Idea Map #9: U of M Financial Accounting Class - by Jennifer Webb from Ford Motor Company

I'm SO excited to share this idea map and story with you. The posting on December 16, 2006 briefly mentioned Jennifer's map, but now you can see both the map and read the complete story in her own words. Two of Jennifer's pre-workshop maps are also viewable on my website if you want to see the before and after comparison. It's quite amazing. Here's Jennifer:

One of my first graduate business classes at UM was Financial Accounting. I struggled to grasp the intricacies of financial accounting throughout the semester. I did fairly well on the first exam, but failed the second exam. At that point I was extremely disheartened and actually considered dropping out of the MBA program! I put in so many hours of studying for the class, but I didn't see the results. I just didn't know how else to study more effectively and was at a loss for solutions.

Shortly after the second exam, I took Jamie Nast's Idea Mapping class at my workplace. I wasn't sure if I should apply this new skill to an old problem. Knowing how much time it would take me to completely review the entire book and create an Idea Map was daunting, but I decided to go for it.

The process of creating the Idea Map was an excellent review of the semester's material in and of itself. It allowed me to see connections between topics and 'how' and 'why' things were interrelated. I reviewed this map for several days before the final exam and used this map as my in-class note sheet for the final exam.

I'm extremely happy to report that I passed the class with a B+; a huge improvement from my grade at midterm! I found Idea Maps to be an excellent way for me to effectively study for my exam and to truly grasp the interconnectedness of the material.

Jennifer Webb