As a student, I have to have a method that helps me memorise my work and helps me study my work. My study method is, using colored pens for my notes. I will give you some reasons why and how I started using colored pens. Before colored pens, I used to just write down my notes in black and white from middle school up to high school. In my 8th grade class, my English teacher taught us different study methods that could help us understand and memorise our work. She suggested using bullet points, mind maps, and writing your notes in different colors. She said that those methods help improve your memory. I decided that I would combine all the suggestions and I would use them.
This brought me back to how I was taught by my teacher in kindergarten and elementary. I remember that when I was in kindergarten the first thing I was taught to remember, was colors. Most of my kindergarten years was spent on singing songs, coloring books, and pointing out the different shapes. This was the time that teachers would know their students’ strengths. They would know which student is smart with numbers, which student is smart with reading, and which student is smart with memorising their work. I noticed that the suggestions that my high school teacher was giving me was similar to how my elementary teacher was teaching me, the only difference was that I became my own teacher through studying. Just as I was drawing in kindergarten, I drew my diagrams in high school. Just as I was saying numbers and words out loud in kindergarten, I read my notes out loud in high school. Lastly, as I was coloring my books in kindergarten, I started using colors in my notes. This has taught me that in life you have to stop and look back to where you came from in order to move forward. Using colored pens, highlighters and crayons has helped me turn into a straight A’s student.
A tip on how I do it is that during classroom times I also try to write my key words in colors while the teacher is teaching. Whenever the teacher mentions a method, I always try to number it and put it into bullet points. When my teacher draws a diagram, I make sure I repeat that diagram but I draw the different parts with different colors. I also label the diagram in the same color as the different parts of the drawing. In my opinion, the best classes to use these colors are in biology, chemistry, or physical science. These classes have plenty of drawings, diagrams, and definitions. You will have to remember a lot of things and this method will help. If you are a slow writer and you cannot catch up with your teacher, it is okay to ask your teacher to slow down or repeat their statement.
I am a freshman in college now, currently studying at Indiana State University and I do not know what I would do without my colored pens.