What is a schema

¿What is a schema? If you are a student and you do not use schemas in your study afternoons, then it is likely that you are doing something wrong.

Schemas are necessary for learning any content and also, your mind needs them to better structure the information and to be able to assimilate it better. You will be able to better understand all the concepts by seeing them together and you will be able to integrate them into your memory more effectively. 

What is a schema and what is it for?

The scheme is a very important part of the study techniques that you must follow to be able to make a good learning of what you are studying. It does not matter if you are 8 or 80 years old, it is necessary that Within your study techniques is the scheme to enhance the acquisition of learning.

An outline is a structure that will help you to better integrate knowledge and that you will also be able to study effectively. Usually the scheme does not go alone, because it is one more part of the study techniques.

The outline usually goes behind the identification of the main ideas of the text and their underlining, and it also goes before memorization and review. The ideal structure of good study techniques (at any age) is the following (always doing it in divided learning parts):

1. Pre-reading or speed reading
2. Fast reading
3. Comprehensive reading, understanding everything in the text and looking for additional information if necessary
4. Identification of the main ideas and underlining them
5. Scheme
6. Memorization of the scheme and understanding of what has been learned
7. Summary of what has been learned
8. Review

Have you already understood what is a scheme and in what position of the study phase should it be carried out?

What is an outline for?

The scheme will help you organize your ideas in an orderly and structured way principles that you have previously underlined in the text that you should learn. In the scheme you can put everything you have to memorize or learn effectively.

The scheme it will facilitate memorization thanks to the drawing and concept map structure it has, ideal for your brain to accept it willingly. An outline should be well structured and also make sense and be consistent. A chaotic or nonsensical scheme will be rejected by the brain and will cost much more to learn efficiently.

Main ideas should be related to each other and with a good structure. In the diagram you must list the main ideas within a diagram of keys, arrows or similar. An outline is very personal and you will have to find the way to do it that is most comfortable for you to do or to learn.

You can choose the way to make the scheme that best suits you, but it is also important that they are your schemes and made by you. Do not study diagrams made by other people, because in addition to being uncomfortable it can make you confuse in terms or that you do not understand the meaning very well.

How to properly outline

Now that you know what a scheme is, we are going to tell you how to do it. For a scheme to serve you well, you must do it properly. Only in this way will you be able to later memorize everything you have learned and also do it successfully and understand well everything you have to learn. The most important points to follow so that the scheme is well done are the following:

• Organize the most important ideas to be able to put them later in the scheme to be made. It is preferable that the ideas are by separate sections and in agreement.
• Once you have the most important ideas found, you must organize the information in an orderly manner and following the underlining made previously.
• Make a suitable outline drawing, clean and well structured. As it is not a chaotic scheme, it will help you better organize the information in your mind, you will understand everything better and the review and memorization will be much easier for you.

The types of schemes

There are different types of schemes and you should choose the one that best suits you and your way of learning so that you feel comfortable doing it. There are schemes of keys, numbers, arrows, stripes and dots, numbers, letters, combined ... You can also make the schemes vertically or horizontally, everything will depend on how you want to do it and what is the best way for you.

The elaboration of the scheme

To develop an outline you will have to use everything you have done up to this point and follow the steps properly. But in addition, it is important that you keep in mind that to develop an effective scheme you must have different levels of organization of the information. It is important that you respect these levels because they will help you organize everything you need to learn much better. The levels are as follows.

• First level: The title of the text
• Second level: The main ideas of each paragraph to be able to order the later ideas
• Third level: The main ideas underlined in each paragraph and important to memorize
• Fourth level: Secondary or less important ideas but that must be present

The diagrams must be clear, have good handwriting and also give you a feeling of order and cleanliness.

The advantages of studying with schematics are

• By studying with diagrams you will feel involved in the study and pay more attention to it.
• It will be a more enjoyable study and you will understand things more easily.
• You will be able to better understand everything that you have studied before.
• It will be much easier for you to study because you will memorize the main ideas much better and you will be able to make a much more accurate mental structure.

When you take all of this into account and the outline is part of your regular study routines, then you can realize how important the outline is for memorization. Once you benefit from its advantages, you will be able to study much better and also, you will be able to obtain better academic results. Studying without a scheme is not studying well and that you also have to spend much more time studying and making it more ineffective.

The scheme is an essential part of the study and by following a good structure in your study techniques you will be able to obtain good results. In addition, you will discover that studying is not so heavy and that when you get involved in your own learning, everything is much easier than it seems at first.