Five Tips for Taking Good Notes
One of the most frequent lies that students tell themselves in classes is that they don’t need to take notes. They think they’ll be able to remember the important information or be able to find it again in the textbook. Some students reach college and know they need to take notes, but they don’t know how. Because there’s more to taking notes than simply writing down what the instructor says.
Learning how to take good notes can greatly improve your class performance on exams as well as class discussion. Below are five tips for how to start taking good notes:
1) Have a Note Buddy – Within the first few weeks of class, make a deal with at least one of the other students in the class with whom to share your notes. This is important because it takes some of the pressure off you to catch every detail. If you miss something, or if the information is coming by too quickly, you can simply leave a blank or a question mark and then compare notes with your note buddies later. A note buddy can also be the start of a study group. If you meet on a regular basis to compare notes, when exam time comes around, you will be familiar with your notes and each other, giving you a better chance to do well on the exam.
2) Have an Established Note Format – Just writing down sentences or using dashes or bullets to separate information isn’t going to make the information easy to retain or locate again during studying. You need to come up with a format for taking notes that allows you to separate and organize information. For example: leave the top half of each page blank and use it to write down key words or dates or phrases so that when you flip through your notes, you can easily see what’s in each section. Another option is to write a brief shorthand key at the front of each section of notes so that you can write down information faster. If you know that you’ll be taking notes on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Sixteenth Century Great Britain, you could decide to write a shorter system of words each time. Shakespeare = SH; Romeo and Juliet = R&J; Sixteenth Century = 16C; Great Britain = GB; and so on. This will allow you to quickly jot down your notes.
3) Don’t Feel as if You Have to Write Everything – It is all but impossible to write down everything your instructor says. If you try, you will miss stuff trying to keep up. Also, despite what some of your professors might think of themselves, not every word that is said in class is important enough for you to write down. So what do you write down? It’s a safe bet that if something is repeated or written down by the professor, they deem it important. That’s something to write in your notes.
4) Don’t be Afraid of Doodling – Sometimes, we feel the need the hide our notes from others, especially our professors, because they are covered in doodles or written phrases in the margins, like “so boring!” We think this marginalia (notes/artwork in the margins of a page) make us look uninterested or like we weren’t paying attention. However, doodles can be a way of keeping ourselves tuned into class. They keep our brains from completely shutting off. Sometimes, we come up with jokes or silly comments that make the information entertaining to us – don’t be afraid of writing those down to the edge or drawing them out. These are different ways to keep the information fresh. When you study for an exam and look over your notes, you’ll remember that bit of class better because it made you laugh.
5) Re-write and Revise Your Notes Later – Taking notes and only looking at them immediately before an exam won’t do you a tremendous lot of good. Repetition is one of the fastest ways to retain information. After class is finished, give your brain some time to rest and then go back and look at your notes (either with or without your note buddy). Read through them and see if there’s information you’re missing. Consider re-writing them on new sheets to clean up the handwriting or to re-organize the information. If you’re happy with the way they’re written, go back through and perhaps underline or highlight the important information with different colored ink/highlighters. Be consistent – use specific colors for the same thing; dates are blue, people yellow, etc.
Taking good notes is not something you’ll begin doing over-night. It’s a habit you’ll have to build and reform, but it’s one of the most important college success skills you can ever develop.
One of the most frequent lies that students tell themselves in classes is that they don’t need to take notes. They think they’ll be able to remember the important information or be able to find it again in the textbook. Some students reach college and know they need to take notes, but they don’t know how. Because there’s more to taking notes than simply writing down what the instructor says.
Learning how to take good notes can greatly improve your class performance on exams as well as class discussion. Below are five tips for how to start taking good notes:
1) Have a Note Buddy – Within the first few weeks of class, make a deal with at least one of the other students in the class with whom to share your notes. This is important because it takes some of the pressure off you to catch every detail. If you miss something, or if the information is coming by too quickly, you can simply leave a blank or a question mark and then compare notes with your note buddies later. A note buddy can also be the start of a study group. If you meet on a regular basis to compare notes, when exam time comes around, you will be familiar with your notes and each other, giving you a better chance to do well on the exam.
2) Have an Established Note Format – Just writing down sentences or using dashes or bullets to separate information isn’t going to make the information easy to retain or locate again during studying. You need to come up with a format for taking notes that allows you to separate and organize information. For example: leave the top half of each page blank and use it to write down key words or dates or phrases so that when you flip through your notes, you can easily see what’s in each section. Another option is to write a brief shorthand key at the front of each section of notes so that you can write down information faster. If you know that you’ll be taking notes on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Sixteenth Century Great Britain, you could decide to write a shorter system of words each time. Shakespeare = SH; Romeo and Juliet = R&J; Sixteenth Century = 16C; Great Britain = GB; and so on. This will allow you to quickly jot down your notes.
3) Don’t Feel as if You Have to Write Everything – It is all but impossible to write down everything your instructor says. If you try, you will miss stuff trying to keep up. Also, despite what some of your professors might think of themselves, not every word that is said in class is important enough for you to write down. So what do you write down? It’s a safe bet that if something is repeated or written down by the professor, they deem it important. That’s something to write in your notes.
4) Don’t be Afraid of Doodling – Sometimes, we feel the need the hide our notes from others, especially our professors, because they are covered in doodles or written phrases in the margins, like “so boring!” We think this marginalia (notes/artwork in the margins of a page) make us look uninterested or like we weren’t paying attention. However, doodles can be a way of keeping ourselves tuned into class. They keep our brains from completely shutting off. Sometimes, we come up with jokes or silly comments that make the information entertaining to us – don’t be afraid of writing those down to the edge or drawing them out. These are different ways to keep the information fresh. When you study for an exam and look over your notes, you’ll remember that bit of class better because it made you laugh.5) Re-write and Revise Your Notes Later – Taking notes and only looking at them immediately before an exam won’t do you a tremendous lot of good. Repetition is one of the fastest ways to retain information. After class is finished, give your brain some time to rest and then go back and look at your notes (either with or without your note buddy). Read through them and see if there’s information you’re missing. Consider re-writing them on new sheets to clean up the handwriting or to re-organize the information. If you’re happy with the way they’re written, go back through and perhaps underline or highlight the important information with different colored ink/highlighters. Be consistent – use specific colors for the same thing; dates are blue, people yellow, etc.
Taking good notes is not something you’ll begin doing over-night. It’s a habit you’ll have to build and reform, but it’s one of the most important college success skills you can ever develop.
Content provided by - Dan Rosenfield of College Scholarships
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