mAke the grAde

CASE STUDY #6: University Level Outline

By the time a student gets to college they are hopefully developed a strong enough skill set to process information needed at this advanced level but they also need to be able to work independently and to manage time effectively.  A longtime student of mine, Dan, went off to college and quickly found that the volume of information was a challenge for him.  He had learned some outlining techniques working with me during high school but he hadn’t though of them as organizational tools (more so a smaller scale information management usage).  He connected with me asking for ways to combine with the note taking techniques that he had learned with the outline skills that he has as well.

“I found that each of the different types of outlines like flow charting and circle outlining where most effective because the information – especially in the sciences and history – tended to flow and organize in that way.”

He went back and redid most of his class information this way and within a week he told me that his workload was easier to handle and that he felt more control of things.  He also found that the outlines not only helped the him to learn the material but they also made it much easier to review and to study the material when needed.

“It was a great help.  I knew putting the time into the outlines would reward itself multiple times because I kept coming back to them when I reviewed.  And I actually enjoy making them since it  makes information more visual which helps me.”