How colours can help you learn

Colours make life more beautiful! But they also help you learn! Creating “colour codes” will make revision more fun and more engaging. This can be a great help, whether it is for writing a draft, analysing a text, taking notes or creating review sheets. A well-organised student is a successful student! But how should you do it so that it’s productive and not confusing?

Organisation

1. First of all, you have to have the right stationary (highlighter, post-it, pencils or coloured markers) before you even start writing your colour code.
2. Then, create a useful and personal colour code. The more personal the colour code, the more effective it is. In addition to colours, you could use shapes such as triangles with exclamation points for elements that need more attention.
3. Then, take your notebooks and stationary and start revising efficiently.

Tips and tricks

• Create your own colour code (by chapter, by subject, by importance of the information, by title, by subtitle e.t.c.). Choose what seems to be the most appropriate for you.
• Start using colour codes during class or during note taking, so that when you start revising, some of the work is already done.
• Don’t colour everything! The purpose of this method is to highlight the essential elements in order to find them more easily and identify what you need to know.
• Limit yourself to a few colours. If your notes have 10 different highlighter colours then it’ll just become messy and confusing. You’ll lose track of what each colour means and it won’t be particularly useful!
• Sticky tabs can also help you find a chapter in the book. With these, you can choose a colour code and stick the tab on the important pages. For example, in an English book, you could put a sticky green tab for grammar and red for spelling. This can be very useful if you have an open book exam or if you need to quickly find the relevant chapter when revising.
• Choose bright colours that capture attention and help visualise important elements.
• Do not highlight a whole sentence, only the important elements that you want to retain. Otherwise, you’ll be overloaded with information and you’ll lose sight of which parts are actually important.

Conclusion

Colour codes help the brain to process information because you can associate colour with information and this can help you memorise it more efficiently. It’s a great tool and easy to integrate during your revision time so that you don’t waste time hunting for information and trying to identify the most important parts. This method can be used for any kind of learning, so why don’t you give it a go!