Studying for your A-level chemistry exam can feel like a big task because of the amount of detailed information that you need to understand, retain and retrieve. This may cause you to feel overwhelmed and stressed, since, with chemistry, one tiny change or error can lead to wildly different outcomes. Fortunately, mind mapping is an effective revision technique that can help you make sense of your material and, better yet, make it interesting, creative and fun.
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Our brains are remarkably complex and, unlike computers, use a smorgasbord of stimulation to process, retain and recall information. The power of our brains lies in its love for efficiency and grouping. The brain loves to organize information into groups, loves stimulation with colour, patterns, symbols and images, and loves to find links and relationships between information. It’s this power of association and organisation that allows us to hold as much information as we do without having gigantic brains. It’s also the reason that a small trigger can bring a whole host of information flooding in.
Here’s how mind mapping leverages the above brain function to assist you with preparing for your A-levels. A mind map starts with a central topic or idea with clusters of related keywords radiating outwards, going into further and further detail. By structuring information in this way, you’ve helped your brain with organising and condensing, and by adding memorable keywords, symbols or doodles, you’ve created a strong association for jogging your memory recall.
When you’re able to glance at an overall picture, rather than wade through reams of notes, it’s both quick and easy to recall the information you need in your exam because it works like accessing a zipped folder rather than remembering a 300-word paragraph. What’s more, because you’ve used lots of areas of your brain through colour, pattern, language and memory, you’re more likely to experience deep learning, which will prove useful in your tertiary education career.
You needn’t be artistic, creative or need loads of time to create effective mind maps, and you can even use mind maps that have been created for you. Which is where we come in. At A-Level Chemistry, we’ve created mind maps with all the important chemistry content you could need for thorough preparation. The trick to using these resources with maximum benefit is to personalise them by adding your own colours, comments, symbols and patterns.
We want you to enjoy your exam preparation experience and get the most from your study time so you can achieve your A-level goals and beyond. So what better way to make this happen than to make use of complete, dynamic mind maps with keywords that your brain can process and unzip at lightning speed? It all starts today, let’s begin!
