Learning & thinking · a life skill
Deliberate Concept Mapping
map it from memory, then check it against the book
A map drawn with the book open shows what the book says. Draw it with the book shut and it shows what you know. Then check every line against the source in red, and reread only what the red points to.
- Moderate to start
- High impact
- Learn it in 2-4 weeks
- Three passes, one week
The book stays shut while you draw and opens only to check. Each pass, the red tells you which pages to reread, so you never reread the whole chapter.
Start with the next chapter
Try it now.
One chapter, a pencil, and a red pen. Each step below is one part of the chart.
-
Read it once
Straight through, without notes. Write the question it answers at the top of a blank sheet.
the chapter -
Close the book and map it
Boxes, lines, a word on every line, all from memory. Leave a gap where you're unsure rather than guessing to fill the page.
the chapter → map from memory -
Check it in red
Open the book and go line by line. Tick what is right, cross out what is wrong and write the fix, and add the lines you missed.
map from memory → checked in red -
Reread only the red
Just the pages behind the crosses and the added lines. Then close the book and draw the map again on a fresh sheet.
checked in red → reread the red → map from memory -
Map it cold a week later
Same question, blank sheet, book shut. Check it once more. Whatever comes back right a week on is what you know.
checked in red → the cold map
For example: a chapter on circulation. From memory you write “veins carry oxygen to the body.” Checking, you cross it out in red and write the fix: veins carry blood back to the heart. That cross is the page you reread.
One chapter, checked three times
Three passes, one chapter.
The circulation chapter makes eight claims. Here is what one reader's map got of them on each pass, with the book shut every time.
| What the book says | Pass 1first map | Pass 2after the red | Pass 3a week later |
|---|---|---|---|
| The heart pumps blood. | |||
| Arteries carry blood away from the heart. | |||
| Veins carry blood back to the heart.Pass 1 said: veins carry oxygen to the body. | |||
| Capillaries join arteries to veins. | |||
| The lungs put oxygen into the blood. | |||
| Blood carries oxygen to the body's cells. | |||
| Cells give carbon dioxide back to the blood. | |||
| Valves keep blood flowing one way. | |||
| Right | 4 of 8 | 7 of 8 | 8 of 8 |
The first map got half. The red sent the reader back to four claims, not the whole chapter, and the second map got seven. A week later all eight came back, plus a line of the reader's own: valves sit in the veins as well as the heart.
The idea
Why it works.
In a 2011 study in Science, Jeffrey Karpicke and Janell Blunt had students learn a science text in one of two ways: draw a concept map with the text open, or write down what they remembered with it closed. A week later the recall group did better, even on a test that asked them to draw a concept map.
In 2014 the same pair had students draw the map itself from memory, and it did about as well as writing the text out. So the map was never the problem. Looking at the book while you draw it was. Pulling a line out of memory is what makes it stay there.
Keep it honest
Keep score.
- Same question every pass. Change it and the maps stop comparing.
- Count the red lines. Fewer each pass is the only progress that counts.
- Leave gaps empty. A guess that happens to be right hides the page you needed.
- Keep the first map. Next to the cold one, it shows what a week of work bought.
Keep this going in the app.
HourLife turns these ideas into a daily system — goals, habits, focus, and reflection in one private place.
