I’ve become aware of some tools that I find quite useful for studying, and I figured I’d pass them on. The first is freemind, an app used for making mind maps, and the second is mnemosyne, a program that is used for making flash cards that has an algorithm to show you the cards you get wrong more frequently than those you get right. The former is a good note taking and general studying tool. The latter is great for pure memorization.
Since I started getting my teeth into Routing TCP/IP and the BSCI Exam Cert Guide, I find that mind mapping can be helpful to organize the information I have in my brain after reading. Doyle and the BSCI Guide combined for 140 pages on EIGRP. That’s a fair amount of info to remember passively, and I know that it will get worse with OSPF. Mind mapping is one of several tools you can use to help set the information more permanently in memory and it provides a great review tool as you get closer to exams. You can easily test your knowledge by collapsing nodes. The key is how you organize it in the first place. I find that even just organizing the information takes some time, but it forces you to understand how things relate to each other, and the process helps you remember.
There’s also an application called MindBerry which can import mind maps from Freemind, so that you can have your mind map with you wherever you are, making it an invaluable study tool. I hate wasting time, and this will allow me to make better use of the time I’m on the subway commuting to work. I don’t have this program yet, but when I upgrade to a new blackberry in the near future, I will definitely be getting it.
