In a special guest blog post, medical student Amelia from Queen Mary, University of London reveals how she uses iMindMap to help her through her medical degree.
I have always been a conscientious, hard working student yet I dread exams. All the knowledge laboriously collected over the year seems to remain locked away and although it’s there I feel I can never quite consolidate it totally and confidently.
I was ‘diagnosed’ with dyslexia at the age of 10, which has added to my struggle. I am a medical student in my 4th year, studying in London. Last year I intercalated and studied for a BSC in Experimental Pathology. This is conventionally a three-year degree, which I took in a year – as you can imagine, a great deal of work. There was a lot to learn and I was keen, yet I was near despair as I felt it was impossible to consolidate and retain the year’s work.
Discovering Mind Mapping
In a moment of desperation I went to the library and luckily stumbled across a book by Tony Buzan called ‘Use Your Head’. It described memory techniques, how to speed read and Mind Mapping methods. The book was incredible; inspired, I went on to read all of Tony Buzan’s other material. I began to make Mind Maps, condensing down lectures and course material and developed them into Mind Maps of essay plans. They were colourful, quick to create and easy to review and revise from. I sat the exam with confidence and managed to get a first!
I continued with my medical studies this year (2nd year of clinics). I discovered that Tony Buzan offers Mind Mapping computer software from www.thinkbuzan.com; I started with the free version, iMindMap Basic and soon went on to use iMindMap Ultimate as I found all the premium features to be so beneficial. I’ve found that Mind Mapping is a great tool for medical students, as it allows all of your thoughts on a topic to be displayed clearly and concisely on one page. Notes are therefore quick to make and even quicker to review and revise from – hundreds of pages from textbooks can be condensed into a few mind maps covering only a few pages.
Using iMindMap in Medicine
With iMindMap, multimedia attachments such as images and links to websites or medical papers can be attached to branches to keep all of your references and work on one topic in one place. Clinical pictures of pathology, blood films, investigations and procedures from online textbooks, lectures or the Internet can be inserted directly into you mind map. They can be used to clearly set out medical histories, to highlight the steps in medical examinations and to summarized lectures and case histories. Audio notes are also great. Audio clips recorded of heart or lung sounds can be linked to branches and played at the click of a button as well as voice recordings of lectures.
The software’s Presentation View instantly transforms my Mind Maps to look like professional presentations; not only is this great for 
the audience, but it’s also great for me too. Keywords and images attached to branches jog the memory, so I can deliver a more natural and interactive presentation than reading from a ‘script’. The plus side to this is that my notes on a topic are instantly presentable and I save huge amounts of time not having to make a PowerPoint presentation. As most medical students know, presentations are a huge part of our assessment and study, in addition to written assessment, so any tool that can help save me time doing this is a greatly appreciated!
Multidimensional Software
The Presentation View feature is also tremendously useful when teaching younger year students in seminars – my audience focuses on listening to what I’m saying rather than copying down lines of text, which is obviously more beneficial to them and me from a learning perspective. Mind Maps can also be converted into a word document at the click of a button if you’re presenting to a consultant who might prefer to see your work set out in a more traditional, linear fashion.
Lastly, iMindMap Online is an online feature allowing you to view your mind maps from any computer, even if it doesn’t have the iMindMap software installed. This is great for students using multiple computers as it increases your access to them. You can also print them out and take them into hospital if you want to re-jog your memory when in a clinic, in a teaching session or on the wards. I thoroughly recommend this technique and this software. Thank you ThinkBuzan, you have changed my life and have helped pave my way to becoming the best doctor I can possibly be.
Download iMindMap Basic for free today!
If you have any questions get in touch with our friendly ThinkBuzan Support Team:
Email: Support Team
Call: +44 (0) 20 71 177 173 or for US customers 1-800-961-4582 (phone lines open UK office hours 8.30am – 6pm)
Hi!
I’m Medical Student too. I’m from Italy and I use iMindMap the same way to study. This is the first time I use this program to prepare an exam and it is a big one. I will have the test on febraury, so then i’ll tell you how it’s being done.
Bye bye.
Hi Riccardo,
We look forward to hearing how you get on with your exam! If you need any tips on using iMindMap, let us know!
Amelia,
Great work! Its very interesting to think this could potentially help people
with dyslexia.
It seems like a tool that replaces the cognitive aspects of spelling
in forming words; with a method that helps to synthesise the words!
You could be on to something! Hope the finals go well.
Regards
Patrick
Great article. I’m a practicing physician (for over 20 years) figuring out how to use this “new” technology and improve learning – you’re never too old to try new things! Would really appreciate you sending a few of your mindmap files to see how you went about creating them.
Good luck in your education.
This was interesting to me too. I am also a doctor, left medical school 17 years ago, but I started using mind maps there to study, including for an intercalated BSc as well. I still use them both in my personal and professional life for a diverse range of purposes. I’m a psychiatrist so history taking is often complex – using a mind map to do this allows me to integrate it all so much more easily. Both my children have dyspraxia and my younger daughter is in the process of being diagnosed with dyslexia (lots of association between the 2). I almost certainly had dyspraxia as a child. There is much evidence people with dyspraxia/dyslexia think more globally (and creatively!) – perhaps mind maps are particularly suitable to this difference in cognitive style. What is particularly exciting to me is discovering now that I can use computer apps to do my mind maps! The possibilities! Good luck and congratulations on your flexible thinking!