Study Notes

I'm still developing my own way of making study notes. I tried simply making notes in a linear way, using a document publishing app, but I found that I was just rewriting the books that I'm reading. I've now started making notes in the form of HTML pages using WordPress, running on a localhost server. This seems to be better as I can now use the menus/sub-menus to navigate to the notes of a particular topic.

I'd be interested to learn how other peeps make notes and what techniques you'd recommend.

Thanks.

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WastedHat

I had a similar expierence. If I make hand written notes I end up paraphrasing the book in a linear fashion like you said. I'm sure writing helps a lot of people retain what they're trying to learn but it took too long and I rarely referred back to my notes.

Now I use a white board and a Wiki page. The white board for temporary notes and facts that I can have a look at a few times a day to commit it to memory and the wiki contains mostly referrence material for my lab work and commentry on how everything works from my perspective. I also found the menu/sub-menus are great for keeping everything organised.

rob42

Thanks for the reply. I'd be interested in learning more about your Wiki solution. I've used Tomboy Notes in the past, on a Linux system, which I found to be very useful, but a little too basic for my CCNA notes. The feature I really liked was the auto creation of Links, based on the subject, not something that I've got with my WordPress system (maybe I'm missing a trick).

carterw65

I found someone's notes which was created using the Cisco Exam Topics list. They took the list and just started adding notes from their studies under each topic. I really liked that and will use it in the future.

I have also started using Anki - powerful, intelligent flashcards which is a cool flash card program.

I have also tried mind maps, but I haven't quite figured them out yet. Here is an awesome one a fellow did for CCIE: http://ccieordie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/CCIE_RS_Quick_Review_Kit.pdf

Years ago I bought a book, The Memory Book, by Harry Lorayne. It grew legs, but I still use some of his techniques to remember lists of info. It really did work if you put your mind to it and over time it will become easy. Because I did have success with this, the other day I ordered Ron Whites 30 day memory program. I used to work for a very high ranking military officer who told me he used memory techniques as well. He has a Mensa level intelligence.

Anyway, food for thought.

rob42

Thanks for the reply.

Wow! The author of the PDF has put in a lot of work!

Tell me more about how Anki works, if you'd be so kind. I'm reluctant to install apps just to try them, as over time (in my experience) the Windows OS seems to get clogged up with stuff that's been installed and then removed because it's not needed. I long to be able to use my Linux system for everything, as it's much more tolerant, but my work dictates that I use a MS based OS.

I guess you create your own Flash Cards, but how? Is that part all included with the Anki app?
Thanks.

carterw65

Anki is a free flash card program where you can adjust the settings such as how often you see a card. It shows you cards based on your grade of how well you knew the answer. For instance, say you create a card with the question: What type of protocol is OSPF? And you create the answer: OSPF is a Link-state routing protocol.

Based on your judgment of how well you knew the answer when the card was shown to you, you tell it how often you want to see the card. You create a deck and populate it with the cards. You can create as many decks and cards as you need.

This type of study method helps because it uses spaced repetition and it gets you thinking when you have to formulate a question and answer for each card you develop. You can use it for just about any type of study, not just Cisco. There are a lot of features in Anki. I am really surprised it is free.

Oh yea - Anki is works on Windows, MAC, Linux, iPhone/Android!

sillymcnasty

I hand write all my notes because I type way too fast for any of it to stay in my brain. I feel like it helps me retain better.

rob42

carterw65 wrote: »

Anki is a free flash card...

Oh yea - Anki is works on Windows, MAC, Linux, iPhone/Android!

Sounds good, thanks for taking the time to post replies

I've just been reading some reviews for the Android app and I may just give it a go.

Can you see any advantage (aside from being able to create a personalised set of questions/answers) over using, say, the Practice Exam questions that I use from this site?

carterw65

rob42 wrote: »

Can you see any advantage (aside from being able to create a personalised set of questions/answers) over using, say, the Practice Exam questions that I use from this site?

Yes, you can get as granular as you feel you need to and you can add whatever you don't get in the questions from this site.

rob42

Thank you for your time and your comments, and my best regards to you.

rob42

@=carterw65
I've now had a chance to try this app, and I have to say, it's very good! It can be used in a very simple way or, if you know how to write HTML, Javascript, and how TAGS work, you can very quickly develop an extremely useful application. Highly recommended.

My thanks to carterw65 for the Link; it's the best study notes system that I've used so far.

WastedHat

There's not too much too my Wiki, there's a page for each chapter in the Odom book that contains pratical work with all the commands and my own notes on how all the parameters work and anything peculiar, for example you can do things not recommended by Cisco so you can see what IOS actually allows you to do vs best pratice. And theres also a bunch of articles and blog posts I copied over incase the links failed in the future as bookmarks sometimes do. I made it as a revision resource for after I passed the exam so I can quickly relearn things that fade from memory.

I'm not fimilar wth Tomboy Notes but WordPress has a lot of features and plugins so hopefully theres something similar out there. Have tried Evernote? I think it's similar to what we're doing and it works great cross-platform

rob42

Cheers for the reply: I should have made myself a littler clearer when I asked about your Wiki system. What I was interested in is the software that you use to create your Wiki?

RE: Tomboy note...

cite="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomboy_(software)"]Tomboy is a free and open-source desktop notetaking application written for Unix-like (including Mac OS X and Linux) and Microsoft Windows operating systems, written in C# using Gtk#. Tomboy is part of the GNOME desktop environment personal information management software and achieved widespread popularity as the default note taking app in early Ubuntu releases. As Ubuntu changed over time and its cloud sync software Ubuntu One came and went, Tomboy inspired various forks and clones. Its interface is a notepad with a wiki-like linking system to connect notes together. Words in the note body that match existing note titles become hyperlinks automatically, making it simple to construct a personal wiki. For example, repeated references to favorite artists would automatically be highlighted in notes containing their names. As of release 1.6 it supports text entries and hyperlinks to the World Wide Web, but not graphic image linking or embedding.

Right now, Anki is my #1 learning system. I'd recommend it above all else that I've tried.