To help boost memorization, color coding or highlighting your notes is an effective technique. If you incorporate some of the highlighting tips into your study note preparation, it will help you organize the text more efficiently. You can use the highlighting tips mentioned in this article to make up your own color-coding system.
Why Color-Code Your Notes?
Color-coding and highlighting certain information in your study notes is a dynamic way to organize important information. This way, it takes less time to go through the text, as it becomes easier to review the important points that are highlighted.
Bright colors can serve as visual aids for learners and capture the attention of the reader more easily. You can also assign different colors in order of importance of a point in the text. For example, highlighting the heading in a different color from that of its main points.
Mind Map
Whenever you make your study notes, using monotone colors can become quite boring, especially for visual learners. To make the process of preparing study notes not so tedious, use different colors to make it more interesting to read and learn. Assigning different hues as per the importance of the text can help you review your notes late on with much ease.
It is an established fact that utilizing color to organize your notes helps to stimulate your brain’s creative side. Color-coded notes make the notes more appealing visually and are a great way to separate one subject from another.
Five Tips for Color-Coding Your Notes
Here in this article, we’ve spoken about a few highlighting tips to help you write more engaging and understandable study notes.
Tip # 01 – Highlighting After Initial Note Taking
Using different colors while taking notes during a lecture may sound like a time-efficient thing to do, but it can prove to be counterproductive. It is best to color-code your notes after a lecture has been completed to not break the flow of information. It also gives you the opportunity to review your notes and organize them in a better way.
Tip # 02 – Using the Right Tools
You can utilize a few tools to make it simpler to review and comprehend your study materials.
These tools include:
- Different colored highlighters
- Markers and colored pencils can be used to make border likes and information boxes.
- Multicolored pens this way, you do not have to change the pen in your hand repeatedly.
- Sticky notes can be used to write up your notes in your own words and place them in a book. You can also use sticky notes to make a ‘key information box in your study notes.
- If you are taking classes through electronic devices or like to make your study notes on a computer or other devices, color coding becomes much easier. You can change the color of the text or highlight it in a much easy manner.
Tip # 03 – Consistency
Make your study notes comprehensible, and be consistent with your highlighting. Whichever color you have assigned to the important points, always use the same color throughout your study notes. You can make a list of categories and the corresponding colors on a separate page in order to review it whenever you want.
Tip # 04 – Limited Color Palette
When you come up with a color-coding system, make sure you do not overcomplicate it. Research has shown that using only three different colors at a time to highlight the text is a great way to help boost memorization.
Choose the colors that stand out from the text and the page’s background to make the highlighted words more visible.
Tip # 05 – Sensible Color Coding
Another highlighting tip is to only highlight the part that is of utmost importance. If you highlight the text entirely, then the purpose of color coding is defeated. Think of it as only marking the important points that need to be memorized and reviewed in a short period of time. This way, only the important highlighted text becomes more eye-catching.
Keep in mind that the purpose of color coding is to draw your attention to specific areas and make your notes more comprehensible and accessible. So do not overdo it. Each hue needs to have a distinct function and guide you in the right route.
Conclusion
Highlighting and color-coding your study notes is an effective way to organize important information in a more logical manner. Reviewing color-coded notes also proves to be more productive.
Keep in mind not to overdo it so that the system of color coding become too complicated and time-consuming. Using too many hues can prove to be distracting, – which again defies the purpose of making notes in the first place. Only highlight the text that is important and needs to be reviewed, and follow the highlighting tips in this article for efficient and reliable highlighting tips.
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