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Mind maps are great for recalling terminology hierarchies (for the lack of better word). I have not used them much in my engineering studies but I have taken some courses in history and philosophy where I often had to recall lots of terminology related to, for example, certain time periods or philosophical theories. The spatial aspect of a mind map really helps me. Just drawing the map is usually enough for me to remember everything that's in it for a few days. I simply close my eyes and picture the map in my head.

This, however, requires that I draw the map myself by hand. Drawing it by hand forces me to carefully look at every pixel of the map. Adding some fancy fonts and pictures like in your example can help in the sense that you spend more time looking at the pixels.



requires that I draw the map myself by hand

And this is the secret. It doesn't much matter if you use tables or bullet lists or mind maps or whatever makes sense to you for the particular domain, it's the fact that you are organizing the info in your own brain that matters.

From a teacher-student perspective, mind maps seem to work best if the teacher presents the student with a partially-filled mind map and lets the students fill it in.




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