The July bar exam is quickly approaching and I’ve been trying to figure out how I’m going to keep this seemingly infinite amount of information floating around my head long enough to, you know, become a lawyer.
In doing some research, I happened across Tony Buzan’s, The Mind Map Book. I’d heard about mind mapping before, but I didn’t really understand how it worked. I did find some reasonable arguments as to why mind mapping might be useful, though. After some quick skimming of the book in my local Barnes & Noble, I set out to make my first mind map.
Note: Picture taken with my new iPhone 4!
Things I learned during this endeavor:
- I should stick to graphic design.
- It took me approximately an hour to do this incomplete map of future interests — by my calculations, it would take me 2 years at this rate to prep for the bar exam.
- Brush markers are really cool.
Mind mapping might be useful for some things, but I’m afraid that the quantity of knowledge we need to absorb to pass the bar is simply too great to apply such a time-consuming method. Perhaps it could be used as a supplement for particularly tricky subjects or tests, though. Still, check out the book if you’re interested. I have a feeling that this could be useful for visual learners who don’t have to memorize a completely unreasonable amount of information.
Do any LG readers incorporate mind mapping into their lives or studying? I’d be very curious to hear about your experiences or how you think it’s best used.
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looks fun! BUT I have to agree that it would take a million years to study for the bar exam like that. However, if you had one thing that you just could NOT get to stick, it would be an idea for that.
@Katie Luper, Agreed. The method needs a bit of tweaking for us law types since strictly speaking, Buzan’s method requires one word per line. Can’t really do that when the subject is called “subject to open” though.
Still, it was way more fun than outlining, and a nice break.
Mind-mapping is far too complex for general study use, at least for me. I do tend to draw maps for certain types of problems: real property problems involving trespassers, adverse possesors, easements by prescription, or encroachments; conflict of law problems; sales of goods. (In my last year at law school, the latter two were often combined–yay international sales of goods!)
Otherwise, I treat bar review as a big stimulus-response drill. I’m more down with certain topics than others–commercial paper and secured transactions are almost entirely automatic, as are reasonable chunks of Virginia pre-trial civil procedure. Others–well, they’re getting there.
Apparently I’m no longer niftily avatared. Sadface.
Hi Joshua,
I am doing a masters in critical care and I have come to the exact same conclusion as yourself. Getting to grips with the complexity of the human body and illnesses in just one word just isn’t possible. Besides as organs are functioning in relation with other organs and illnesses often affects multiple organs, a map just isn’t cut out for it. I expect that it’s pretty much the same barrier you have run into…
All the best of luck with the bar exam!!
Max
I used a mind map to study for my ConLaw final last year, and found it useful. However, that was a finite amount of information; but it did help me to organize for the exam.
I couldn’t imagine trying to map out the subject matter for the bar exam, so I’m in total agreement with you here. :)
Hi – had to throw in my 2 cents worth here. Back in 1994, I graduated law school as a fairly mid-pack student. I had used traditional outlining methods for all 3 years of school, and discovered mind-mapping only during the summer of the bar exam. I ended up converting everything into paper mind maps (good software was hard to come by back then). As I studied this way, I found that I could recall and “visualize” a great deal more information. On exam days, I remember actually re-creating basic versions of my maps on scratch paper during the exam, and letting them guide me through my responses. Needless to say, I passed.
I’ve been practicing for almost 16 years now, and I use mindmapping (on MindManager 8, of which I am a giant fan) every day. Case in point, I’ve got a hearing in 3 hours on a case I have not looked at since November. I pulled up my map, and it all came right back to me.
If I had used that kind of technology in law school exams, I think I would have done much, much better, as I would have understood the relationships between concepts. I do know for a fact that, as a lawyer in the Real World, it is the single most helpful piece of software I own.
Hi Joshua,
I am doing a masters in critical care and I have come to the exact same conclusion as yourself. Getting to grips with the complexity of the human body and illnesses in just one word just isn’t possible. Besides as organs are functioning in relation with other organs and illnesses often affects multiple organs, a map just isn’t cut out for it. I expect that it’s pretty much the same barrier you have run into…
All the best of luck with the bar exam!!
Max
Mapping is good and so is hypnotherapy. We have our hypnotherapists try and help students imagine specific elements to torts while in a calm manner. We also go over in-person mapping of how a pt should look. Feel free to ask us questions or sign up http://www.barexamdoctor.com
@Joshua Auriemma, after getting my ass handed to me by many practice questions, I have begun doing something halfway between outlines and mind maps: cheat sheets.
Each one is intended to clear up a confusion and deal with several topics at once.
I find them more helpful than flashcards.
@ouij, Looks interesting. I think I’m too tired to wrap my brain around it tonight. I’ll have to give it a look over tomorrow.
In other news, @lbergus and I gave you a shout out in the podcast for general coolness tonight.
Bedtime . . .
@Joshua Auriemma, Ta very muchly for the shout-out–but we’ll see just how cool I am when I have to re-sit this bar exam in February.
Offtopic: The July exam in Virginia is held in Roanoake, a relatively remote and inaccessible part of the Commonwealth. The February exam is held in Norfolk, which is much more congenial, as it’s a sea-side town–except that there’s no sea-side visiting worth doing in midwinter. The lesson to be learned: no fun, please, we’re lawyers.
I am preparing for law school for Fall 2011. I did mindmapping all through college coursework (except math) and graduated with a 3.8 (darn math!). I was researching its efficacy for law school and came across this site and your site.
http://www.novamind.com/case-studies/business/legal-practice.php
This was my favorite part:
“The adornments are very handy in finding where you need to look on the map in a hurry. I use… little red books for legislation, the gavel for judgment precedents and so on. Probably the best part is that I can see THE WHOLE TRIAL – that is, all of the issues at once. And the way they interrelate.”
@catrescuer1971, Interesting. I did see that software, but it lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. I guess I’d like an infinite amount of customization in my mind maps, but without having to spend the time that it takes to build one in Photoshop. I’m just picky.
I’m curious to know what your math maps look like. I have to admit that I have a math degree and I’m not sure how I would have used maps in most upper level courses.
@Joshua Auriemma, for a FreeSoftware alternative, try GNU Dia:
http://live.gnome.org/Dia
Haven’t used it myself, but it’s always been something I’d considered. When I had to draw diagrams at work before, I used Inkscape, a Free Software vector graphics suite:
http://www.inkscape.org/?lang=en&css=css/base.css
I’m convinced vector graphics is really the way to go for this sort of thing. It’s scalable, so you can see it onscreen or have it printed to POSTER SIZE at your local printshop with no loss of resolution or detail. That and, uh, it makes drawing arrows a lot easier.
Mind mapping works for some, not for others. Generally I don’t get very intricate with the design – just some bubbles and lines connecting them. I also haven’t used it for the bar.
I swear by Mindmaps. I failed my Bar exams last year. This year I passed them all and scored a distinction in one of the papers! I used Freemind and had one map per topic, 10 topics per subject with varying levels of complexity.
Mindmaps force you think conceptually – the outlying branches have to relate to the parent topics in a coherant fashion.
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