture what is essential during her graduate studies. It also helped her to focus on the key points instead of chasing after irrelevant details. "It is possible to mind map an entire subject into one page so when it comes to revision, it is colourful, it is interesting," said Ms Tan. "And you remember it because you have created it, you know where you place things and it allows you to see relationships as well."
She added: "In terms of tertiary studies, you don't just regurgitate everything that has been taught to you. You have to form your own opinions, you have to see where the patterns are. And that makes for a better essay than someone who just gives back to the professor what was taught in class."
Mapping out the exam answers
When it comes to exams, time never seems to be enough. And Mr Buzan's solution for that would be to use mind mapping to plan your answers during exam as it helps you to organise your answers based on imagination and association. "It is the fastest way. It allows you very quickly to hook out all the ideas from your memory bank," he said. "And as you hook them out, mind map, which is a self-organising device, actually prepares the answer and you waste no time like most students, wondering where to put what, wondering whether you've forgotten something."
Mapping out the future
Exams aside, mind mapping can be used in everyday life especially for those aspiring entrepreneurs who are eager to release those creative juices. Citing successful people like Al Gore and Bill Gates who rely on mind mapping, Mr Buzan said that mind mapping allows the brain to function naturally, while listing things in the traditional manner actually destroys creative thinking; so, many business people who use the industrial age methods generate one-tenth of the ideas that a mind mapper does.
Masanori Kanda, the founder of Almac KK, a marketing consulting company in Japan, pointed out that for entrepreneurs to satisfy the many needs of their consumers, they have to understand the background of the different market segments and create a product to satisfy all the different needs and to integrate the various market needs. "Mind map is an ideal tool because you can actually see all the different needs and wants of the market and create the products which are symbolised by the central image," he said. Mr Kanda was recently voted No 1 marketer in Japan.
With this new business age being called the century for the development of creativity and innovation as well as the century of the brain, it all boils down to thinking. "The mind map helps you think, it helps you generate thought, it helps you organise thought, it helps you clarify thought, it helps you to express your thought," Mr Buzan said. "And all those are essential in this new business age."
"The mind map helps you think, it helps you generate thought, it helps you organise thought, it helps you clarify thought, it helps you to express your thought. And all those are essential in this new business age." - Tony Buzan
