While I don’t want you to rush out and buy lots of material, I highly recommend that you get some material that can make your learning process more colourful and fun.
You will be learning note taking methods, both in linear and Mind Map form throughout the course.

You can either do this by hand, or by using software.

Hand Drawn Notes

I recommend that you start with hand drawn notes. While this may seem more difficult than using software, it has a few advantages.

You will most likely write you exams by hand, if you are at school, college or university. By doing your study notes by hand you will get the necessary practice writing.

To get the maximum out of this course, I recommend the following:

• A few A4 hardcovers. I prefer the use of a hardcover for my notes, as all my notes will be in one place. The disadvantage of this is that it is difficult to add or remove notes.
• If you don’t like hardcovers, a file and a pad with ruled pages could also be used.
• A large drawing pad. This will be used for Mind Maps.
• Coloured Pens. I recommend a good quality fel tipped pen. ‘Fineliners’, or coloured ball point pens can also be used.

Armed with this, you will be able to make your notes colourful and interesting.

Software

For the linear notes, any word processing software will do. The most common software is obviously Microsoft Office, but free software like OpenOffice has come a long way.

The only criteria for the software, is that it must be capable of creating tables.

For Mind Mapping, I highly recommend the Free Software, Xmind. Xmind is mature for a free, open source application. There is also a premium version available.

Instructions on how to used Xmind will be included in the course. For now, just download the necessary components and install it.

You can also use any of the commercial software, like MindManager, iMindMap and MindGenius, etc.

Having these tools and material available before you start the course, will make the process more productive.