Applying Zettelkasten to the WSET Diploma
Can Zettelkasten help with fact retention for my exams?
Long time no see, old friends. I’ve been incredibly busy with game development for my new studio (link because, “always be selling”) and have not paid much attention to this Substack for quite a while. I think I’m going to change that, but also significantly change the content that I write.
Instead of the more canned form, “here is a region, here is a wine tasting”, I’m going to expand towards more open form content. I’ll still do the old form of posts though so they aren’t going away. They’re fun to write after all and several of you seem to enjoy them.
For some of you not every article will be a hit for you. Such as this article, where I’ll go into how I’m applying the Zettelkasten method to studying for my upcoming WSET Diploma Still Wines exam. I could write literal books (people have, theirs are better) on both of these topics. I’ll drop some useful links for you in the references below. By the way, I’m writing this in one shot so excuse my likely numerous typos. Let’s get into it…
General Approach
To summarize, Zettelkasten (slip box in German) is a method for taking notes. In theory, you write small notes that represent a single idea and store them in your box. Each of these gets a unique identifier so you can reference them. You continue building notes, inserting references to closely related topics. The most important aspect here is to write these in your own words rather than verbatim copy.
In the olden days, this was done on literal slips of paper and placed into a box, like a filing cabinet. Given I wasn’t born at that time I can’t really comment on what they look like from experience. I’ll however be using one of my favorite tools, Obsidian.
Think of this as a snapshot in time for how I’m combining methods to hopefully pass my exam. I’m sure I’ll change it. I’ve been changing it for over 20 years across multiple disciplines after all. There are currently three phases:
Mapping content
Handwritten summaries
Writing Zettels, aka Distillation Time, aka short notes
Mapping the content
First, I read the text. I don’t take notes at all. I just focus on text and read it. I’m looking for interesting hints and mapping out the content. This is especially useful if the text is non-linear, which unfortunately in my opinion is the case with some of the WSET Diploma content. Doing this mapping pass helps me remember things like, “oh you know what you’re reading? it comes up again in about 3 pages go there too”, so I can take less-bad notes. Often I’ve read far in advance for what I’ll take notes on.
Handwritten summaries
Here, I take handwritten notes on a section of the text. They are more or less summaries of the text I read in the previous pass, though I’ll reorganize the content if another presentation makes more sense to me.
Why specifically handwritten? No it is not faster. In fact, it is intentionally slower. I’ve found that slowing down the process helps me engage more with the content as I’m writing. Also I can draw and write wherever I like quickly and cannot edit. There is no tool that I’ve found on the market which allows you to this as easily, and I have looked. A lot. No editing is also a big point, as it forces me think about what I want to write down instead of just typing.
Distillation time
No, we’re not making Brandy. Now that you’ve enjoyed my obligatory wine pun…
This is where I’m applying Zettelkasten a little. Theoretically I could have done this before instead of handwritten, but I’m not for the aforementioned “handwriting is slower and makes me engage reason”. Also I very much like writing with a specific fountain pen on my specific Moleskin-style notebooks (because the real ones are really expensive).
I’m using a template based on this video from Artem Kirsanov. It seems to be the most practical application of Zettelkasten for Obsidian without getting incredibly tedious to manage. It is essentially a more refined version of my handwritten notes, often in addition to re-referencing the source material. Here’s an example:
202312301338-0800
Status: #idea
Tags: [[French Wine Regions]] [[WSET D3]]
# French winemaking history
France has a long winemaking history from ancient times (Marseille Greek Colony through Holy Roman Empire to today). Historically Auxerre, Chablis, Loire supplied Paris as river routes were not available yet. Bordeaux developed from large trade along the rivers and maritime. Generally vine area is decreasing due to EU vine pull, reduced 33% from 1970-2010.
---
# References
[[📖WSET Diploma D3 2023 Edition#General France]]This is where the experimentation comes in. I’m not totally positive this will help with knowledge retention. The idea behind Zettelkasten is that these atomic units of knowledge eventually help you form relationships in your mind and better understand your knowledge. I am giving this method one month before stepping back as a pulse check to measure, after which I’ll very likely write about it here.
Moving on. You may be wondering, how do you actually find what you’re looking for with all of these small files? So am I.
One positive, that `[[ ]]` notation is a file link in Obsidian. You can search through your files that way and it seems to be the primary method for finding notes. That does mean tracing through several notes at times. This is where the “Map of Content” concept comes in. See below:
The Map of Content is where I summarize more about the atomic knowledge units I just summarized. It helps me map out where and what they are, as well as gives me a place to write longer form information for at-a-glance studying. It still isn’t great, admittedly. As you can see, even in this trimmed view the graph is kind of a mess. Hopefully as I push into this more it evolves. Evolution of knowledge graphs is kind of a backing theory of Zettelkasten anyway.
Now what - the almost 4th step
Now what is the big question. One piece is that I’ll review my handwritten notes and Zettelkasten. Given my low amount of free time I’m sure they will get out of sync more than they already are. I’ve also considering some integrations to turn these into a spaced-repetition style system, like Anki. Making flashcards is one of my most dreaded tasks though, so very unlikely to invest too much there.
Another thing I hope to do, which will be very likely more entertaining for some of you, is write about certain aspects of the exam content that I either find interesting or that I need to spend more time on. We’ll get to those with time and very likely inconsistency given my current primary focus is my games company.
So now what? A lot of fragmented, though connected, pieces. Maybe I’ll even post a video on my YouTube.
Closing thoughts
Hopefully this has been at least an interesting read for you. It is a bit dense and a real stretch to call it wine related. Oh well.
If you’re studying for WSET Diploma, or any exam, and you think it can help you let me hear about your experience. If you’ve ever used Zettelkasten, also let me hear about your experience.
Reference Material
As promised, here is some reference material on both Zettelkasten and WSET Diploma.
Artem’s YouTube that I mentioned
An overview of Zettelkasten
Anki flashcards (closely related, at least if you write short notes) -
I found this interesting and hadn't heard of Zettelkasten before-- thanks for sharing. Interested to hear how it works for you.