Note taking skills are essential for a college student.  It is almost impossible to remember everything an instructor says in class and a lot of the information won’t be covered in the textbook for the class.  If you want to ease your study efforts and make good grades on the exams, you’ll need to know how to take effective notes.  Without thorough, effective notes, you will have a difficult time trying to study for the exam.  There are some general guidelines that you can put into use to make sure you are taking notes that you will be able to study later.

The first mistake that many students make when taking lecture notes is writing down everything the instructor says.  Chances are you aren’t able to write as fast as the instructor is talking.  When you attempt to write down everything the instructor says you are bound to miss some key information.  Even more than that, not everything the instructor says will be important.  Besides, it is almost impossible to effectively listen and write down each word that is spoken at the same times. 

The best way to take notes is to first listen to what the instructor is saying and then write down the important parts. The most important things for you to write down are the key words, concepts, and ideas that the instructor is talking about.  When you are confused about what’s important pay attention to when your classmates start writing.  If everyone starts writing at the same time, most likely the instructor has just said something important.

Many times instructors will give signals or clues that let you know something is important for your notes.  Pay attention to your instructor and recognize the clues when they arise.  If the instructor writes something on the board, it is usually because it is something important.  Anything piece of information that is worth the instructor writing, is also worth it for you to write.  Instructors use repetition to convey that the information is important.  Write down anything the instructor repeats.  When instructors use emphasis on a point, either through their voice or gestures or by the amount of time that is spent on the particular point, the information should be included in your notes.

The words that an instructor speaks will also give an indication whether something should be included in your notes.  Whenever a list is introduced it should be written down.  For example, the instructor says “There are three reasons for the Revolutionary War”, this is a clue to you that a list is soon to follow.  Reviews and summaries given at the end and beginning of the class should be included in notes the notes you take.

Develop your own style of note taking.  This won’t happen overnight, but over a period of time you will learn what works best for you.  Keep your notes as brief as possible.  You need to spend more time listening than writing.  To do this you need to cut out words wherever possible.  Substitute a phrase for a sentence, a word for a phrase, or an abbreviation for a word.  Whenever you use substitutions make sure that you are begin consistent.  You want your notes to make sense when you get ready to review them.

Rather than writing down exactly what the instructor says, paraphrase it instead.  When you are able to hear information and put it into your own words, it reinforces your understand of what you are being taught.  There is an exception to this rule, however.  You should always write down dates, formulas, definitions, and specific facts.  These things are likely to be included on an exam the exact way they were stated.

Use some kind of indentation to separate major points from minor points. Using an outline format or bullets will help with this.  This, too, is a technique that you will need to develop over time.  Some students find that leaving some room in the margins or between topics helps to better organize their notes.  You might need to add some information after reading the textbook.  With the extra space you can easily supplement the lecture notes with notes from the book.

Always date your notes.  This makes it easier to refer back to them and to put lectures from different days in chronological order.  Numbering the pages is helpful as well.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS