You can recognize good readers not by their glasses, but by the pen in their hand. They know that a technical text reads differently than a novella or a novel and that it is useful to record the information absorbed in some form while reading. Instead of a literal reduction in the form of a summary, graphic representations of what has been read work particularly well. As its name suggests, the “mind map“, for example, creates a kind of map in the memory – and thus provides a better overview than a sequence of words and letters. This is how you develop a mind map parallel to the reading process:
- What is the topic of the reading material? Put this term in the middle.
- What do you already know about the topic? Add more topics and subtopics around the central topic in a clockwise direction. You can also write down open questions.
- While reading, you can now assign individual pieces of information in keyword form.
- In this way, a visually easy (or easier) to grasp picture is created in front of your eyes.
Mindmaps seem to have one thing in common with Ovaltine: You either love them or hate them. However, this visualization technique is not a question of taste, but demonstrably a particularly good method of transporting knowledge into memory. The very necessity of structuring the information itself makes it easier to remember. It is therefore worthwhile to experiment a little and to become friends with the method, despite perhaps initial difficulties. If you don’t like the strict presentation of the classic mind map, you can also confidently create clusters or freer learning posters. The main thing is that the information is not only consumed by reading, but actually processed consciously.