The study or information recording techniques are various tools whose purpose is the collection of relevant data within a text, that is, the extraction of the main ideas. These tools, later, will help us to organize this information in a faster and more effective way.
The keyword and common to all study techniques is synthesis , since the main purpose is to have a record with the most important data. This type of technique is usually used in different areas of knowledge, although the main ones are Social Sciences, Humanities, Political Sciences, Health Sciences or even in business areas .
Knowing them will be an exceptional method to be able to optimize the work within the educational area, since it will not only be a method of synthesis, but it will also be a method of learning and memorization.
The most effective study techniques
Next, we will delve into the most effective and, above all, most used information recording and study techniques .
At the reading
The first of these is reading . It is considered the main one, since it is the first step that we must take to later be able to delve into the others. However, it is not enough just to read the text in question, but it is absolutely necessary to have a great reading comprehension that allows us to understand what is being read in the most exact way possible.
The underline
Next, we have the underline , which consists of marking horizontal lines at the bottom of the sentences . This technique is considered one of the most popular, since its main objective is to select those contents that we consider to be the most important in the text .
A very similar technique to this is highlighting , which does exactly the same thing, but instead of underlining the sentences, they are highlighted above with an underscore . This option is very good if you want to use different colors, for example, to highlight names, dates, articles, etc.
Take notes
Another technique is to take notes of the most important information as you read it . This process is very positive as it has a double function, since in addition to allowing the most important content to be collected, it works as a mnemonic resource , that is, as you write, the ideas have been fixed more easily in memory , therefore that when studying will be much easier.
The summary
One of the most widely used forms of recording information is the summary , which consists of a synthesis of the main information contained in the text. The main objective of this technique is that you do not have to read the entire text again to know what it is about and to know the main contents. In addition to being widely used in the educational field, they are also used in the world of research or in graduate theses, to announce to the reader the topic covered in the full text.
Conceptual maps
We can also find concept maps , graphic tools whose objective is to synthesize information . The idea of ​​this information recording technique is to start from a general topic, and add related concepts in a hierarchical way . As a general rule, it starts from a main table with the title, and from there other data is intertwined from lines. This technique, in addition to helping a lot to synthesize, is also very useful when it comes to understanding the subject and being able to establish a relationship between the different concepts.
The schemes
Finally, we find one of the most popular data records, which are schemas . This is another graphic technique to collect information from a text . The schemes are characterized by being one of the briefest and most visual study techniques , and in which the information always appears hierarchical . This means that the scheme starts from the most general part, and gradually breaks down until it reaches the most specific part. One of the easiest ways to make an outline is to underline as you read the text. In this way, when we finish we will already have organized all the main ideas with which to form our scheme.
